Dreaming of Sunshine
by Silver Queen
Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert
1. Prologue

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert

Author's Notes: If you're reading this, you should read 'Only a Moron' by swabloo, and 'A Cage of Blood and Circumstance' by shadowsdeep instead. They're much better fics than this.

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><p>Prologue<br>.

_There is no death, only a change of worlds ~ Native American Proverb_

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My name is Shikako Nara, and I am going to tell you a story.

You see, my name wasn't always Shikako. It was… well, that hardly matters now. If you asked anyone around me, they would tell you that I have always been 'Shikako'. They could take you to my twin brother, or my parents, and they would tell you 'yes, that's Shikako. She was born in Konoha Hospital on the 22nd of September. I should know, I was there'.

And its true. I was born Shikako Nara, daughter to Shikaku and Yoshino Nara, younger sister to Shikamaru Nara by thirty minutes.

But I was someone else before that.

Tentatively, I'll say I was reincarnated. Even now, I'm not sure I believe it. Maybe this is just some illusion that my mind has cooked up - either before or after. I don't know. What I do know, is that it _feels_ real. So I decided to live as though it was. If it's fake, then I have lost nothing.

See, the reason that it was so hard to believe, is that this world, the one I've been reborn into? I've heard of it before. Or more precisely, I've read it in a manga and I've watched it on TV.

This is the Naruto-universe.

Yeah. Imagine _my _surprise when I worked _that _one out.

As far as reincarnations go, well, I can't tell you if it's a step up or a step down. I had always been _safe_ before, born into a safe family, in a safe town, in a safe country. Now, here was a world where things were rough and wild and even civilized people hired assassins. Was this a step down the karmic ladder? Had I been a bad person? On the other hand, for all that this world was terrifying, I had narrowly missed a worse fate - I had been born to Konoha, arguably the nicest shinobi village, to a good family.

I mean, in the stories, bad people are always reincarnated as ants and then stepped on, right?

I don't know. I also don't know why I _remembered_. I was an average person. I had siblings and parents, but no partner or children. I had a basic university degree and an average job. I left no outstanding legacies and committed no unutterable crimes. When I died, I doubt very many people noticed at all. I'm not the kind of person you want to rely on to save the world. Maybe some god up there has a weird sense of humour. Maybe it was just an accident. I slipped through the cogs of cosmic reckoning and wasn't important enough to be noticed.

I like that explanation best.

But like I said before, I was born to Shikaku and Yoshino Nara in the Konoha General Hospital on the 22nd of September as the younger of twins. It sounds so amazing when said like that. A spiritual miracle. The truth was, at the time I had no idea what was happening. I was twisted and squeezed and the comforting darkness in which I had rested was torn away. There was pain and cold and terror. There was immediacy. Things that hadn't seemed important were suddenly at the forefront of my mind; what had happened; where was I; was I alive or dead, hurt or injured; what was going on?

I couldn't tell.

When babies are born, their eyes are incredibly undeveloped. The entire world was a blur to me. It wasn't quite colour blindness, but the easiest thing to see was the stark contrast between light and dark. I could see shapes and edges but the world looked incredibly confusing.

I was scared. Terrified. I didn't know what was happening. I could hear, yes, but not understand what was being said. Had I suffered brain damage? Did I have aphasia? The thought terrified me. I can think few worse fates that to be trapped with no method of communication to the world around me.

But even that didn't explain everything. I was lifted and carried. I've always been on the short and thin side, but even that didn't explain the ease with which I was lifted or how I was being carried. I suppose I must have been held in the crook of someone's arm, but I could make no sense of the sensations at the time. It didn't fit.

I did the only thing I could have. I screamed. I wailed. I cried.

It sounds odd that I, as an adult in mind, should respond that way. But I was, in part, at least, ruled by the instincts of the new body I inhabited. Even had I attempted to speak, my vocal apparatus wasn't coordinated enough to allow it, not to mention the language barrier that was in place. So crying, the ultimate response to any kind of discomfort, it was.

It's hard to convey just how _frightening_ it was, to be helpless like that.

I will admit to being a horrible baby. I was near blind, confused and helpless. My body didn't respond to me. And there was an unbearable itch inside me of forming chakra coils.

In response, I cried. All. The. Time.

I feel bad about it now. It must have been an incredibly trying time for my new parents. (I felt uncomfortable calling them 'mum' and 'dad' at first. They weren't _my_ parents, the ones I remembered. On the other hand, I didn't know their names to start with, and I lacked the understanding of the language to pick them out. It left me in a quandary. Of course, that didn't last for that long. It was lonely, being a child. They were the only people I interacted with. They fed me, changed me, determined my schedule. It's impossible to rely on someone like that and not come to love them.) They were, as most ninja parents are, fairly young when we were born. The war had only recently ended and they were probably still trying to adapt to the strange creature known as 'peace-time'.

They tried everything they could. And when that failed, they took me back to the hospital, afraid that something was wrong.

Although I didn't learn it until much later, the medic diagnosed me as 'chakra hypersensitive'. Literally, that my pain was caused by my own chakra system. It was a deathblow to a ninja career. Ninjutsu, genjutsu, anything that required chakra, would simply be too painful to attempt. Even Lee, with his deformed coils, had managed to use chakra to enhance his body. What they didn't understand was that it was neither my body nor my chakra that was causing the issue, but my mind. Chakra was a limb I had never used, a sense I had never had, it was foreign and I didn't understand it. With knowledge and time, I would grow to be as comfortable with it as any other, if unusually aware of it, but at that point, I was not.

At that point in time, I didn't even know what it _was_.

All I could tell was that there was something _inside_ me that had never been there before. It wasn't just my own chakra, though, there was chakra in everything, including the very air I breathed. Sometimes, when I woke up from deep sleep, I would be convinced that I was going to drown on it. I would cough and choke and hack and flail about in panic until it set in that _it was just air_.

Of course, just when I was beginning to settle in, That Event happened. I was three weeks old when the Kyuubi attack happened. Of course, I had no idea what was going on at that stage. I barely knew I was a child.

But I remember the chakra.

Evil isn't a word that I want to throw around lightly. But it was overwhelming, it was terrifying, it was malicious, and it was demonic. It was in the air like thick smoke and every breath I took made me choke on it. I was too terrified to scream.

It was nameless and faceless to me, and that only made it worse. I couldn't quantify it or analyse it or understand it. It was an all pervasive horror that I could neither resist or fight. It was like the devil had opened the gates of hell and breathed terror into the air. It was crippling.

I thought it would drive me mad.

For once, Shikamaru was screaming and I was quiet. There was no way I could make a sound. I was beyond that.

That feeling of being helpless in the face of overwhelming terror stayed with me for a long time. It was something that has both terrified me and motivated me ever since.

I am not ashamed to say I have had more nightmares about that day than I care to count.

But that was a single event of terror. Most of my days were filled with mind numbing boredom and a complete lack of control, over myself and over the environment around me.

Most of my time as a baby was spent sleeping, and playing with my chakra, not that I knew what it was at that stage. But I desperately needed something to occupy my attention while I couldn't interact with the world around me. At first I was cautious with it, but when there seemed to be no effect to my manipulations, I grew bolder. Likely, it was enhancing my muscles even then, but since I wasn't mobile, there was no discernable difference. I did, however, get a good 'feel' for my chakra, and probably developed very good control over it. Mostly though, I thought of it was something to occupy my adult brain, that was incredibly starved for stimulation.

There's not really a way to describe how chakra feels. Its like having a second set of veins solely to transport hot chocolate around your body, warm and comforting. Or maybe coffee, awakening and revitalising everything it touched.

Manipulating it wasn't difficult. It wasn't like trying to tame a foreign entity, or herd cats, or direct water from a hose. It was a swirl of warm energy, not just _directed_ by my mind, but part of it. It's so impossible to describe.

My sight didn't fully develop until about six months of age and that was when I started to realise exactly where I was. That was also around the time when my vocal cords were formed enough to begin speaking. I picked up on the spoken language easily, as children are wont to do. I didn't even have an accent, of which I was thankful, since that would have been difficult to explain.

It was frustrating, though, trying to learn a new language like that. No wonder toddlers are famous for their temper tantrums.

By the time I was a year old, the evidence for where I was was mounting. Dad's standard attire was the shinobi flack jacket, and I had seen his headband. It wasn't until we went to the park one day and I looked up to see the Hokage mountain that I could no longer deny it.

This was the Naruto-universe.

_Oh, shit._

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Author's Notes: Well. The sin of all fanfiction writers. Self-inserts. I can't believe I'm writing one, but the proof is right there. This kind of demanded to be written, and in first person, no less. I'm probably going to be hitting every cliche in the entire Naruto-verse, but hopefully not. Who knows?_  
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	2. Chapter 1

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert

Chapter 1

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_Fear is the mother of foresight ~ Thomas Hardy_

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I didn't exactly jump for joy when I worked out where I was. Given that my twin brother was _Shikamaru_ I could guess pretty well what kind of time zone I was in. That didn't mean, however that the world around me was 'canon' Naruto-verse. Obviously, I was here and that was a factor that hadn't been present in the show. Many, many other things could be different.

But even if it was 'canon', Konoha had been invaded, what, twice? over the course of the show. There was the up coming war. And not to mention, on a day to day basis over half the town were highly trained, slightly unstable, killers.

I wouldn't recommend this place as a vacation, that's for sure.

This was a world where only the strong and lucky survived. The weak? Well, they choked to death on their own screams when the devil came to town.

I did not, _ever_, want to be so helpless again.

Like I said, the Kyuubi attack has motivated me ever since.

There was never pressure on me to be a ninja, in fact, I doubt very much that my parents even thought I would be with my 'handicap'. I could have stayed to look after the deer, I could have studied medicine, and that idea had appealed to me.

The life of a ninja was rough and dangerous. But I had played it safe before to no avail. And there was no guarantee that 'playing it safe' would save me. Civilians died far easier than shinobi, after all.

Of course, as a toddler there wasn't much I could do. I soaked up the information that was offered to me, speaking, walking, games. I don't know what I would have done during those days without Shikamaru. He was my lifeline, my measuring stick. What rate of progress should I show, could I show? What things should I be learning?

I have no doubt that I came off as an odd, deliberate child. I have the feeling that had I been born to any family other than the Nara, things would have been much trickier for me. They seemed completely unperturbed when I picked things up much faster than Shikamaru - my adult mind capable of grasping concepts easier, having much more experience learning. Given that the clan is as famed for their intelligence as their shadow jutsu, maybe it wasn't so uncommon. I tried to hold myself back, I truly did, but it was incredibly frustrating and I was desperately bored.

Of course, now that I knew that the energy I felt was chakra, I remembered some things about how it was used. The idea of being able to walk up and down walls was just so _cool_ that I had to try learn how. Almost as soon as I started to crawl, I began to try and channel chakra to help me stick to things. Of course, I learnt quickly just how much chakra it actually took. It shouldn't have surprised me, given that I was expelling chakra through both hands and knees. The surface area of one palm alone is quite large, and to maintain a constant rate of chakra emission used up my small supply quite rapidly. There was a reason the serious ninjutsu training didn't start before eight or nine. That was when chakra reserves began expanding beyond the 'essential' chakra that fueled the body.

I spent many days napping in the sunshine after exhausting myself, learning slowly where the line for chakra exhaustion was. It wasn't, by any means, a bad way of spending my days. I most certainly didn't attempt to climb vertically. Not only would that be suspicious, I would get maybe three or four steps up before falling. That wasn't something I really looked forward to.

There were other chakra exercises that didn't take so much chakra. _Anything_ that used chakra was technically a control exercise, and anything that was taught as a control exercise usually had other applications. Less draining than wall walking was the leaf sticking exercise - which didn't necessarily need leaves. The two exercises were opposite sides of the same coin, sticking yourself to something and sticking something to yourself. I used paper, blankets, my clothes, anything in reach. There were tiny, minute differences between the different materials and different fabrics, that required slight adjustments in the amount of chakra needed and the rate it was expelled. Once you had something stuck to you and covered in chakra, you could manipulate it slightly. There were stories of medic nin with control so precise they could fold an origami crane out of rice paper without touching it. There were chakra strings to develop control over chakra outside the body. Chakra strings were tricky in concept, but there wasn't really much difference between creating one and twenty, except in moving them after. Puppet users were masters of multitasking, apparently. Given that dozens of strings could be attached to each puppet it was no wonder that Sasori's Performance of One Hundred Puppets was legendary. I couldn't even _attach_ two strings to different objects without getting confused, let alone start moving them.

By the time I was two, and both Shikamaru and I were capable of talking in complete, if basic, sentences - though Shikamaru spoke rarely - I would toddle around the house with one of my story books, incessantly pestering anyone in the house to read it to me. The language was all written in Japanese, and I very, very much wanted to be able to read.

I had studied Japanese once, years ago, though I will admit to never being very good at it, but it did mean I knew the difference between written Japanese and written English. English has a 26 letter alphabet, each one corresponding to a specific sound. Hiragana is a simple phonetic alphabet where each character represents a combined consonant-vowel combination and are sounded out to make words. Katakana is the same, but used mostly for foreign words. Kanji, though. Kanji. There are thousands of them. The same Kanji can mean different things, be pronounced differently, depending on where and how it is used or what other Kanji it is combined with.

I spent many hours sitting in my dads lap, finger tracing under the words as he read, trying desperately to associate the symbols with specific sounds. It was about this time that I began to suspect that being reborn had changed me - I doubt very much I would have ever been able to succeed at this before. I had been smart before, yes, but never to this degree. I think that this was another instance of my body affecting my actions - simply, the brain I was using could compute so much faster than the one I used to have.

It was a little disconcerting. It made sense, yes - the mind wasn't a spiritual entity tenuously tied to the body, it was formed by thousands of interconnecting neurons in the brain, which somehow or other lead to the higher conciousness we call 'the mind'. Realistically, it made perfect sense. That didn't mean it wasn't unnerving.

In the end, I accepted it as something useful that would help me here.

Once I could read, it was like the whole world opened up for me.

My parents must have thought I loved history, with the fevor that I read the books. To be fair, it was fairly interesting, especially given how short it was. History in my world could be measured back tens of thousands of years, not even considering archeology which could trace back several million years. Here, records were sparse before the formation of villages and practically nonexistent before the Sage of the Six Paths.

But I was researching.

I wanted to know about this world. I wanted to know if it matched with the show, however ludicrous the idea seemed. I read, struggling through children's books, then ever increasing books of difficulty. I wrote notes. I drew up timelines that were a mess of connections between this event and that. I began to understand.

(I also took note of any techniques mentioned, either basic or advanced, to look up later. To find out what was possible and what was exaggerated. Sometimes it seemed that _everything_ was possible.)

History, especially shinobi history, wasn't really something that there many books on. It probably had something to do with the secretive nature of shinobi. Likely there were many classified events that would fill in the holes of my timeline. What I did find out was clearly written with propaganda in mind.

It took many months, and of course it was interspersed with other activites. I couldn't devote all my time to it, even had I been able to force myself to focus for so long. In that time, I also developed an interest in codes and ciphers. The ones available in the library were so low level that a ninja would laugh at them, but the puzzle to them caught my attention immediately. Also, the thought of being able to write secret notes, but I was far too impatient for that to be a true goal as I knew it would take years to create a code safe enough to trust even the basest of secrets to it. There were fantasy books and adventure books and the series 'Ranko the Rogue Ninja' which was funny, entertaining, informative and just a little disturbing, if you looked closely.

But it did prove, to me, that this world was as similar to the show as I could manage to remember.

Which lead to the condrum, what was I going to do now?

If, as it seemed, this world was the Naruto-verse, then I knew the future, or some of it. Was there _anything_ I could do?

The answer appeared to be a staggering 'no'.

Who would believe a warning from a child? I had no method of giving warning in secret, nor would I be confident in my ability to do so. I most definitely didn't want to see what they would do to me if I came out and said I remembered a previous life. A mental institution would be the nicest of several unpleasant outcomes.

What _were _the big events? The important ones. The invasion of Konoha. The Akatsuki. Pein's attack. The 4th Shinobi War. Could I stop those? Realistically?

The 4th Shinobi War was caused by Madara and Kabuto. If they were removed… Maybe, maybe they could be taken out before it got to that stage. The same with Pein.

Orochimaru's invasion? I had no clue.

I needed to be strong. It wasn't an _impossible_ goal. After all, at fifteen, Sasuke had killed Deidara and Itachi, Gaara had been strong enough, without the Ichibi, to be General Commander of the Shinobi Army and take out several past Kage. Shikamaru had taken out Hidan. S-rank didn't mean unstoppable. It was possible. But it was going to take a hell of a lot of work to get me there.

I couldn't do it alone, I knew that without a doubt. But getting the others to trust me, when I couldn't tell them why? That would be tricky.

But apart from that daunting goal, those first years of my new life were pleasant. The only time I recall the shinobi world intruding on my quiet life was when I was, maybe a year and a half old, maybe two, and Shikaku came back from a mission with two livid scars across the side of his face. He was rather lucky, one arched above his eyebrow, the other curved below his cheekbone; both missed his eye. A missing eye wasn't an _insurmountable _problem for a skilled ninja, but no one would argue that it _was _a problem.

He hadn't been gone for that long, but the scars were mostly healed, just a livid red. Either base healing rates were faster here, or they had been chakra healed. Maybe a mixture of both.

I think he was a little worried about how we would react to them. Yoshino didn't react to them, other than to maybe hug him a little harder than normal. Maybe she thought 'close call'. We, on the other hand, were too young to really understand and they did make him look rather fierce. And maybe he could be, but I'd never known him as anything other than kind and gentle.

"Daddy," I burbled, carefully running my pudgy toddler hands over them. Carefully because my motor coordination wasn't that great and I didn't want to poke him in the eye. I don't know what I would have said, but my language facilities weren't very well developed at that stage, anyway. Shikamaru pretty much just yawned and fell asleep, but that's his reaction to anything.

Shikamaru was a complete sloth, but cuddly in the way all young children are. It was lucky I had no desire to play the run-around games children play, because trying to motivate him into playing would have taken twice as long as the game itself.

Yoshino, mum, was rather esastic to have a daughter. She seemed to delight in dressing me up and braiding my hair. I didn't mind overmuch, she had good taste and chose mainly darker colours, blues and greens and reds, that complimented my dark hair and fair skin. Of course, I usually stole a pair of Shikamaru's trousers to wear under my dress, at which she would roll her eyes. The fashion of the place was strange to my tastes though I grew used to it. Wearing mesh next to your skin sounds, on the surface, like a painfully bad idea. However, it was surprisingly comfortable. It looked like it was made of thick wire, but in reality it was thin, strong wire wrapped in black fabric. This served two purposes; one to stop the wire shining, and two, so that you _didn't_ get cheese grater skin. Some shirts also came with underlay fabric, either in black or nude.

I didn't particularly like the three quarter length pants, nor the habit of bandaging them to your ankles, but I had to admit that it was a practical way to keep them from flapping about, even if it did make your thighs look like balloons. I didn't like the open toed ninja sandles, either, but I resolved to grow used to them, because, again, they were practical. They had wide soles and deep grooves to provide plenty of grip on practically any surface, and high tops to brace ankles. The open toes were designed to stop sweating, though they did little to keep your toes warm. I was grateful that Fire Country had mild weather. The fact that they were horrendously ugly simply had to be ignored.

I missed the elegance of high heels, but seeing as how Konoha hadn't seemed to have heard of concrete paving, it was probably for the best.

Something I noticed about my parents, even in those early years, was that they were silent when they walked. I mean, they tried to make noise when coming into a room, or walking up behind us, but for them, it was a conscious thing, something they had to pay attention to do. I had no idea how they did it.

It was half technique, half simply the way they walked. I tried to mimic Yoshino as best I could. Shikaku was simply too good, whatever method he used obscured by his habitual lazy slouch.

I toddled after Yoshino, stepping as lightly and precisely as I could. Shikaku found the whole thing amusing. "My little cat foot," he would chortle, swinging me up.

Later on, I'd learn the chakra half of the Cat's Foot technique, but even without it I could move near silently on most surfaces. With it, sometimes I felt more like a ghost than a child.

We weren't trained at that age, perse, though many of the games we played seemed to have underlying meaning. There were several I was already familiar with, cats cradle and clapping games, but also many more that seemed aimed at developing limber fingers and good hand eye coordination.

Yoshino also dragged us through a warm up stretching routine in the morning, ever since we were old enough to stand on our own. I likened it to yoga, moving from pose to pose in a natural progression. It was quite astounding just how flexible and supple we were, some of those poses I could have never done in my old body. Then, I hadn't been able to touch my fingertips to the floor without bending my knees; here I could lay my entire palms flat - forwards _and_ backwards. The routine we were taught was one that was clearly meant to be taught to children, as it came with a song to help remember the order of the poses.

Of course, trying to do all that _and_ sing? It isn't as easy as it sounds. Actually, now that I think about it, the song is a little creepy, too. I guess that's what you get in a ninja society.

It wasn't all solitude, though. Parents here thought nothing of letting their kids run through the streets. The towering, ramshackle buildings and narrow alleyways made for the perfect setting for games of chase and hide and seek, or as they were called locally - games of 'ninja'. I can't say I particularly enjoyed those times; my 'peers' found me quite strange. It was something I could decrease overtime but the sheer deliberateness of having to _relearn_ how to interact with others instead of simply knowing how to be sociable set me apart. You could argue that I should have been better at it, having a lifetime of experience, but I had never been particularly social and I was far out of my comfort zone. All the rules I had learnt collapsed around me like a house of cards. Kids don't talk about the weather or care about the rising price of X. There was no TV, no shows, no music. Konoha didn't have a national sport that everyone followed. We didn't yet attend school, so I didn't even have that to talk about. Most of them couldn't yet read. I was completely lost.

I watched and I listened more than I spoke, tagged along after Shikamaru like a particularly intelligent shadow, and didn't speak unless prompted or unless I was absolutely sure what I was saying would be understood and accepted.

There is nothing worse than having everyone around you laughing at you. I can still feel the humiliation burning. Maybe I should have had thicker skin, but even as an adult, a group of children laughing at me would have still set me near to tears.

It was one of these games, where we met Chouji. Everyone thinks that because our parents are friends, that's how we met. But it isn't true. Our parents are smarter than that.

They know that it's the friends you chose yourself that last through your whole life.

"You can't play ninja with us anymore!" Youbirin Suzu protested, when Chouji asked to join the game. There were only about a dozen of us, but he had established himself as the 'leader' of the game. The blocky purple tattoos on his cheeks identified him as a member of the Suzu clan. As a clan, they very rarely became combat ninja, but focused more on medical ninjutsu.

They were also known as being good musicians, particuarly with their namesake singing bowls.

The tattoos looked familiar, and I wondered if I should know of someone with those markings. Then it hit me. Rin. Kakashi's teammate Rin. The medic who had transplanted his eye. She had had those markings too. Uneasily, I wondered if she had chosen a combat role, or if the war had demanded it from her of necessity.

"But why can't I?" Chouij asked plaintively.

"Because whenever you play with us, we lose!" Youbirin retorted.

"Yeah, you're way too slow," chimed his best friend/hanger-on, Jiro Watanabe.

Chouji looked heartbroken.

"You know guys," Shikamaru said. "Without him, the teams aren't going to be even. It'd be lame, like if you played a game of shogi with one piece missing." That was my brother, I thought with fondness. He looked out for people. Chouji looked so happy at his intervention, but the next line sent his expression crashing again.

"But if you have one piece that's totally useless, it's the same thing."

"Yeah, what he said," Jiro echoed.

"It's our team, and we don't mind having one less person."

I swallowed. "We could swap," I offered. "He could be on this team." Shika looked at me in surprise, whether at offer itself or the mere fact that I'd spoken up in public. He knew how awkward I felt trying to talk to people.

Youbirin scoffed. "You're a girl. We don't want a girl on our team. So lets just play!"

"Well, if its okay with you, then I guess its fine," one of the others muttered, casting an impatient look around. They didn't care _who_ played, as long as we started.

"Okay, then its settled!" Youbirin beamed, pleased at having won the argument. "We're so going to win this time."

Chouji lowered his head and walked off, dragging his feet. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him stop to free a butterfly from a spiders web.

"Why don't you keep playing," Shikamaru suggested, watching the path of the butterfly as it fluttered away. "I'll be right back."

I hesitated, caught between the desire to follow him and follow his suggestion. If Shika wasn't here, then I had no real reason, nor desire, to keep playing. On the other hand, if he was going to go and follow Chouji, it'd probably go better if I wasn't there. After all, they had been the best of friends. I'd never forgive myself if I disrupted that.

I bit my lip, and turned back to the game.

Shika wasn't 'right back'. The game ended and the children dispersed, so in the end I decided to go looking for him. It wasn't hard to find his chakra, but even without it, I would have been able to find him. He was at his favourite cloud watching spot, after all.

I cautiously made my way up the stairs, to see Shika and Chouji lying down on the large bench. There was a man there that _had_ to be Chouji's father, watching the two of them with amused fondness.

I hovered, unsure whether to intrude or retreat back down stairs, when Shikamaru looked up and beckoned me over.

"This is my sister," he said to Chouji, before adding. "She's troublesome, but I've gotta look out for her."

I flushed, embarrassed, and looked down at the ground. _Way to make a first impression. _I didn't take offense though, because Shikamaru found just about everything 'troublesome'. "Hi."

"Hi," Chouji parroted back, equally shyly, before holding out his snacks. "Would you like a chip?"

And thus, friendship was born.

I can't say I was as close to him as Shika was; the two of them just seemed to click. But I hung around with them almost constantly, and neither of them ever made me feel unwanted or excluded. For that, I think, I will always count him as one of my closest of friends.

It was shortly after that that we were due to start school. The Academy at age five, normally, but they weren't very strict on entrance requirements. Genius children started and graduated a lot earlier, as young as deemed necessary, though they were beginning to tighten those regulations. The war with Cloud had reacted a sort of stalemate, or cold war. There was definite tension, but we were no longer actively fighting. People were beginning to cautiously hope for peace. And that meant that they could spend a lot longer training their children.

I had taken it for granted that Shikamaru and I would be attending together. It wasn't that I particularly _wanted_ to be a ninja (though I have to admit, I wasn't immune to the lure of it, because my family was a ninja family) but Shika and I were a unit, we went everywhere together. It simply didn't occur to me that this would be any different.

"Shikako, honey," Mum said one morning after I'd finished helping her with the breakfast dishes. To be honest, I rather liked helping her out in the kitchen. I'd never been a good cook before, and that was with meals and appliances designed for speed and convienience. Learning my way around a kitchen was something I wanted to do before it became absolutely necessary. "Why don't you stay here for a moment, so we can go down to Shogakko to fill in your enrollement."

"Shogakko…?" I repeated blindsided. Shogakko. The civilian elementary school. It was…very, very rare for a Nara to go there. Even those of the clan that didn't go on to be ninja usually went through the Academy. "I'm… not going to the Academy?"

"Oh, sweetheart," she said, face softening, and sat me down at the table. Then she explained, very clearly, about how, when I had been a child they had taken me to the hospital, and I had been diagnosed as chakra hypersensitive. It meant, she went on, that I would never be able to use chakra and never be able to be a ninja.

This was the first I had heard of it, and it confused the hell out of me. I had been using chakra. I _knew_ I had been using chakra. Nothing as obvious as a jutsu, I didn't have enough chakra for that, but I could stick myself to surfaces, and could form chakra strings and light, as well as a dozen other chakra control exercises I had run across in my reading or invented.

"But… Shika is going," I said, bewildered at this information, grasping the first point of argument that I came across. It took me a little while to order my thoughts, as it occurred to me that what I knew and what others 'knew' weren't the same. There was an inconsistency between my internal world and the external world. It shook me, probably more than it should have.

"I know," Mum sympathised. "But you're a big girl now. Wont it be nice to make friends without your brother hanging around?"

It occurred to me that I was being offered a perfect 'out' from the danger of being a ninja. It was tempting. Even if I had decided before that I was going to do something about the disasters I knew were coming… it was tempting.

But, Shika was my _brother_. Chouji was my friend. I knew the Konoha Twelve as characters in a story, but I still liked them. I couldn't just abandon them. I couldn't just _do nothing._

"I want to go to the Academy," I said firmly, possibly the first time in my life (this time, anyway) I'd made a declarative statement. Mum looked horribly surprised.

"Shikako." She sighed. "You wont be able to learn what they're teaching. You wont be able to graduate."

"I want to go. Please," I swallowed. "I'll work really hard and learn everything else, even if I can't use chakra." I was pretty sure I could, but she had started a niggling doubt. Maybe what I had been doing was different. Maybe…

"Alright," she said, finally. "I'll talk to your father when he gets home and see what he thinks."

It wasn't a 'yes, you can go', but close to it. Dad very much went with the flow, unless he had a very good reason not to. The ninja Academy covered every topic that the civilian one did, and more besides, so there was no real argument that it would be better for me, except that I would never be able to graduate. Possibly, they were also concerned that being unable to use chakra wouldn't do a heck of a lot for my self-esteem, but ninja didn't really believe in coddling their children. Most of them were of the belief that 'a few hard knocks and they'll work out what they're doing wrong.'

I wandered outside to find Shika and Chouji, confused and surprisingly upset. Shika was watching clouds, as usual, and I lay down beside him and curled up into his side.

"Something wrong?" he asked after a moment.

I sniffed, and considered not telling him, but couldn't see why not to. He'd probably find out tonight anyway, and he might be able to come up with more arguments to convince our parents.

"I might not be going to the Academy with you," I said.

"What?" Chouji exclaimed, dropping his bag of chips. "Why not?"

"They don't think I can use chakra," I said, wrinkling my nose. "One of the medics at the hospital apparently diagnosed me as hypersensitive when I was a baby."

Shikamaru rolled the new information around in his head. "But you can," he pointed out, frowning. "I've seen you do that light thing."

I nodded. After a nightmare I would sometimes creep out of my room and into his. After a few nights of walking into things, I'd managed to learn how to call up chakra to my hands for illumination. I hadn't realised he knew that, though.

"Did you tell them that?"

I blinked, then sighed. "No?" I offered. _Stupid. _Now there was a simple solution. I was so _stupid_. I had been avoiding showing off my skills for fear of being labelled a 'prodigy', something I most definitely did not want or need, but I could have told them _that_.

"Alright," I said, resolved. If it came up, I'd show them. I'd rather be a prodigy than excluded.

But it didn't come to that. As I predicted, Dad had no argument against me going to the Academy with Shikamaru. That was how we came to be signed up to start the Academy at the end of summer.

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formatting has become even worse since I last uploaded. Seriously? Very irritating.


	3. Chapter 2

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert

Chapter 2

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_Against danger it pays to be prepared ~ Aesop_

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The night before we started the Academy I didn't sleep that well. It might be more accurate to say that I had a nightmare, probably brought on by the nervousness and anticipation I felt. Of red chakra and pure terror and the helplessness of being blind and dumb. I woke silently, the gasp never leaving my lips, eyes flaring wide and darting about my room. For a second, I thought there was someone standing in the corner. But no. there was no one there. My chakra sense told me the only people in the house was me, my brother, and my parents.

The human brain was good at facial recognition. Too good sometimes, because it found faces in other things - shadows as a prime example. It was particularly common during hypnagogia, or waking sleep.

Funnily enough, that didn't really reassure me.

I gathered chakra to my hands. If you get a great enough concentration of it, chakra can become visible. Something like the Rasengan, where it was not only visible but almost solid took a huge amount, more than I currently had, but I could manage a kind of ghostly light easily enough.

I called it up, and held my hands out, reassuring myself that there was no one there. It was bright enough to see by, flickering off the floor and walls. I breathed, shakily, and slid my legs off my bed, flinching at the thought of something shooting out from underneath it to grab me.

Nothing happened.

_Just a nightmare_, I told myself. _There is nothing here._

The house was so silent; I could hear wind rustling through trees, the faint call of the deer, creaking of floor boards. I stood and crept forward, my footsteps making no sound at all, lighting my way with my hands held out stretched.

Shikamaru's room was right next to mine. His door was ajar, and I didn't even have to move it to slink into his room. In the preternatural quiet of the house, his breathing was loud and reassuring. I felt the tension drain out of my back.

As a Nara, I shouldn't be afraid of the dark. It was where we were strongest. But I didn't like to be alone in it.

I paused in the middle of his room, until some sense told him he wasn't alone and he stirred, squinting at me with bleary eyes, then shuffled over. That was as much an invitation as I was going to get.

I doused my light and slid into bed. I didn't fall asleep for a long while, but eventually, between one blink and the next, I fell into slumber.

"Rise and shine! UP, you two!" Someone shrieked at some ungodly hour of the morning. I reached for a pillow to pull over my head, only to find it had been taken, along with all the blankets. Blearily, I looked up, to find mum holding the aforementioned items. Oh well, it wasn't that cold. I curled up, bumping into Shikamaru who had the same idea.

"Oh, no you don't," she said firmly. "Get up! It's your first day at the Academy, you are not going to be late!"

Several moments later, I stumbled into my room and attempted to get dressed, having to repeat the process several times as some items found themselves inside out or back to front. But I managed it, and just in time too.

"If you two aren't down here in the next three seconds…!" Mum threatened. I stumbled out of my room, nearly crashing into Shikamaru, and we slouched downstairs. She hustled us into the backyard. Wait, we were still going to do our stretches? I'd have rather had an extra half hour of sleep. Judging by his face, Shikamaru felt the same.

But we were both too wise to voice that thought.

"I woke up in the morning and saw the mountain there," Mum started, voice ringing out clearly, as she reached straight upwards, back tensing, then pulled her arms down in a wide circle. We copied her, and my voice joined in the song as a hoarse mumble. We'd been doing this sequence for years - it had started short, but grown longer and longer as more verses were added. It took us about half an hour to do, now, which was frankly a crazy amount of time. I could recall many days where I'd done no where near that amount of exercise, let alone, that amount as a warm-up.

Granted, it did do wonders for waking you up. By the time we got to 'I could have been a solider, or a dancer, or a tree. I could have been a farmer, or a merchant, or a queen', (the moves for which were actually quite fun) I was most definitely awake. After we had finished, we went inside and ate breakfast before getting cleaned up. By this time, it was starting to get to a respectable hour to be awake, and it was nearly time for us to leave for the Academy. It was a fair distance to travel from our house, after all.

The Ninja Academy, surprisingly enough, was located next to the mountain in the same building as the Hokage's Office, and Mission Assignment Desk. It seemed some what counterintuitive to have so many young and noisy children next to such a serious work environment, until one realised that it was perhaps the most defensible location in the entire village. In fact the only safer places were inside the mountain itself.

The fact that I even realised that meant that I was far more affected by my new world than I had anticipated.

When we got to the Academy, they had a small introduction ceremony for us. Both Mum and Dad came to watch and sent us off to sit with the other children with an admonished 'be good'. The Third Hokage was there, and he spoke at length about learning and doing well and forging friendships and holding on to the Will of Fire. It was actually a very inspirational speech, but I spent most of it surreptitiously looking over my classmates trying to spot the rookie 9. Everyone was so _small_.

It surprised me a bit at how many children there were here. I'd kinda had the impression that there was only one class per year. That wasn't true. There were more like five or six. I guess that makes sense, when you think that not all individuals would last to graduation, and not all those would pass. There had to be more that three teams refilling the shinobi ranks every year, or the ninja population would decline very, very fast.

Two teachers called out a class list and led their new classes away before Iruka-sensei took to the stage. He looked so very young and awkward. "Right. With me are: Aburame, Shino…" I listened closely, hoping I was in the same class as Shikamaru. I hadn't even given it a thought that we might be separated - that I wouldn't be with Rookie Nine.

"… Nara, Shikako, Nara Shikamaru…"

I gave a slight smile to Shika, happy we were together. He nodded, and got up to slouch over to where the others were waiting. I could pick out Shino, the first one to be called, and Chouji, obviously. Hinata was easy to see, with her shy demenor even if her bloodline didn't give her away. Sakura was also blindingly obvious with her bright pink hair, though she looked to be just as shy as Hinata.

"… Uzumaki, Naruto," Iruka-sensei's voice hitched, just slightly. "And Yamanaka, Ino. Thankyou. Please follow me."

He led us away, and I looked over my shoulder, to see Mum and Dad wave us goodbye. Several of the parents around them were shuffling uneasily. I had my suspicions as to why.

The classroom we were led to was surprisingly large. There were huge windows set into the far wall, to let in natural light and provide an escape route. Even though Konoha had many things in common with Japan - where houses were small and compact - ninja did not like being in confined spaces, leading to buildings that were larger and more spacious than you would expect. The class room had benches arranged in rows, each slightly higher than the last, auditorium style. The front had a large black board and there was a teachers desk slightly to the side. There were several bland educational posters spread over the walls to try and interject a bit of life into the classroom.

I slouched down next to Shika in one of the back benches. In my old world, sitting at the back of the class was usually a sign of uninterested students, here, it meant that there was no one behind us, which was the mark of a _good_ ninja. It's strange how perspective changes things. It took far longer than it should for the rest of the class to get seated, but that's how working with kids goes, I guess. I watched with half lidded eyes as the other students sized each other up and Iruka vainly tried to keep order.

Most of the morning was spent with the minute of first day at school, assigning text books, making sure everyone had the appropriate stationary, listing the rules and expectations, and making name badges so we could all get to know each other. All perfectly normal first day things that I had gone through more than a dozen times before. It disillusioned me quite rapidly to the fact that this might be ninja school, but it was still school. Oh, joy.

It wasn't that I didn't like school… it was just, well, you've got to be slightly reluctant to go.

Some kids were paying diligent attention to Iruka-sensei - Sakura, Hinata, Shino - while several more had zoned out - Shika was sleeping and Chouji was eating - and I could predict that very soon Kiba and Naruto were going to start causing disruptions.

Luckily, this was the point where the bell for the lunch rang.

"Alright, kids!" Iruka-sensei half-yelled over the sudden explosion of noise. "You have one hour! I want you all back here when the bell rings!"

I poked Shikamaru awake and we both wandered outside, Chouji trailing after Shikamaru, munching on some chips. Only the last year students were allowed to leave the Academy grounds, so we found an empty patch of grass surrounding the main field to eat our lunch.

"Thoughts?" I asked, idly watching the rest of the children find places to sit and eat. Some alone, some in groups. Some of them appeared to know each other, while others were awkward with new friendships. Lunch was divided into year levels, so all the children who had started today were here. The other classes would have lunch at different times.

There was Shino, sitting alone by the trees. There was Hinata. And there… there was Naruto.

There were numerous problems with the Third Hokage's secrecy laws. How everyone had known about it in the first place… Group mentality had shown that the ideals of the group persisted long after any founding members hand left - or the true reasons for the behaviour had been forgotten. It was like the old story with the monkeys pulling each other off the ladder. Not knowing _why_ they were treating Naruto badly wouldn't mean they _didn't_.

The Gaara situation only became so bad because people kept trying to assassinate him. His instinctive knowledge of moving sand hadn't helped matters, but he hadn't been homicidal before that.

Perhaps it wasn't anything to do with the way people treated him, but to keep Naruto himself from finding out. Uzumaki Mito had invented the Kyuubi seal and she had used it on _herself._ The seal had been created for a willing vessel, unlike the other jinchuriki in which the vessel was as trapped as the bijuu. I knew he could remove the seal himself and release Kyuubi. Did you want a child knowing that? That all it would take to get back at people would be to remove a tiny piece of paper from a cage? The temptation would be huge.

Did Gaara's seal have that option? I don't know. Clearly his seal worked differently, allowing the use of sand and partial transformations and releases as it did. Naruto didn't have that option. Other than his healing, he gained no tangible powers.

It was certainly something to think about. But I have to admit, Naruto at this age, wasn't what I had unconsciously been expecting. He was young, and quiet and a little sullen. He was easy to overlook. It was very different from the genin that he was in the show. I guess that was the point.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru declared after a long silence.

"I like Iruka-sensei," Chouji offered, in between mouthfuls.

I nodded in agreement. "He seems nice."

There was an explosion of noise, as kids began congregating in the middle of the field. They'd finished their lunch and were starting a game of ninja. Chouji perked up.

"Can we go play?" He asked eagerly.

I looked at Shika who shrugged. "Sure." Neither of us were particularly enthusiastic at the idea, but hey, if Chouji wanted to. We wandered over there, to find our old 'friend' directing the game.

"I told you, he can't play anymore!" Youbirin said, annoyed, when we asked to join in.

Chouji slumped, dejected. Shika and I exchanged glances.

"So troublesome," Shikamaru said.

"Never mind, guys," Chouji said. "I'll just… go."

I shook my head. "We can play our own game," I offered.

Youbirin sneered, "There's three of you. I'm sure that'll be fun."

I scowled at him, and he seemed quite taken back. So did Chouji, come to think of it. But then I spied an unmistakable blond head, hovering sadly at the sidelines. Naruto was watching the game. Likely, they hadn't let him play either. I nudged Shikamaru.

"But four of us will be," he drawled, easily catching on, before strolling past Youbirin. Chouji and I followed easily. It was strange that we had made Shikamaru our leader, given that he would rather cloud-watch than play, but since neither Chouji or I could, he had taken the spot by default.

There was a gasp from behind us. "You're going to play with _him?_ Our parents told us to stay away from him!" We ignored it.

Naruto, peering through his bangs, watched us approach with a mixture of sullen hope and distrust.

"So," Shika said, slouching to a stop. "Did you want to play ninja with us?"

The look of joy on his face was kind of heartbreaking.

The rule goes, if you have one person staring at a spot on the pavement, you're a weirdo. If you have two people, there must be something interesting, and others will stop to see what you're looking at. In that vein, as we started playing, more and more people joined in. We had quite a game going by the time the end of lunch bell rang. Both Chouji and Naruto were practically shinning with joy.

After lunch we had taijutsu class a.k.a. PE, the class I had despised above all others before, and one that seemed highly necessary this time. Being a ninja involved a heck of a lot of running and jumping, even if I never specialised in taijutsu. Which meant I was just going to have to suck it up and try.

It went worse than I had feared. I was actually a little _baffled_ at how badly it went. Speed and stamina wise, I was only slightly above Shika, who wasn't even trying. He managed a lazy shuffling jog for about three steps before Iruka sensei went to glare at some body else. I wasn't exactly surprised at coming last - I'd developed 'sports day-itis' on many occasions in order to avoid compulsory athletics days at school because I always came in last at everything - but I was a little surprised at how _far_ behind I was.

It was a little embarrassing to be honest. It certainly put a damper on my wonder and anticipation. It's one thing to _know_ that being a ninja is hard work, its another to have your arms and legs burning on the tenth lap of the grounds when you still have another ten to go. In a world with no cars, _this_ was how ninja got around. Running.

Oh. Joy.

And after running, there was stretching, and sit ups and press ups and an obstacle course… There were slalom poles and games of catch. We were too young to be trusted with actual kunai yet, even blunt or wooden ones, but it we were practicing throwing all the same.

It was incredibly, incredibly tempting to give up. It was _hard_ to motivate myself. Admittedly I had never been particularly hard working before, either. I hadn't been a genius, but I had been smart enough to pick up on things easier than my peers, allowing me to cruise through school with hardly any effort at all. Physical prowess had never mattered before, and I found that I was incredibly unprepared for it to count.

I admit, I started to have serious doubts about my future as a ninja right about then. It was a little disheartening. Certainly it was very humbling. Maybe, maybe, I had been harbouring a small hope that I could be… brilliant. I could be strong.

I had died young. Longer than most ninja were want to live, probably, but still less than a third of my life span, according to the measures of the world. I was close with my parents and siblings, proud of my university degree and content with my job but there had been nothing about my life that ten-year-old me would have looked at and said 'that's what I want to be'. Ten-year-old me had wanted glory and fame and greatness. I? I had been no one special.

Maybe, I wanted that once more.

It was silly to think that the path of a ninja would give that to me. Too much fan fiction, I guess, not enough attention paid to the cannon fodder characters. I had the sneaking suspicion that that was what I was.

But, well… it would be pretty pathetic to give up after just one class.

Thankfully, that was the last class of the day. Iruka-sensei let us go with a half smile and a relieved look, and everyone seemed to gain another burst of energy as they left the classroom. Even Shika looked awake.

"Man, that was so boring!" Kiba exclaimed, barrelling down the hallway. "Freedom!"

"Troublesome," Shika sighed, as a teacher poked their head out of a doorway to yell at him for running inside.

"It wasn't that bad," Chouji offered, pulling out a bag of chips.

I 'hmmmed'. "We met Naruto."

Said boy perked up at the sound of his name and looked over at us. Outside the Academy building there was a crowd of parents mingling and waiting to pick kids up from their first day at school. I noticed quite a few _look_ at Naruto, before shuffling their kids away from him. It wasn't quite a glare, but it was definitely not friendly. He noticed it too, and glared at the ground.

"There's dad," Shika said, bumping my shoulder and slouching off towards him.

I hesitated, then turned to Naruto. "See you tomorrow," I said lamely.

His returning smile was brilliant. "Yeah! We can play ninja again, right?"

I nodded, and ambled off. Dad had most definetly seen our conversation, but I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

He didn't say anything about it immediately though, swinging me up on his shoulders and Shikamaru on his back. Trying to walk us home would take probably five times longer than carrying us, since I was tired and achy, and Shikamaru's normal speed of movement was approximately a crawl.

"How was school?" He drawled.

"Troublesome," Shika answered. I giggled. It was just such a typical answer.

"It was fine," I said. "Iruka-sensei is nice. And we met some new people."

"So I saw," Dad said softly. "Like that blond kid you were talking to?" He raised his voice.

I nodded, even though he couldn't see it. "His name is Naruto. He's okay. Do you know… people treat him weird." I changed my sentence midway through. I didn't want to give away too much.

He didn't react. He was far, far too good a ninja for that. But I think he was still a little surprised, more that we had brought it up than that we had noticed.

"You should do what you think is right," Shikaku said. I'd like to have said that I would continue trying, even if he'd forbidden me, but I don't know if I could have. I disliked disappointing people, particularly my parents.

But they were big on letting us think for ourselves. We made our own choices, and our own mistakes. I pondered. "What does daddy think is the right thing?" I asked.

It struck me then that people weren't afraid of Naruto per se, but of him letting the Kyuubi out. Some people must have known that Kushina was the vessel. It cant have been an absolute secret, not in a village of ninja. But if the weakened seal during birth was a secret… that meant they had no idea why the Kyuubi had gotten loose. The Third was in a lose-lose situation. Knowledge of the weakened seal would endanger the jinchuriki and cause panic, but if he didn't say, then people could only wonder why?

She had been too close to Konoha to have been killed in battle. Which left the assumption that she had let it out willingly.

And if Kushina had, a fully grown, capable Shinobi, then a child… would he do the same?

Of course, Jinchuriki got a bad rap. Whether it was undeserved or not, caused or not, it was still fact that many of them were homicidal and unstable. Keeping your distance from someone like that was just common sense. And telling your children to, doubly more so.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because Daddy knows things I don't," I answered, not missing the fact that he had dodged the question.

He chuckled. "Daddy knows many things you don't. What do you think of him?"

I petted his hair absently. The way it stuck up made me assume that it was coarse and harsh, but it was surprisingly soft.

"He's annoying," I said truthfully. "But so is Kiba and no one tells us to stay away from him."

He chuckled, maybe recognising the name. I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

"Do you know who Naruto's parents are?" I asked.

He didn't tense, he was too good for that, but there was a careful note to his voice that I would have missed if I hadn't been listening for it. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you're old," I said promptly, well aware that that wasn't what he was asking. "And because everyone says to Shikamaru," I sighed heavily and theatrically. "'You're just like your father,' then they leave him alone, because they know you're awesome." I nodded. "So did Naruto's parents do something bad?"

I knew Shikamaru was awake, but he opened his eyes for that.

I probably should have felt bad about putting him on the spot like that, but I didn't.

"No one knows who his parents are," Shikaku said carefully.

"But he has a last name," I objected. Some orphans didn't, case in point – Tenten. How hard could it be to go Uzumaki-Uzumaki?

"It could be an honorary name," Shikaku said. "After someone who died the day he was born."

Translation – he could have been called Uzumaki because he was the vessel, not the vessel because he was an Uzumaki. Which, actually, was perfectly plausible. If people hadn't known that she was pregnant at the time. I suspect people didn't like to think of it.

I 'hmm'ed thoughtfully and let the topic drop. It was, after all, a conversational minefield. It had certainly given me things to think about.

That was really all it took to befriend Naruto, a game and a goodbye. In the morning, as Iruka-sensei tried to bring the class to order, he approached us hesitantly with wary hope in his eyes. I had no idea how many times people had become distant from him after their parents had had a word with him, but as far as I could see, he was canon Naruto. He wasn't _dangerous_. I kicked out the chair next to me and his face lit up with such joy that it almost hurt to look at.


	4. Chapter 3

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert

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Chapter 3

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_Childhood is fleeting._

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In addition to attending the Academy, I was also signed up for special 'kunoichi classes'. These started a week after the Academy did and took place after the regular academy hours so were technically more of a 'club' than a 'class'. They weren't mandatory, but all the girls were strongly encouraged to attend. I think the only one who didn't from our year was Hinata, probably on the basis that it wasn't appropriate for a Hyuuga, or that she had her own, better tutors on the subject. On the surface the classes were reasonably innocuous. We learnt about festivals and holidays of the major lands, we learnt ikebana and basic cooking. We learnt sewing and embroidery. We learnt tea ceremonies and how to apply makeup and wear formal kimono. We learnt instruments. All typical, girlish things. They were all also things that would aid us with infiltration. We were taught how to sing and how to act and how to dance. It was extremely thorough training and none of the other girls even realised it.

Ikebana taught us which flowers were poisonous and where they were found and how to arrange a bouquet to look beautiful while hiding death inside. It taught us how to pass coded messages to each other, hidden in flower meanings. We could imitate geisha or highborn ladies. We could pretend to be natives to any country of the elemental nations.

We were taught how to draw, to sketch the face of people we needed to identify, to hide messages within images to get them past scrutiny.

This was where I met Sakura and Ino.

The first day was difficult. Shika and Chouji weren't there, and I didn't know any of the other girls. It's probably a little sad to admit that I used a child as a shield, even disregarding that I was a child myself. But Shikamaru was good at it, with his nonchalant, 'I don't care' attitude, where I seemed to take everything too personally. He was my buffer to the world. When Suzume-sensei told us to go and gather some flowers, I stood awkwardly to the side.

I felt _shy_. Terrified of trying to introduce myself when, it seemed, everyone had naturally fallen into groups already. I was lost.

Then I noticed Sakura. Her pink hair should have stood out horribly, but it blended remarkably well. She was alone, diligently picking flowers, as we had been told. I licked my lips nervously and headed towards her.

But someone got there before me.

I couldn't see what Ami said, but I definitely saw Ino's throw. A take down with flowers. It was a wonder that Ino didn't specialise in thrown weapons.

"That was a good throw," I said, approaching Ino and Sakura, hands fiddling with my flowers. Several of them were bringing to look mangled. It shouldn't be so hard to approach two young girls. But it was.

Ino beamed at the compliment. "Thank you! She deserved it! I'm Ino, and this is Sakura."

"Shikako," I replied, relieved that she was being so friendly. God, how pathetic could I get? "Umm," I said when the silence stretched. "What flowers do you have? I could only find these."

Flowers were no where near my best subject, and it wasn't like we had really started learning anyway. I doubted anything important would be covered in the first week or so. Half of what I was holding was probably weeds. But I should have remembered that Ino's parents ran a flower shop, because she picked up the conversation easily, chattering along and helping Sakura and I with our selections.

And that was pretty much that.

Ino was an incredibly gregarious girl. She seemed to know everyone. And had absolutely no compunctions about sharing what she knew, either. It was with her that I discovered people watching. Shikamaru could keep his clouds, this, this was _interesting._

I wanted to know how people interacted, I wanted to know who got on well with who. I wanted to know who did well in which class and which skill and why. I wanted to know who had shinobi parents and how much of their skills that explained. Apparently, this was something that was _normal._ I was a girl. I gossiped. It was… something of a revelation.

I still wasn't particularly sociable, preferring to watch others than interact with them but a small group of friends was better than nothing.

Ino and Sakura and I still hung out with Shika and Chouji, and Naruto was there constantly. He was exhausting. Not just physically, which he was, always running and playing, but socially exhausting. I wasn't really used to dealing with anyone other than Shika for long periods of time, and Naruto couldn't be more different.

We ended up 'recruiting' Kiba, as the only other student with near as much energy, just to keep him occupied.

Naruto was annoying. He wasn't abused or treated badly. People didn't really even glare that much. To them, he was just _there_, as unimportant as the trees by the side of the road. He was the epitome of 'somebody else's problem'. Most children are, and that 'somebody else' is their parent. Naruto didn't have parents, and the orphanage caregivers were run so ragged with so many children they had no time for individual attention. He just… wasn't important to anyone. Yeah, it might have been emotional neglect, but it wasn't done intentionally or maliciously. There was just no time. But he wanted attention. He craved it. And he would go to extreme lengths to get it. He was a brat and knowing _why_ didn't make it any easier to deal with. He was obnoxious and loud and insulting and for all his desire to be a ninja never sat still to listen to anything he didn't deem 'cool'.

But it was _Naruto_. I knew he was going to be great, and kind and a loyal friend. If I could just deal with him, help him, teach him a little, get him to think things through, then things would be better. If I could just be his _friend_…

I tried.

There were other hiccups. Children don't all get along, and those that are different, weird, are identified immediately. It's not always malicious, but it's there. Ami, who I had met an Kunoichi classes, was one that took exception to Sakura and I. We were the quiet ones, the smart ones, the ones who hung out with the boys. We didn't _fit_.

I don't want to cast her as the stereotypical bully. She could be kind and polite. Outside of class, I once ran into her serving customers at her mother's tea shop and she was as polite to me as any other. She took her job seriously; a good trait for a ninja.

Inside of school, however, there were… confrontations.

"God, Ino, you used to be cool. Now you're picking up all the weirdos," Ami said, one lunchtime, sneering at the three of us. Ino, I knew, would be happily accepted into anyone's social circle, but chose to stay with us.

_Chose_. Even at six, maybe especially at six, that's a hard choice to make, and an even harder one to stick by. I know I had, in my previous life, drifted away from friends from things much less than out right confrontation.

I wish I could say I had retorted with something so witty that she ran away crying. Truthfully, as always happens, my throat locked up tightly and I was silent. Humiliation, this is thy name. I know, I _know_ that it wouldn't have been so bad if I had been able to reply with anything, anything at all, but I couldn't, I've never been able too, and my silence just makes things worse.

But Ino, Ino is brilliant. "The only weirdo here is you," she retorted, not in the least bit cowed. She tossed her head, long blonde strands highlighting the movement. "At least I have friends, all you've got is mindless sycophants."

I was impressed. As insults go, it was children's level, but I've known adults that couldn't say 'sycophants'. And Ami clearly had no idea what it meant. She turned red and stomped off, and the laughter, the dreaded laughter, followed her.

"Thanks," I muttered, half ashamed I couldn't even defend myself.

Ino just smiled, cheerful and confident, like nothing could shake her. "That's what friends are for, right Sakura?"

Sakura looked as startled and afraid as I felt, eyes wide under her shaggy pink hair. But she nodded timidly. "Right."

And of course, classes were progressing. I was well ahead of the others in the basics - reading, writing, mathematics, history - and usually ended up bringing my own books to class to read while Iruka-sensei taught. It was a skill that any school child picked up; the ability to simultaneously pay just enough attention to know what the teacher was talking about, while aimlessly gazing out the window. I read, instead. The teachers didn't care as long as you didn't disrupt the class, which was why Shikamaru got away with sleeping through everything short of Taijutsu training, when Naruto and Kiba usually ended up with three or four detentions a week between them.

Even though I was well ahead in theoretical classes, I worked hard to bring myself up to par in the physical department. Six weeks later, I was nearly on average with the other students - due to far more extra running than I ever thought I'd do - when I realised with blinding clarity that made me feel like an idiot just why I was so far behind.

They were unconsciously enhancing their muscles with chakra.

They could no more control it than they could their blood flow, but like blood, exercise increased the amount of it flowing in their muscles. I wasn't doing this. I was _aware_ of my chakra in a way they weren't, consciously aware of it. When I was exercising it was flowing exactly as it always flowed.

I felt rather stupid. It was obvious in hindsight. If I focused, I could even 'see'? 'feel'? the flows of chakra in them. It wasn't Byakugan standards, but rather like knowing I had my own chakra, like seeing the chakra in the air - it all resonated.

That became my new project to work on at home. How to enhance my muscles as ninja did so easily. I could, of course, see the benefits of continuing to practise without it, however much I disliked the extra work, but the higher the base, the better my improvement would be once I added chakra.

Logically, I knew that, and continued as I had been, albeit with little enthusiasm.

There's not really any way to describe how it feels to channel chakra. It's like breathing. You just do it.

But when you internalise it, channel it to your muscles, its like being superman. You want to leap tall buildings in a single bound. You want to yell 'I am God! I defy the laws of physics!' No wonder so many ninja are nut cases. It's a pure adrenaline rush. Nothing compares to it.

It was easy to use chakra like this, to simply enhance things you could have done anyway, because chakra was part physical energy, generated by the body. They fit together naturally.

On the same note it was no wonder that chakra exhaustion was lethal. Chakra might be thought of as the 'extra' energy that the body (and mind and spirit) produced. Stuff that you didn't need to move or to breathe or to metabolise, so you could use it to do jutsu. Once that reserve was used up, you could either stop, or start taking energy from your muscles. That was chakra debt. First went the skeletal muscles, the arms and the legs. It felt like they were filled with lactic acid, too weak and shaky to contract anymore. Then, if you kept going, you started drawing energy from other muscles, ones that didn't normally fatigue, like your lungs, and heart. Breathing grew difficult, your heart stopped beating. You died.

We covered that very clearly at the Academy, early on, along with many, many warnings not to try and use chakra unsupervised.

I had average sized chakra reserves, on the small side for a ninja, but normal for a kunoichi. Nara have never been exceptional in that department, but we make use of what we have cleverly. Mine may have been slightly larger than expected, since I had been practising using it, and that does help build reserves.

You could build your chakra stores, but they wouldn't keep increasing forever. Just like there was a limit to how fast you could run, or how smart you could get. Training would help push those limits, for you to reach your greatest capacity but there was a limit. The maximum that your body could allow. Most ninja never reached that maximum. There was always a little more training they could squeeze out, a little more their chakra capacity could increase. Of course, the closer you got, the less that 'little bit more' was. Though failing that, their control could improve a little more.

I had exceptional control over my own chakra but it wasn't just the chakra in my body that I could sense. It was everywhere. It was in the air I breathed, the food I ate, like persistent smoke. It caused me to cough whenever I paid too much attention to it, further cementing my reputation as a sickly child. Whether it was natural chakra or chakra residue from jutsu or emitted from people I didn't know, and resolved not to mess with it until I understood more. The last thing I wanted was to become a stone statue.

Later on, that overdeveloped chakra sense would come in handy. I could sense the bodies of chakra that were other people, sense residue from leftover jutsu, point out chakra enhance traps and so forth. Anyplace that chakra had been used or anything that chakra had been used on was lit up like a beacon to my senses.

In our first year at the academy we weren't taught about chakra, other than that it existed. As I had found out for myself, chakra reserves aren't really that large until seven or eight years of age. We wouldn't be taught to use chakra till our third year, and it would be our last year before we were taught anything even remotely resembling a jutsu.

I had run through dozens of chakra control exercises. I hadn't managed water walking, because drowning was too much a risk as a child, but many other exercises were possible. The wall walking exercise had been only the start. There were chakra strings. There was the leaf sticking, that I remembered from the show. And from leaves, I progressed to ever more brittle and fragile things. At first, my chakra had ripped through paper easily until I managed to adjust the force of it's output. I had been terribly proud when I managed to stick rice paper to my hand and slowly, carefully, without rushing, fold it into a clumsy, lopsided origami crane. I had managed it without a single tear.

Chakra was difficult to manipulate once it had been expelled. That was why chakra strings - like those used on puppets - took so much concentration. But it wasn't impossible. And I liked working with my chakra. This was something I could do for fun, bend it and twist it and _see_ the outcome.

One of the things we _were_ drilled mercilessly on was hand seals. How to recognise them, how to form them, what they were most often associated with. The Tiger seal, for example, has the index and middle finger held straight, and is a common end seal for many fire techniques. Useful information, yes, but hand seals were a bitch to do . I had no idea how people managed to do them so fast. My child's fingers were awkward and clumsy as I forced them into positions that were entirely unnatural. The only one I could manage with ease was Snake, the clasping of both hands. Even then, in the time taken to form, hold and disengage, (something just as important as the first two) a skilled shinobi could run through three or more seals.

But there were more than enough things to keep me occupied researching. There were so many things that I wanted to know, like, what was it about shadows that let us control them, and control people with them? Shadows were only areas where sunlight didn't reach, they were nothing physical. What was it about that lack that made them special? Of course, there was much about shadows in folk law and myth and our clan, unsurprisingly, had a great many books on the subject.

Shadows have long been a part of folklore. Along with reflections and portraits, they're thought to be the soul, or part of it. The shadow is the negative double of the body, the alter ego of the soul, and sometimes an image of evil.

The shadow can represent the darkness of the personal unconsciousness, the other, unfathomed side of the personality, the secret sharer. It is everything that the individual refuses to accept or understand about themselves. If not assured and integrated, it may become evil and destructive.

It is for this reason that the Nara believe in self acceptance. Our clan might be considered lazy and unmotivated to most - and we are, to a large degree - but we know ourselves. We try not to self-destruct. It's not so much as always remaining calm as knowing why you're angry and what you're prepared to do about it. Even if that 'what' is 'anything'.

It's a little terrifying, looking deep into your heart and asking 'what would I do if someone hurt my brother?'. Not 'what should I do?' or 'what would I be expected to do?' but actually, truthfully, all pretences aside, what would I do?

We're not always the people we like to think we are.

Of course, it wasn't all school work. At home, I began to explore the clan grounds. The clan was rather large and sprawling. From the show I think I had assumed that Shikamaru's family was the entirety of the Nara clan. It wasn't. In fact, those that lived within the walls of Konoha weren't the entirety of the clan. The Nara ran many farms in Fire country to supply the ingredients for our medicines. Farming took up a great deal of room, and Konoha proper was a walled village. There simply wasn't space.

Within Konoha itself, we had a small forested area where we ran a herd of deer, as well as a few workshops that produced our medicine and research.

Deer are odd creatures. At once supremely intelligent and incredibly skittish. They are very intelligent, they seem to know instinctively which plants will make them better when they are ill. Deer are pretty good at looking after themselves. They don't need a lot of attention or managing. In fact, they're the kind of animals that you can kill with kindness. Too much human attention makes them shocky. I think a lot of the Nara attitude stems from that; acknowledging and accepting the fact that sometimes, if you just leave it alone, it'll come right on its own. Lazy, sure, but pragmatic too. It made me wonder if our clan had started our medical theory not from the deer but from observing them. There are some parts of our research that directly involved the deer though. Because male deer, the stags and the harts, shed and regrow their antlers every year, there was some serious study being done into the ways that they do this, in the hopes of adapting the principles to allow people to regrow limbs and tissues. A lot of it, however was based on herbs and plants and the chemicals found in them, much the same as my old world. There was less synthesising of chemicals, and I don't know that chemistry itself was as advanced, but the results were impressive all the same.

I spent a lot of time in the workrooms. They smelt strangely, of the medicines that were prepared, of the herbs that were hung up to dry, of deer and of smoke, but it wasn't an unpleasant strangeness. The workers, mostly my aunts and uncles and cousins, though there were a few hirelings who were unrelated to us, were more than happy to indulge my curiosity about what they were doing. I was put to work with a mortar and pedestal more than once to grind herbs to paste.

The clan was pleased with my interest in medicine, having, as they did, that diagnosis from the hospital.

I struggled through the 'basic' textbooks on the subject. It wasn't that the concepts were unfamiliar to me, but the change in language meant I had to learn everything all over again. I could have gotten the same information from reading a dictionary, but it was easier to learn in context. I was thankful to note that the principles seemed the same, despite the differences in worlds.

I was vaguely aware that deer velvet was considered a medicine but in my world it was regarded as something of a herbal remedy, the sort for new age health nuts. However, I remembered with a jolt, here, the Nara were regarded as expert medical specialists. They were the ones that supplied Tsunade with the information that allowed her to reverse Chouji's food pill poisoning. I had to try and stop applying knowledge from my past world; things were too different here.

The medical sciences were nothing short of amazing - once I got over the fact that the most important and essential medical tools weren't needles and scalpels but paper and ink. Just about everything that we used machines for, they used seals. To stabilise patients, to monitor them, during surgery - all seals. Sealing and medicine went together hand in glove. They had more use, or more easily recognised use, in the stable environment of the hospital than being weirdly adapted in the every changing realm of combat.

It had never occurred to me before, but Tsunade was probably equal to, if not greater in sealing knowledge than Jiraiya, if her Rebirth seal was any indication. Orochimaru's dabbling in cursed seals was also explained by his scientific leanings.

Seals were the machines of the elemental nations. Seals are Kanji. That surprised me to discover. I had always thought they would involve a specialised alphabet or complex symbols - esoteric lines and circles - but it wasn't. It was Kanji. Yes, there were specific ways in which they should be combined for best effect, but in that manner it was more like writing a contract or telling a story. That was … interesting to learn.

Of course, it was limited. It took time and space and ink and paper. Only the very best seal masters could use seals in combat, because they were the only ones that could design or alter and apply a seal with merely a twist of chakra, a hand seal and maybe some blood. Minato Namikaze was lauded as a genius for a reason.

I noted it as an avenue I definitely wanted to explore. I very much doubted I would ever get to any sort of mastery of it - probably never more than the basics - but there was still a lure to it. If nothing else, storage scrolls would be handy.

These things filled my time admirably. As the year passed and we entered our second year of the academy, little changed. The lessons became slightly harder, slightly harsher, slightly more geared towards the 'truth' of ninja missions. It was a slow process to familiarise us with what would be expected of us - so slow it was almost unnoticeable. We were being conditioned.

In our second year, we started learning how to throw kunai and we started to learn taijutsu.

At the academy we were all taught an adaptation of the basic Konoha-ryu style, called the Shorin-ryu, the 'small forest style'. It was a version of the Konoha based taijutsu style that had been adapted specifically for children and teenagers. It emphasised dodging and deflection with the understanding that any opponents we encountered were likely to be taller, stronger and faster than us. On the surface, it appeared to be a rather simplistic style, with limited numbers of strikes, block and kicks. Of course, given that it was being taught to children, this straightforwardness was probably more an advantage than a disadvantage. There were no flashy moves or complicated locks; things that could easily fall apart in actual combat. It was the basics of the basics, something that we could build on with our family styles, or simply once we left the academy and started gaining personal experience.

I had studied Karate before, which sounds like it should have given me a bonus in learning taijutsu here. That really wasn't the case. For one, it had been so many years previously that I had forgotten nearly all the technical details. For another, it had been in a separate body. But thirdly, perhaps more importantly, I had never had to actually use Karate in a real life situation. The closest I had come was the single Tournament I had participated in, but I was intelligent enough to know that that wasn't even close. Here, Taijutsu wasn't just a hobby, it was real. It was something that people lived and died by. And what we were taught reflected that.

On the other hand, there were things that I had learnt that stood me well. Not the techniques, but more important things than that. Our motto had been 'First the body, then the mind, then the spirit'. Meaning that your body tired first. Your muscles ached, and trembled, you panted, you sweated. But you kept going. Then your mind became tired. You acknowledged your fatigue. Your determination wavered. You wanted to give up. But your spirit kept you going. It wasn't quite 'never give up' but more 'persevere. Keep going despite that'. It was a hard lesson to learn, to push yourself so hard and so far. Harder still when you were solo training.

The second was intent. 'The easiest way to win a fight is to avoid it'. There is no reason to fight if you don't have to. But if there is, if you have to fight, commit to it 100%. Commit to every action as though it will win the fight. You should throw the first punch and throw the last punch and make sure the two of them are the same strike. In the academy they talked about this, they called it 'Ikken Hissatsu'. 'To kill with one strike'. Here they actually meant it.

When we sparred, the others had the tendency to treat it as a game. I was tempted to. Throwing light punches and kicks, dancing around weak attacks, it's fun and easy. And I had no real desire to hurt any of my classmates. On the other hand, it was easy. A knee to the stomach, an elbow to the temple, a palm strike to the jaw - fast and brutal moves that folded the others to the ground instantly.

After a few days, the others started calling me 'KO Shikako'. It almost made me laugh. It wouldn't last, not as they got better at blocking and dodging, at overcoming that instinctive flinch at violence, at protecting their vital spots, but I'd improve too.

We didn't do a lot of freeform sparring, not at first, anyway. It was still mostly stamina exercises, like we had already been doing; running, press-ups, setups, training bag work. There were flexibility exercises, stretches and slalom poles. There were obstacle courses and games like dodge ball. And there were rigidly repeated basics; one hundred of this punch, one hundred of this kick. For those it was hard to keep up the one hundred percent effort that I was determined to put into my taijutsu. Mentally, motivating myself for it was the hardest part. I'd probably never be a taijutsu master, but I didn't want to be crippled by poor fighting skills or stamina.

Of course, my effort had the surprising side effect of motivating the other girls. I guess it was easy for girls like Sakura and Ino, who had high academic scores, to slack off when the highest placed Kunoichi in physical scores was Hinata at only slightly higher than the class middle. She was better than that technically, but lacked the aggression to truly compete. Added that Jyuuken strikes were generally forbidden, she was at a serious disadvantage. But no one likes being overshadowed or dropped on their ass repeatedly, and they were genuinely motivated to show me up. Or at least, get me to stop kicking their asses.

On days when Jyuuken was allowed, Hinata was the worst opponent for me to face. Even though she could only use those attacks from her hands at this age, they limited the areas that I could strike. The hands have a large range, and can move very quickly. The only area that was really free from their range was below the knee, and even that was compensated for by some of the lower stances. Fighting Hinata like that, more than any of the others, forced me to think ahead. The only strike I could inflict without danger was a leg sweep, and even that put me in grabbing range. I was forced to feint and circle and dodge every strike. To some degree, I did this with the others, anticipating where and how they would strike, how I could retaliate, how to maneuver them into the best position to me. It was interesting to experiment.

But it was fighting with Hinata that made me resolve to look up counters to the Jyuuken. Either emitted chakra to serve as a shield, or perhaps harnessing my own shadow to take those strikes. Jyuuken _hurt. _The intrusion of foreign chakra into my system, forcefully, violently, was excruciating. It was like being stabbed and burnt and frozen and electrocuted all at once. The first time we fought I was incapacitated by a mere glancing blow. I built up very, very little tolerance to it at all.

Whenever we fought, most of the class would cheer for her. My habit of beating people swiftly made me an unpopular opponent, and everyone was more than willing to encourage her to beat me. I didn't begrudge her that because she was a genuinely nice girl, if very shy, and that was something I could sympathise with. She was always willing to unblock my tenketsu afterwards, shyly apologising, regardless of which of us won.

It was during my second year that I caught my first, and only, glimpse of Itachi Uchiha. I knew Sasuke quite well, being in his class, but Itachi had slipped my mind. That happened. It was hard to remember the exact details from something that had been only a very small part of my life. Even details as important as this.

"This is my Itachi-nii," Sasuke said, introducing the older boy who had shown up to pick him up from school. Usually his mother came, but not today. He sounded so proud, so adoring of his brother. My heart twisted in guilt, knowing, knowing, that soon he'd be broken and shattered.

"Hi," I said, barely loud enough to be heard, staring at my feet. Itachi, already a jounin, already an ANBU. Willing to sacrifice _everything_ for his brother and the village. What would he do if he knew what I knew?

I couldn't even contemplate it. I was too selfish. I _knew_ I wouldn't interfere. I would let these horrible and despicable things happen, because they didn't touch me. Didn't touch my family and my safe little world.

As much as I told myself 'there is nothing I can do' I knew that at heart I was just a selfish coward.

Shortly after that we turned seven and the Uchiha clan lay broken. The whole of Konoha was in a sombre, shaken mood. Whatever claims of oppression and hatred Madara made, they weren't noticeable now. These were people that had lost friends, neighbours, comrades - these were people in mourning.

Sasuke didn't return to school for several weeks. When he did he was pale and wild eyed, snappy and sullen. He avoided everyone and at lunch chose a spot well away from everyone else. He was sitting, back to a tree at the side of the field. It was as isolated as he could get, considering that only final year students were allowed to leave the grounds at break time. A group of girls (including Ino and Sakura) were sitting close by, casting him looks and chattering. Either they had already been repulsed, or they lacked the courage to approach him.

I watched him go and tugged on Shika's arm. He was damn good at interpreting what I meant. It should have been scary, but it was just relieving that I didn't have to verbalise it. I wasn't sure what I would have said, in any case.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru said, but adjusted our course. Chouji, bless him, followed without comment.

We sat without a word.

Sasuke tensed and glared, angry and upset and grieving. I had no doubt that he could be fairly viscous. "What do you think you're doing?" He hissed.

I flinched, but Shikamaru just yawned. "Sitting, eating lunch," he said.

"Well, sit somewhere else! I'm here!"

"You can come sit with us, Sasuke-kun!" Ino piped up eagerly from nearby.

He cast them a _look_, half anger, half disgust.

"Are you going to Suzume-sensei's class tonight, Ino?" I asked, thinking it time to intervene. I didn't think we should push too much. There was a very large difference between trying to include Sasuke and bothering him.

Of course Ino was going, she never missed a class, but she took the comment in the spirit it was given, as a conversation starter, and began to chat happily with me about our lessons. After a brief moment, Sakura joined in, followed by some of the other girls, while Chouji and Shika peacefully ate lunch behind us. Sasuke was alone but not excluded. He was a part of the group without being bothered. Maybe we could head off his loner tendencies.

I don't know if it helped, but it was something. And if I was doing it to assuage the guilt in my heart… well, that was my own business.

And, at seven, we were deemed ready to begin training in our family Art. Nara believe in contingency plans. Every person in the clan, be they ninja or civilian knows at least the theory of the Shadow Possession Jutsu. That way, if something happened to the clan, there would be _someone_ to pass that knowledge on. They may not have expected me to learn it, but I was still taught.

And this was my chance to prove that I could.

Learning to infuse object with your chakra is reasonably easy, learning to do it without damaging them is harder, and to infuse an object that has no physical mass, a shadow, harder still. Managing that, then manipulating it… that's the true difficulty. Our clan style isn't a bloodline, but we do have an affinity towards shadow that mimics an elemental affinity. Other people could learn it, but it would take double, triple maybe quadruple the amount of time and they would never be as efficient nor as effective at it as us. Given that many of our jutsu are fairly limited, and support types, it's not hard to see why no body bothers.

Of course, there is far more to the Art that any one ever sees.

I spent a fair bit of time practicing the Shadow Possession Jutsu after dad had shown it to us, and we had mastered the basic steps. It took us several months to progress onto creating and maintaining a 'chakra infused shadow' and from there we had to begin the tedious process of learning how to manipulate it. It had once been known as the Shadow Paralysis Jutsu, but not so long ago, it had been reinvented to control the victims movements instead of just paralysing them. No one says so, but I'm fairly certain the innovation was dads.

I wanted to be good at it. I practiced the speed of initiation, my hand seals, speed of capture and release, the length I could stretch my shadow, the number of times I could split it, the shape and direction of movement… There were so many parts to it that needed to be perfected.

I couldn't hold it for long, however. It was an incredibly intensive technique. Chunin level skill is to be able to hold it for five minutes - at this stage I was lucky to be able to hold it for five seconds. That was something I couldn't really change. I could perfect my control over it to reduce my chakra wastage, and do what I could to improve my reserves, but until I was older, they wouldn't grow very much at all.

And until we had the Shadow Possession Jutsu mastered, the other family techniques were out of our range. Even the next simplest techniques were many times more difficult and exhausting.

But apart from my desire to _learn_ and my fascination with all things chakra (which still seemed so magical, no matter how many scientific explanations I read) there was no real pressing need to master it. Most of the time, the impending future slipped my mind, inevitable but ignored like an exam I hadn't studied for. I was trying, and I was training, but single minded dedication had never suited me.

Indeed, Shikamaru barely bothered to learn it before ceasing practice and returning to cloud watching. He too knew he probably should, but didn't have the motivation when there was no immediacy to it. Unlike me, he _didn__'__t_ know the specifics of the looping future, and still held hope that he would be an average ninja, do an average amount of missions and face an average amount of danger.

I pestered him into practising with me as much as I could, but I still feared it wouldn't be enough. Shikamaru, for all his smarts, had been so lucky to survive.

And he was smart. Insanely so.

By nine it was incredibly clear that my assumptions about being as smart as Shikamaru had been incredibly, incredibly arrogant. I wasn't even close. Not even with a twenty year head start. It was a little humbling. I don't know if any one else saw it, because I was more motivated, I was constantly reading because I liked learning new things, but I knew, and our parents knew.

Tactics wise, he beat me at every turn. Oh, I made him work for it, but he beat me all the same. Games of Shogi turned into gruelling hour long contests of wills. It could have very easily lead to things getting nasty between us. I found, much to my chagrin, that I had become decidedly unused to losing. The anger and resentment, once I noticed them, made me distinctly uncomfortable with myself. They were not good emotions to be feeling. It was, after all, just a game. One that I was playing with my _brother_. It should have been fun.

I resolved very quickly that it was going to be. I was going to take a step back, I was going to _breathe_ and I was going to calm the hell down. I wasn't going to get angry at loosing. I was going to see what he'd done better than me, and how I could use it. I was going to treat it as a lesson, not as a failure.

After all, I could still learn. I could still improve. I didn't want to be the kind of person that made everything a life or death issue. There was going to be enough of that soon enough.

Graduation came far too soon. And brought with it a whole suite of problems that I hadn't anticipated.

"If we assume that teams will be assigned using the 'one kunoichi' method, you are going to be paired with Ino and Chouji," I said to Shikamaru. He kept staring at the clouds. It was likely that he had already reached that conclusion long before. It was practically a given. That wasn't what I wanted to talk about though, that was just a conversation opener, towards the question I couldn't ask - what will happen to me?

I didn't think anything would break up the Ino-Shika-Cho grouping, and putting more than one Kunoichi on a team generally lead to a weaker, less stable team (or so was the official line. I wasn't quite sure I believed it.) For the same reason, I was almost sure that Hinata, Shino and Kiba would be teamed together. Their combination of abilities complimented each other nicely, for tracking, search and rescue, or non-lethal capture missions.

Which left me dreading team assignment. I was friends with Naruto, and friendly with Sasuke, and the top ranked kunoichi but I didn't particularly want to be on Team 7. Not with all the trouble that they would attract.

_Shoulda thought of that before scoring 100% on all those tests._

I had never purposefully done less than my best before, so it was hard to think I should have now. On the other hand, I didn't really know many of the others. I was semi-friendly with a few, and sure I could have dragged them to a team pass but none stood out as anything special. Not like the Rookie 9.

_What about Sakura?_ I wondered. If I was placed on Team 7, what would happen to her? The answer was obvious. She wasn't quite the friendless fan girl she had been in the anime, but she still lacked… ambition, drive, realism, even common sense sometimes. She would fail. Guilt gnawed the pit of my stomach.

_Shoulda damn well thought ahead. _

Something so central to a ninja's life should have occurred to me ahead of time. But even if it had, I wasn't sure what I would have done about it.

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AN: while there is a martial art called Shorin-ryu, and it does mean the 'small forest style', I have no idea what it's like and it most definitely isn't as portrayed above. I just liked the name.

FFNet. Why are you not uploading things properly? Have they changed you _again_?


	5. Chapter 4

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert

Author's Notes: One of my reviewers kindly pointed out that I've fallen into the classic 'show; don't tell' trap - in that I'm not doing so. I'm trying my best, but I'm not sure if thats going to change overly very soon.

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Chapter 4

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_The indispensable first step to getting what you want out of life is this; decide what you want ~ Ben Stein_

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Graduation day was approaching and it felt like my life was sliding out of control. Which was funny, I probably had more control over what I was doing and where I was going than the last time I was twelve. Then again, I hadn't been expected to make life changing decisions last time.

It probably came from knowing what was coming, and being unable to stop it. The future is an unstoppable force and having a countdown only makes it worse. War is coming. Madara is coming.

What the hell was I going to do?

I could fail the graduation test. It would be hard, but do-able. My test marks were near perfect for the entire time I had been at the Academy, but I could make mistakes, act as though the pressure got to me. I could throw the test without anyone knowing a thing.

But then I would never be a ninja. No one wanted a ninja who buckled under pressure.

It's hard to describe what it was like. Ninja were respected, of course, almost revered in some cases. Even the lowest of genin had standing beyond that of a civilian. Ninja, or clans, with skills could become quite wealthy and that was a draw too. But there was more to it than that. It was almost a sense of patriotism. Ninja _contributed_ to Konoha. It was both a duty and a honour, concepts which had been foreign to me, but had quickly rooted themselves in my soul. I didn't know any jobs in my home-world that compared. Maybe a hundred years ago that was what it was like to be a soldier, but I had known nothing like it.

There was expectation. Children were expected to try to, to _want _to, become ninja. To have the skills and _not_was nearly unthinkable.

That was why Shikamaru was willing to entertain the idea of work. Why Ino, who would rather run the flowershop, and Sakura, who was so self-conscious of her appearance, were training to become killers.

That, I reflected wryly, was social conditioning at its finest.

The idea of failing the test was considered and, ultimately, rejected. Regardless of _why_ I felt like that, I did. Konoha, for all my memories, was my home and I loved it as much as any other - social conditioning or not. I couldn't deliberately fail the exam.

I could however, request transfer to the Medic Corps immediately. Ninja in Konoha were divided into three basic sections. ANBU, Medic Corp, and General Operations. ANBU recruited members from the other two sectors and answered only to the Hokage, I didn't know much about their internal structure, nobody did, but it was assumed they were run in small teams led by a Captain. The Medic Corps were divided into two 'sections', the field medics, and the hospital medics, or rather, those that went on missions, and those that didn't. The former were usually recruited from the General Operations, as they had to have some field abilities, while the later could be anyone with the ability to use healing chakra, civilians, academy students, and there were even several clans that focused solely on their healing skills and never produced a field ready shinobi. General Operations was the largest of the three sections, and contained all active duty shinobi. Of course, shinobi never really retired, but there were those that stopped requesting missions, like my mother. Entry into General Operations happened in two ways, the Jounin Squads, which we would be tested for after graduation, and the Genin Corps. If you failed the Jounin test, you went to the Genin Corps and your chances of rising above genin were very low indeed. The Jounin Squads took the budding geniuses, the politically sensitive, the important and those students with the extra _something_ that made people think they might succeed.

Aunt Igaku had already promised to sponsor me into the Medic Corps if I wanted to. She was a Chief Surgeon at the hospital so her word held a lot of weight there. So did the name Nara, so I was highly unlikely to be rejected.

Still, training for the Medic Corps was three years, five if I wanted to be a field medic, and I would never be more than a support. Field medics didn't fight, they just followed closely and picked up the pieces. If you were really good, you might get recruited into ANBU and retrained to fight, but only if you were really good.

It wasn't that I wanted to _fight_ exactly. But I wanted to be more than a bystander. I didn't want to be helpless to _help_.

The Genin Corps were out. As a Nara, more specifically, as daughter of the clan head, I would never be put there.

Which left… passing the graduation exam, passing the Jounin Test… and, likely, taking Sakura's spot on Team 7.

I was of two minds about that. On one hand, it was wrong. That was Sakura's spot and I hated to deprive her of it. She deserved the chance to grow into a kick-ass kunoichi. And Team 7 was a trouble magnet. It would be a damn dangerous assignment. I'd certainly have to step up my skills to survive.

Which, in its own way, was a little thrilling. The closer I was, the more I could influence. The more I could _change_. Regardless of what team I was placed on, I was sure I wouldn't be with Shikamaru. It would be nice to have team mates I knew and could trust. And, selfishly, maybe I could stop Sasuke. That was a major point, after all.

Could I do it? Not just mentally, but physically. Did I have the skills?

I was well ahead of the rest of my class. So far ahead that there had been talk of graduating me early - which had then been rejected on the basis of my confidence or lack there-of. That had nearly scared me into hiding, but I wasn't good enough to _not _be good. It took far more skill to pretend to be bad while being good than I had.

But ultimately, measuring myself against Academy students was worthless. I needed to be much, much stronger than that. The target I had set myself was so far ahead as to feel impossible at times.

Realistically, what was my skill level?

I could do the three academy jutsu, the shadow possession jutsu and two minor earth jutsu - earth wall and earth spike.

Konoha was unique in that it had such a mix of elemental affinities. The Uchiha, the original clan of the Land of Fire, took after their namesake, but the Senju had had a mix of earth and water (which together formed the First Hokage's Wood Release), and the clans that they had invited in reflected this. Lighting was uncommon but not rare, while wind type was currently restricted to the Sarutobi family.

Frankly, earth was the best element combination that I could have had. Fire and lightning would have destroyed the shadows that I needed for the Nara clan style while wind and water would have been useful, but earth was the only one that would _cast_ shadows.

Mum was a genjutsu type. Or rather, a mixed gen-nin type. She had an earth element affinity and knew quite a few nasty jutsu to take down an enemy while they were distracted with her genjutsu.

Genjutsu don't cast shadows. That's one of the details that can give away a poorly formed genjutsu. They don't alter the light that flows through them. Even area of effect genjutsu don't actually exist. They're disruptions of the chakra system that make you see them, hear them, feel them, when in reality, there is nothing physically there.

She had taught me a few set genjutsu, as well as the basic pattern for creating them. I had the chakra control necessary for it, but not the imagination. I could see a definite use for genjutsu in hiding or distracting, but I doubted I would ever be good enough to simply rely on it. I would probably never use it as more than a cover or a feint.

Other than that, I had decent enough chakra control to tree walk, water walk, form chakra strings, my chakra sense was extremely sensitive and I was accurate with my thrown weapons. I was aggressive with my taijutsu, but wouldn't bet on myself against anyone larger or more experienced than me. Not unless they had deeply underestimated me.

My trap making skills weren't anything to sneeze at, but that was not often a combat ability. You needed time for traps, and that wasn't something you often had.

Of course, jutsu weren't the be all and end all of ninja existence. There was a reason that only three jutsu were taught in the Academy and none of them were offensive. Some ninja went their entire careers without ever encountering a single enemy nin in combat. Even the most recently graduated Genin was good enough to take down bandits and hired thugs.

It was just unlucky that Team 7, Rookie 9, Konoha 12 were about to be caught up in battles far beyond normal.

And regardless of how much I knew, I had never had call to use any of it in combat. What would my reactions be? Could I keep up?

I had a sinking feeling that whatever my current strength, it was no where near enough.

And that thought alone brought a bubble of panic to my chest. It was one thing to think 'in future, in future', it was another to think 'in three years'. Six months till the Chunin exams, three years for the time skip, that was all we had.

I swallowed. Hard. Three years? Where had all the time gone. That wasn't enough.

_That wasn't long enough._

I sat the graduation test, vibrating with nerves. I passed with flying colours, giving Iruka-sensei a tremulous smile when he presented me with a shiny new head band engraved with the Konoha leaf.

"Congratulations," he said warmly. I think that may have been the proudest moment of my life, snuffing out, for a moment, all my doubts and miss-givings.

Naruto… didn't pass. I worried before remembering… there was something, wasn't there? A second test he had sat? It had been when he had learnt the Shadow Clone jutsu. I cursed my failing memory. This was important. These little tidbits of knowledge could make all the difference in the world.

I tried to seek him out after class, but he was gone, and mum and dad were waiting for us, faces proud at our induction to the ninja ranks. Reluctantly, I turned from my search to present my achievement to them. I don't think they ever considered that we could fail. Not at this.

"Well done, my little shadows," Dad said, tilting his face back into the sunshine as mum hugged us. "Well done."

That night our peaceful celebration was broken by alarms going off in the centre of Konoha. Dad stood from dinner, grim faced, and left to answer the summons as Jounin Commander. The three of us geared up, but didn't leave the house. The alarm would change if Chunin and Genin were required. So far, it was only calling for ANBU and Jounin.

Konoha had an intricate system of alarms, some loud, some quiet, some silent. There were signal hawks and personal messenger pigeons. There were always messenger nin running around the village. The alarm system was coded for everything from invasion to disease outbreak to escaped dogs, and I remember being drilled in the different codes as soon as I could talk.

Tonight, the code said something like _High Priority. Jounin, ANBU respond. Hokage Tower. Politically sensitive. All ninja high alert. Prepare for evacuation and rapid deployment._

Mums hands were white knuckled on the table. She still trained. She had been a chunin, I knew that much, and likely a reasonably good one. Though I remembered from Before that she had never returned to service, it was possible that she hadn't made that decision yet, and still intended to resume her role once my brother and I were old enough. There was no reason she shouldn't. We had a wide support base, and plenty of people to look after us if she was away. It was her career after all, and I wondered if she was unhappy in the role of housewife. I never seemed that way, but she was a ninja afterall, as well as a mother, and neither of those liked to admit to unhappiness in front of their children. She hid it well but I think she was terrified we would be called out on our first night as ninja. We might not have passed the Jounin Test yet, but we had our headbands. We were ninja and if something was attacking the village, we would be honour bound to respond.

We held silent vigil for several hours before the alarms died down to _Mission accomplished. All ninja return to normal status._

Mum sighed. "Well, that was too much excitement for one night," she said, ignoring the fact that we had done nothing more than wait. "Your dad probably wont be home for hours yet. You ought to go off to bed."

We didn't protest, nerves stretched thin and jangled. Village alarms had gone off before, but being expected to respond gave them a new feeling of weight. I wasn't sure I liked it.

I dreamt of Kyuubi and in his great and fearsome eye was the spinning of the Sharingan. Around him, all the world burnt.

_Too much tension_, I diagnosed, as I ran through my morning Kata in the backyard. _Too much thinking about things I can't change and am not ready to face. I need to break it down. Small steps, that's the key._

We had a week until team placement. That was time to fill out our ninja registration and get our ID photos done, allowing, of course, additional time for the bureaucracy to process it. Other than that, we had no duties as ninja, and my clan duties wouldn't take up much time.

Therefore it was past time to make a plan.

I needed to get stronger. Experience would only come with time; there was nothing I could do to change that. But I could improve my knowledge. I could study the clan style, master the Shadow Possession and move on to more difficult techniques. There were _many_ of them. I could find ways to increase the effectiveness of the ones I knew; typically we used flares and explosive tags rigged to give only light but there would be other ways. There were always other ways.

I could practice my earth jutsu, and get mum to teach me more. Having more options was never a bad thing, as long as I could reliably use them. Speed, being able to do a jutsu quickly, was going to be a good thing.

I wanted to learn at least a basic healing jutsu. Going on missions would be dangerous and it would make mistakes a little more forgiving. I'd already decided that I didn't want to be a medic-nin, but part of what we worked on in the clan wasn't just healing, it was stimulants, strength boosts. _That_ was something that would come in handy.

And if we were talking about medics and strength, I certainly wanted to try and reinvent Tsunade's strength technique. It seemed a shortcut to enhancing my own relatively weak frame.

I certainly wanted to continue learning seals. So far all I could manage were exploding tags of various types and sealing scrolls. Useful but my ultimate goal was much larger. I wanted to created a chakra storage seal to bolster my own meagre capacity.

I certainly wanted to figure out if the ambient chakra I could sense in the air was sage chakra or merely residual emitted chakra. If I could tap that, it would go a long way towards increasing the length of time I could hold a jutsu. I had no idea how to do that, though. I knew Naruto had become a Sage through the Toad contract, but were they the only ones that knew how? Would other summons know? Or perhaps monks or priests? There was nothing in the clan library at the levels I had access to, but maybe there was more at the Genin or Chunin levels, even the restricted Jounin section. In a few days I'd be able to access the former, and Chunin within a year or two. If that failed, I could always get a summon contract and ask.

I wound down my Kata and nodded firmly to myself. It was a plan, however shaky. Having a plan always made me feel a little better.

Of course, a far more short term plan would be to drag Shikamaru to the Hokage Tower, complete our ninja registration and then go and see if Naruto was involved in the commotion last night like I thought he was.

Shikamaru was eager to escape the house when mum started suggesting he could spend his free time working with the deer - or as eager as Shika could be, which meant he didn't complain when I asked him to come with me.

We brought dango on the way to the Tower, got our ID photos taken and spent the morning filling out far too many sheets of paperwork.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered as he slumped over the last, finally, completed form. I tugged it out from under his arm, checked it over, and clipped it neatly to the pile.

"Done!" I said brightly, standing from the small desk in the registration office that was set aside for paperwork completion. All around me, new genin were busily filling out their own forms.

"Nara, Shikako," I said to the nin behind the registration desk, handing the forms over. "Zero-One-Two-Six-One-Oh and Nara, Shikamaru, Zero-One-Two-Six-One-One."

He glanced at the photos, flicked through the pages and looked up at me, then towards Shika who was slouching behind me. "It all looks to be in place. Thank you for filing it promptly."

We left, glad to leave the stuffy room. It hadn't been difficult to fill out, just tedious.

"Lunch?" Shika suggested, yawning.

I 'hmmm'ed in agreement. "Then… do you want to find Naruto?" I asked quietly. I really did want to check that he was okay, though it was usually him that sought us out.

Shikamaru just nodded, not betraying any indication that it was unusual. I loved that about him, that he never called me out on my whims or looked at me like I was acting oddly.

Naruto was more difficult to find that expected. He wasn't at his house or Ichiraku Ramen, which were the first places we checked.

I frowned.

Although the exact numbers are classified, Konoha has around thirty thousand shinobi. The average shinobi took only around ten missions a year. Even if some missions took weeks, that still left a large amount of down time. Most of that was spent training. As such, Konoha had a large amount of resources dedicated to keeping ninja skills sharp. There were training fields of all types and descriptions. There were dojo's. There were kunai ranges. There were obstacle courses. Then there was the library. There were study room. There were sections of scrolls on nearly every topic. There were librarians well versed in many technical arts all on staff to help ninja puzzle out the nitty gritty of a specific technique or skill.

Which meant, trying to find a shinobi in Konoha was almost akin to trying to find a needle in a haystack. I didn't have very much range on my chakra sense; enough to tell who was in attacking distance and little more. There were ways to narrow the search down, some places were off limits to Genin, some Naruto was frankly unlikely to go anyway, but that still left a huge amount of space to cover.

It was well past lunch time by the time we found him in one of the more out of the way training fields. It was little more than a clearing only a short distance from the Hokage Tower, but it was seldom used.

"Shikako? Shikamaru? What are you guys doing here?" Naruto blinked curiously, bouncing to his feet.

"Looking for you," I answered quietly, taking him in. He looked happy and cheerful, if a bit dirty. But yes, wrapped around his forehead, where his goggles usually rested, was a slightly battered forehead protector.

Shikamaru saw it too. "Where did you get that? I thought you failed the graduation test," he drawled.

"Hehe," Naruto chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his neck. "Well, Mizuki-sensei told me there was a second test, but there wasn't really, and then Iruka-sensei came and he was _awesome_ and then I fought Mizuki and then Iruka-sensei gave me his headband!" His voice rose in volume and pitch as he got more and more excited telling his story.

I blinked at Shikamaru. That cleared… nothing up.

"Mizuki-sensei told you there was a second test?" I repeated, trying to get Naruto to clarify. He was always willing to talk, sometime _too _willing, but getting a story in a logical sequence sometimes involved asking a lot of pointed questions.

Naruto scowled. "He tricked me!" he claimed. "He said that if I got a scroll from the old mans office, and learnt a jutsu off it, he'd pass me. I did it and everything." He brightened. "Hey! Do you want to see my new awesome jutsu? It's called the Shadow Clone and it's way, waaaay better than that lame clone that we learnt at the Academy."

He didn't wait for a reply, and with a single cross hand seal (which wasn't even a real hand seal) there was a puff of smoke and three Naruto standing where before there had been only one.

"And they're real and everything," he claimed. "I used them to beat Mizuki up after he said -" he cut himself off. "Stuff. He said stuff. But then Iruka-sensei was like 'he's my student' and got hurt so I had to fight back and I made like, a thousand clones and Mizuki didn't stand a chance."

I poked one of the clones, confirming that yes, they were solid. So that was where Naruto had learnt that jutsu. I accepted that I could barely remember any real hard facts from before, but this had been his signature jutsu and was kinda important, plot wise.

"Cool," Shikamaru said, leaning back to look at the clouds. He looked very disinterested now that he'd solved the problem we came here for, but I could tell his brain was still buzzing.

Admitedly, an all Jounin and ANBU high priority alert seemed to be a reaction incredibly out of proportion to the situation.

"And you didn't get into trouble?" I asked tentatively.

"Nah," Naruto shook his head. "The old man said… I should be able to trust my sensei." He looked down and scuffed his feet. "But that I should try and think about the orders I get given, otherwise I might end up doing something I don't like."

"Good advice," Shikamaru agreed.

Naruto snorted. "Hmph, you're just saying that because it means you wouldn't have to do what people told you, you lazy ass."

I giggled even though it wasn't true. Shikamaru, at this age, was no more suspicious of his teachers than Naruto. Even learning second hand of what had happened, he was a little shaken up. You _should_ be able to trust your teachers, but that didn't mean you _could_. Of course, we were trained to follow orders without complaint. It was a very thin line to walk.

"So are you ready for team assignments then?" I asked.

Naruto grinned. "Oh yeah! I hope I'm on a team with Sakura-chan. That would be awesome!" Honourifics were strange things. We all used them, but I barely even registered them anymore, unless they were emphasised for some reason or another. Naruto's obnoxious crush on Sakura counted. Then again, it wasn't like Sakura's crush on Sasuke was any better. She and Ino had nearly broken their friendship up over it. I had been unamused and refused to split myself between them.

I hummed. It was too late now to try and influence the team arrangements, even if I had been able to decide what to do. I simply had to wait, just like everyone else. It was an edge of nervousness that carried me through the week until we were seated in the classroom for the last time.

"Congratulations, graduates," Iruka said formally. He looked a little battered but it clearly wasn't serious any longer. "Starting today, you are all Shinobi of Konoha. But the journey that lies ahead for you has only just begun. As genin, you will all be assigned to a three-man squad, led by a Jounin instructor. In order to successfully complete your missions, you _will_ need to follow your sensei's instructions." He sent a particularly hard look into several areas of the room.

"Team one will be Yobirin Suzu, Sakura Haruno and Jiro Wantanabe," he began.

I cast a guilty look at Sakura. Unless they got a medic nin for a sensei (unlikely) that team was doomed to fail unless they got a miracle. It _could_ happen.

"… seven is Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki and Shikako Nara," Iruka continued, and my attention snapped back to him. Naruto booed at Sasuke, then cheered, looking like he wanted to jump over the test and tackle-hug me. I gave him a weak smile. "Team eight is Hinata Hyuuga…"

Team eight was what I expected, and Team ten was the reformation of the famous Ino-Shika-Cho.

"Alright. Your Jounin instructors will meet you here after lunch." He smiled. "Good luck."


	6. Chapter 5

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert

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Chapter 5

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_Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. ~ Henry Ford_

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Iruka-sensei dismissed us for what was, in all actuality, a very long lunch break seeing as how we had only come to the Academy for team assignments anyway. I think it may have been a subtle way of saying 'bow to the whims of your superiors, no matter how nonsensical'. He had said 'get to know your team mates' but we'd all been in the same classes for the past seven years; it wasn't like we didn't know each other. Then again, given the Naruto-Sasuke combination, that didn't necessarily equate to being friends.

"Umm, did you want to eat lunch together?" I asked softly. "I have extra lunch." Mum had made extra lunch for the sole purpose of sharing with our team mates. Nothing quite breaks the ice like free food.

Naruto lit up like Christmas had come early. "Awesome! Your mum makes the best bento! Hey, why don't we go find Shikamaru? He's on Chouji's team, right?" He grabbed my arm and started dragging. Given that's how I usually get Shika to move, I acknowledged the irony.

"Sasuke?" I queried, sticking my feet to the floor against Naruto's tugging. He clearly didn't intend to come with us. "Will you please come?"

I could see the 'don't get in my way' written on his face. He clearly didn't like being put on a three person team, and certainly not with Naruto. I found it interesting that he didn't seem to have expected the teams.

Now that I thought about it… it wasn't something that had been covered in the Academy _explicitly_. It was just… there. Implicit in everything; ninja work in teams. Something you just _knew_ from family, from stories. It wasn't something that you got told.

Which left a lot of people out in the cold, civilian kids, orphans… they'd have no idea of the 'unspoken rules'. I hadn't even realised there were any.

Naruto groaned. "Aww, why do you want him to come for? It's bad enough he has to be on _our_ team… hey, do you think Iruka-sensei would let us swap him? Maybe for Sakura-chan, yeah, that'd be great!"

Sasuke scowled. "Fine," he bit out, probably just out of spite.

I felt like sighing and let Naruto drag me outside. Trying to keep the peace between these two was going to cause a headache and a half. And that isn't even mentioning trying to get them to work together.

Lunch was trying. Finding Shika also meant finding Ino, who spent the entire time fussing over Sasuke, who got increasingly irritated and sniped at Naruto. Naruto shouted back. It was hardly a calming, relaxing 'getting to know you'.

Hmm. It might have been cleverer to _reduce_ the amount of time we spent together to avoid getting on each others nerves. Then, again, I suspected we would have plenty of time after lunch to annoy each other as well.

We went back to class and the other teams were collected one by one. Asuma Sarutobi collected team ten, looking completely unbothered, and Kurenai Yuhi, looking neatly professional, escorted team eight out of the classroom. A jounin I didn't recognise took Sakura with team one. Then it was just us. Iruka-sensei looked flustered and checked his watch.

"I've got to be at the mission desk in ten minutes. You'll be alright waiting for your Jounin-sensei?" he asked.

We assured him we would. Or rather, Sasuke grunted, I nodded and Naruto chattered loudly about how there was nothing that he couldn't do.

I'd brought a book with me, as I did very nearly every day. It was a thick and heavy text book on Metabolic Biochemistry. Chemistry had never been my forte, but everything was subtly different here, with the inclusion of chakra cycles. Chakra wasn't stored as ATP as the rest of energy in the body was, it was … well, no one actually knew. It manifested mostly as light, so it was hypothesised to be stored as electromagnetic or some other waveform energy, but that was starting to get into physics beyond my understanding.

Sasuke was, of course, capable of waiting patiently, even if it was with bad grace. Naruto, however, was bored long before Iruka left, and without the commanding glare of his teacher, started investigating the class room. He opened draws and cupboards, peered behind shelves, and leaned so far out the window he nearly fell out. The teachers knew better than to leave anything in the classrooms, and there wasn't really enough there to keep him entertained.

I thought about suggesting he read a book, but rejected the idea. I certainly didn't have anything that he would be interested in, and it was doubtful he'd brought anything with him.

_Then again,_ I thought watching him prop the blackboard eraser on top of the door, _it's not like he's destroying the room_.

Sasuke snorted in disgust. "No half decent Jounin is going to fall for that." It was clear he was bored and itching for a fight.

I felt a … shiver in the air. The amount of ambient chakra just increased, as though someone had used a jutsu.

_What-?_

There was someone in the corridor. I ignored Sasuke and Naruto arguing and watched the door as it slid open, the eraser falling to land perfectly on a mop of white hair.

There was an instant of silence.

"Bwahahaha," Naruto howled. "You fell for it! I can't believe it! Take that Sasuke. I am the prank master!"

Kakashi looked… harmless. A bit silly, a bit eccentric, like a harmless old man. I caught myself writing him off as no threat. I was impressed. I _knew_ that he was one of the best ninja in Konoha, that he had the Sharingan and would unlock the Magenkyo. I knew he had made Jounin at thirteen, which is impressive any way you look at it. And I still nearly wrote him off as harmless.

That was impressive.

I didn't have much hard data on Kakashi. What I knew was mostly hazy memories from so long ago. Although I definitely had an information network in Ino, our social circles didn't overlap with Jounin at all. Our _teachers_ social circles didn't overlap with Jounin at all. The most I had was some throwaway lines from dad, some unconfirmed rumours of varying quality and a single bingo book page from Cloud.

Bingo book pages are odd things. Originally, they started as a way to keep track of missing-nin from your own village. Then they expanded to missing-nin of other villages. Then shinobi of extreme skill made their way onto those pages, more as a warning than as a target. Any ninja listed in a bingo book who is still affiliated with their village has _at least_ a rank of 'Caution; extreme danger'. The Yellow Flash is famous for being listed as 'Flee on Sight'. Information on bingo book pages is notoriously spotty. In a way, that had been one of the trickiest things for me to learn, coming as I did from a world where information is only the touch of a button away. But information is gold here, and guarded just as well.

Dad had encouraged us to read the Konoha issue bingo book, and he certainly had purloined copies from every other major nation that he hadn't forbidden us from reading. If he really didn't want us to touch them, we wouldn't have even known they were there.

Kakashi - Kakashi-sensei, I suppose - had made Genin at five, Chunin at six and Jounin at thirteen. He was the son of Sakumo Hatake, the White Fang of Konoha, and taught by the Fourth Hokage himself. He had the Sharingan eye and was known as the Copy-Nin for his prowess at using it to copy ninjutsu. He was part of ANBU for anywhere between five and ten years, and Captain rank for probably at least half that. He had a lightning element affinity, though could use all five to great effect (which alone made him extremely dangerous) and invented the Chidori/Raikiri and in his hands it was ranked an S-rank One Hit Kill technique.

All this, I _knew_. And looking at the man standing in the doorway, I could see no trace of it. Not in his stance, not in his eye, not in his chakra. It was almost like it was a completely different person.

_Oh, he is good._

"My first impression," he said flatly. "I don't like you."

I flinched. _Ouch._

"Meet me on the roof in five minutes," he said, vanishing in a puff of chakra smoke. The Body Flicker, high speed movement that looked to the untrained eye like teleportation. There were two versions of it, a shorter less controlled combat version, and the longer version most ninja used for transport. I could manage a straight line combat Body Flicker, but using it as transport meant avoiding obstacles which was very difficult when you were moving faster than the eye could see.

As it was, five minutes was more than enough time to get to the roof using more mundane methods like taking the stairs.

"Great," Kakashi-sensei said, perching on the railing as we sat across from him. "Now we can all introduce ourselves." There was a long awkward silence. "You know, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future?"

Sasuke sighed, apparently resigned to going first. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I have a lot of dislikes, but it doesn't matter since there is almost nothing I like. My dream for the future… no, my _ambition_ is to revive my clan, and to kill a certain man."

There was something horrifying about listening to a twelve year old declare intent to murder in a perfectly emotionless tone. And it seemed like I was the only one affected by it.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki! What I like is ramen, especially the kind at the Ichiraku Ramen shop. What I dislike is the three minute wait after you pour in the boiling water. My hobbies are eating ramen. And my dream... is to be the next Hokage!" He jumped up, finger pointing to emphasise the greatness of … either the Hokage or ramen. Probably ramen, knowing Naruto.

"My name is Shikako Nara. I like my family and the deer. I dislike people yelling. My hobbies are reading and … helping out at the clan workshops. My dream…" I hesitated.

As I gave the basic introduction, my voice was quiet, and trembled just a little. Public speaking of any kind, even in front of only a few people, had always afflicted me with nerves. It was something that I had no control over, something that defied any sort of reasoning. No matter how much I repeated to myself that nothing would happen, that there was nothing scary about talking to people, still my voice would shake.

The boys probably didn't notice it, but Kakashi-sensei undoubtable did. I wonder what he thought of it; did he think I had low self-esteem, did he think I was shy, did he think anything of it at all?

_My dream is to be special._ I almost said it, but I looked up at just the wrong moment. Kakashi-sensei looked bored but patient, but the two boys didn't even appear to be paying attention.

How stupid did that sound?

"doesn't matter," I finished, quieter than even before.

"Great," Kakashi-sensei said, clapping his hands together like we hadn't just revealed what a collection of walking neuroses we were. "My name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes and dislikes don't matter and you're too young to know my hobbies. Now that we all know each other, I get to tell you about what we're going to be doing tomorrow."

"Yeah!" Naruto bounced to his feet. "Are we going on a mission? Do we get to rescue a princess? Or fight enemy ninja? I'm totally ready for it!"

Kakashi-sensei chuckled darkly. A creeping whisper of chakra wanted me to believe the sky was darkening. I isolated the genjutsu probe and got rid of it with a shudder. It felt like static electricity on my insides.

"Oh, it's a mission alright," he said ominously. "A survival mission."

Naruto stopped bouncing, apparently clueing in on the projected atmosphere. "A… survival mission?"

"You see," sensei said. "even though you've graduated the Academy, you aren't real ninja just yet. Of the twenty seven students who graduated, only nine will go on to be shinobi. You still have to pass _my_ test. The test which has a _sixty six percent_ failure rate."

He leaned back, looking pleased at Naruto's spluttering and Sasuke's sudden focused expression.

"Meet me at Training Ground Three at five o'clock tomorrow morning. Training is going to be harsh, so I'd recommend not eating breakfast unless you want to throw it up." Eating right before exercises could lead to problems, but not eating had it's own traps. Besides, its not like ninja could just _not eat_ on missions, which was where small, bland and regular snacks came in at least half an hour before exercise.

He vanished in another Body Flicker, leaving leaves to litter the roof top.

I wandered home. Given that we'd wasted three hours waiting for Kakashi-sensei to show up, Shikamaru was long done. Father had an amused smirk on his face and I knew that he knew _exactly_ who our Jounin-sensei was. I wanted to level a dirty scowl at him but didn't - it was hardly his fault.

"So how did it go?" Mum wanted to know.

I shrugged. "Okay. We have a test tomorrow. Sensei said we'd probably be doing heavy exercise." I didn't add his recommendation to not eat, mum and dad were both ninja and they knew how to eat for missions. "I'll probably put together a mission pack later. I don't know what we'll be doing."

"Alright. Let me know if you need any help, okay?" she said.

I nodded affirmative.

"A test?" Shikamaru drawled. "What for?"

I frowned. "You didn't get one? Sensei said most of the graduates would fail and go back to the Academy."

"It's a Jounin's choice as to whether or not to give the test," Dad explained. "And as to what test to give. Asuma probably didn't think it necessary."

I snickered. "Or knew that the likelihood of Shika completing it was inversely proportional to the amount of effort involved."

"A test would have been too troublesome," Shikamaru declared, flopping backwards to stare at the sky. I'm pretty sure he said it as a joke. If he had been given a test, I have no doubt he would have at least given it a try. Then again, with Team Ten, the bell test would have fallen over before it even began. Chouji would never take something that could help someone else, Shika wouldn't care to compete with anyone and Ino had a good heart under her sometimes abrasive exterior. Not to mention, the only way they would be _able_ to take on Asuma would be together.

Which begged the question of how I was going to get my hodge-podge team to work together.

The thought tumbled over in my mind as I packed my mission gear. Intense exercise meant I didn't want to be carrying a lot, which was where sealing scrolls came in. They could still get pretty bulky, but a small scroll still stored more than I could comfortably carry otherwise. I couldn't be entirely certain that Kakashi would stick to the same plot as the show, but I very much doubted the test would last longer than a day, so I could leave behind my camping gear. I'd want combat gear, trap setting tools, water bottles, ration bars, a med-kit and probably a book for however long we had to wait for him to show up. I hesitated, then doubled the number of ration bars - I wasn't sure what Sasuke and Naruto would do, but they might have taken Kakashi-sensei's words seriously.

The fact that he'd given such bad advice made me frown. _Can't trust your teacher. You've got to think about the orders you were given or you might end up doing something you don't like._

Apparently some lessons need reinforcing over and over again.

In the morning, I was at the training fields well before the allotted time. Given that my sensei is Kakashi, its rather perverse I'm pedantically punctual. I arrive early. If others don't show up on time I start to think that I'm in the wrong place. I get rather nervous and agitated. In this instance, I took a walk around the training field. There was a rather large clearing with three posts and the Memorial Stone, bordered by a river and a forest. The forest was pretty much standard Konoha fare - large, widely spaced trees, plenty of shrublike undergrowth, and meandering paths. I made a quick check to see if there were any preset traps - either by sensei or left from other training sessions - but I found nothing. I didn't want to risk setting any of my own before I knew what was happening.

By the time I'd made it back to the clearing Naruto and Sasuke were both there and ignoring each other. I did a quick chakra sweep but even if sensei had been there I'm pretty sure he could have hid from me, I might have unusual chakra sensitivity but he was a Jounin for a reason.

"Good morning," I greeted quietly. Sasuke grunted. Naruto yawned. This was not a team of morning people.

I sat and pulled out my book to start reading.

"Sooo hungry," Naruto moaned about an hour later.

I peered over my book. "Didn't you have breakfast?" I asked curiously, suspecting the answer.

"Are you crazy?" Naruto answered. "Kakashi-sensei said not to or we'd throw it up!"

I nodded. "Mmm. Its true that if you eat right before exercises you might get sick or stitch. But some missions can last a few weeks, right? So ninja have to be able to eat on missions."

He stared at me. "That's right! I totally didn't think of that. So how…?"

"Well," I said. "You should always leave at least half an hour or longer between eating and heavy exercise. And you should eat things that are high in carbohydrates but low in proteins and fats because they take longer to digest. Things like fruits or cereals."

I noticed Sasuke was also listening. That was good, I didn't like the idea that my team mates didn't know something like this. I pulled my sealing scroll out and unravelled it, locating the symbol that I had stored the ration bars in. With a quick application of chakra, it released a small pile of bars; it was a good thing I had the foresight to bring extra. They were pretty much standard ration bars that any ninja family brought in bulk.

"Here," I said quietly, dividing out a few bars for each of them. "It's only for today though," I cautioned Naruto. "Next time you'll have to bring your own."

Sasuke looked like he wanted to refuse them, maybe out of pride, maybe for some other reason. I pushed them in his direction and resealed the rest of them before going back to my book. Common sense and a hungry stomach won out over pride and stubbornness and after a second, he came closer and picked them up.

It was a very quiet morning as we waited for sensei to show up. That suited me just fine.

"Good morning!" a cheery voice called several hours later.

Naruto leapt to his feet. "YOU'RE LATE!" he hollered.

I flinched away from the explosion of noise. Naruto certainly had a good pair of lungs. I took that as my cue to seal my book away. It was from the clan library and I didn't really want it getting damaged.

"Well, a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way."

He… actually used excuses like that. I almost couldn't believe it. If he used excuses like that on everyone else-

I frowned. If he did then what? When you were an elite Jounin you could get away with a hell of a lot, being late included. It wasn't like there was anyone that could call him on it except maybe the Jounin Commander and the Hokage and even then they'd probably hold off until it was an important issue. I shook the thought off. It was irrelevant.

"Well, then. Let's get started." He dropped an old fashioned alarm clock on a tree stump and set it. "Here we go. It's set for noon. Your assignment is very simple. You just have to take these bells from me. That's all there is to it. If you can't get a bell, you go without lunch. You'll get tied to those post and watch while I eat my lunch in front of you."

"So that's why you told us not to eat breakfast!" Naruto shouted, pointing at him. I wondered if he'd made the same connection I had last night to the Mizuki situation. With Naruto, it was a tossup.

"There are only two bells." Sasuke was the one to point out the obvious 'flaw' in this arrangement.

Kakashi-sensei smiled. "That way, one of you will ultimately end up tied to the post and disqualified for failing to complete the mission. That one goes back to the Academy." He jingled the bells and added thoughtfully. "Then again, all three of you could flunk out too. You can use any weapons you have. If you aren't prepared to kill me, you wont be able to take the bells."

Kakashi was more than good enough to defeat us. We'd have to get insanely lucky to even get close to landing a killing blow. That wasn't the point. It was about intention. If your intention was weak, your blows were weak. You would question your purpose. Your actions would falter. You would fail. And if you failed, there was no point.

_Do or do not, there is no try._

I swallowed, and then declared, "Troublesome. When we get the bells, you two can have them." Of course, it was more an _if_ than a _when_, but it was the statement that counted. I could have sworn I saw Kakashi-sensei's eye twitch. I didn't want to have to come up against my team-mates, and if I could pre-empt the competition and get us working together -

"So, sensei," I continued, trying to keep my voice steady. "Can we have the bells?" It was implied we'd have to fight for them, but there are always other options. I'd rather settle things peacefully.

He stared. "No."

I shrugged a little shakily. "Worth a try. What would it take for you to give up the bells?" It wasn't like I had anything worth bribing him with anyway, but I thought I better put in a token effort. Always try and solve a problem diplomatically first. I noticed that Sasuke looked a little… surprised, if not approving.

"You'll have to take them by force." He smiled. "Now, when I say 'start' we can begin."

I dropped my voice low. Of course Kakashi could probably still hear me, he wasn't that far away, but that wasn't the point. "Naruto, make thirty clones and try and keep sensei in the clearing. Sasuke, you're best at close combat so I want you to wait for Naruto to make an opening." It wasn't much of a plan. As a Nara, I was probably expected to know, right down to the number of steps, just what moves everyone would make. I didn't. That's me - the Nara without a plan.

For a second, I thought they wouldn't listen then both boys nodded. It wasn't that either of them liked taking orders, but neither of them had anything planned and couldn't see the harm in it. Hopefully, I had established myself as worth listening to this morning. Maybe not as a leader, but at least as someone who knew _something._

"Well, then," Kakashi-sensei said. "Start."

Sasuke leapt away into the foliage, and Naruto had thirty clones encircling Kakashi-sensei in an instant. Sensei replied by taking out his book. The clones acted just like Naruto would have at someone ignoring them - infuriated. Naruto himself was about to leap in to combat as well, but I grabbed his arm.

"Make another ten clones and start spreading traps in the trees. Be careful of Sasuke, though," I hissed to him. He nodded, a little disappointed to not be fighting, but he liked setting traps. He was reasonably good at it, too, if you could get him to take it seriously.

Me, I had started using my Shadow Possession Jutsu almost immediately. I had chosen to stand in an area that was marginally shady. It wasn't really noticeable, particularly because my chakra enhanced shadow stood out blackly on it, but it did give me a little boost. Mostly, I had sent my shadow out to circle around Kakashi-sensei using the clones shadows. I wanted to entrap him and then catch him. Leaping across the shadow was just as good as having it grab you.

Of course, Kakashi-sensei probably knows more about the Shadow Possession Jutsu than I do. He's just that kind of person. In response to my tactics, he started popping the clones. Mostly he'd just been dodging them, letting them dog pile each other. Now he popped one here, one there, all at critical points where my shadow was already spread thin. It snapped. I drew back, and tried to send it in to catch him.

He kept dodging, both my shadow and the clones with such ease that he didn't even have to put his book away. Grudgingly, I admired him.

Then I started pelting him with kunai and shuriken. I threw them precise and angled, so that they wouldn't go stray and hit the clones. I couldn't be one hundred percent sure that Naruto _hadn't_ joined in the fight. I was no Tenten, but Nara were mostly ranged fighters, so we did practice our throwing religiously.

He used a replacement jutsu, and the knives 'thunked' precisely into a log of wood. Of course, of course, he'd replaced himself just underneath where Sasuke was hiding. It was the perfect moment for him to attack and they both knew it. Sasuke fell for the bait.

It's hard to say he should have done otherwise, but it was so clearly _done on purpose_. The whole entire training grounds, and he lands there? Not a chance in hell.

I had withdrawn my shadow and it pooled around my feet in a nearly normal position. It was nearly noon and the sun was high so it took a lot of chakra to extend it very far. I started a basic Vertigo Genjutsu, but Sensei didn't so much as falter. Sasuke had the Naruto's backing him, but they nearly caused more problems for him than for Kakashi. There were just too many limbs trying to move in too small a space.

Still, he kept him occupied, and got off a single ninjutsu. The Naruto clones ducked and dived, and a few of them popped, as the huge fireball seemed to surround Kakashi. There was momentary panic as we lost him, but I was sure he wouldn't go far from the fight. This wasn't a tracking exercise.

Then Sasuke was yanked viciously underground, leaving his head sticking out of the dirt.

"Second lesson: Ninjutsu," Kakashi-sensei announced, brushing off his hands.

Then he was standing right in front of me. He'd crossed the clearing so fast I hadn't even seen him move. I didn't see the sucker punch either, and it felt like being hit with a ton of bricks. I gasped, I choked, no air made it into my lungs. According to Welfare measures breathlessness is one of the most distressing and unpleasant experiences a being can suffer. The sheer _desire_ to breathe, backed by the panic at not being able too… yeah, I can see why.

"You shouldn't just stand there," Kakashi-sensei admonished cheerfully. "It makes you an easy target. Now, I've done Taijutsu and Ninjutsu, so I guess that leaves genjutsu for you." The intrusion of chakra into my system was a nasty feeling, sharp and biting, and I removed it even before it took hold and I saw what he wanted me to see. It was strong, and took a lot of concentration to get rid of but I had the advantage of being able to differentiate between my chakra and his.

If I had been able to reply I would have said 'Shadow Possession Jutsu complete'. He was standing in my patch of shade. That was all I needed.

Of course, there are ways out of the Shadow Possession. You cant move, but you can still use chakra. A sealess replacement was well within his capabilities. And Kakashi-sensei was so much stronger than me that he could have simply used the brute force method to get out.

Still, he did neither, and I awkwardly made him throw the bells back over his shoulder. A Naruto grabbed them immediately. Several more were still trying to dig Sasuke out of the ground.

Given that I'd practically ruined his test, removing my ability to talk and then letting the boys decide what to do with the bells was probably his next move in testing their commitment to teamwork. I had to admire, grudgingly and with pain, the kind of precision it took to hit someone hard enough to wind them, yet not do any actual damage. A blow like that could have ruptured my spleen, snapped all my ribs or done some serious internal damage, but all I'd get from it was a bruise.

I collapsed to my knees, the jutsu ending. The panic was the worst bit, the feeling of _not being able to breathe_. I knew, intellectually that I was just winded, and it would get better soon. Heck, I've even been winded before. But the panic was still there. It isn't a nice feeling.

"Shikako!" A Naruto came speeding out of the forest. I'm pretty sure this was the real one. It wasn't a big thing in this circumstance, but a wounded team-mate on a battle field could make damn good bait for a trap. "Ah! You killed her! She's dieing!"

"Idiot," Sasuke scoffed, now free from his hole. "She's just winded. She isn't dieing." He took a firm hold of my arm and hoisted me to my feet. "Hunching over like that isn't going to help."

Kakashi smiled, eye curving happily. "Now you've got the bells, Naruto, so who's going back to the Academy?"

Naruto stared down at the bells in his hands, then up at me. I jerked my head at Sasuke. Breathing was still an issue, speaking was out of the question.

He gave one of the bells to Sasuke like I wanted, then the other one to me. His face was determined but so heartbroken. I was sure that the team would pass as a team, yet they didn't know that. Naruto was serious about giving up his dream so I could pass. I frowned, and stuffed the bell down the collar of his shirt.

He hollered. "That's cold! What was that for?" He danced around, trying to get it out.

"Well then," Kakashi-sensei beamed. "I guess I have to say - You all pass!"

Naruto stopped dancing. "Wait, what?"

"Well, what do you think the purpose of this test was?" Kakashi-sensei asked patiently.

"Err, I don't know," Naruto said with a puzzled frown.

"Think about it," Kakashi suggested. "Three people, two bells. A pass or fail, all or nothing test."

I almost said 'teamwork', then I paused. It sounded … _trite._ It might have been true, but there was more to it than that. That was only the barest of explanations. "To put the good of the mission ahead of the good of the individual," I offered quietly.

_Konoha is worth more than your life._ I shivered. In a real mission 'failure' often meant death. In terms of a real mission the briefing might have gone 'one of you will certainly die. All three of you might. What will you do?'. You couldn't just back out of a mission because it was dangerous. Not without very good reason.

Kakashi-sensei blinked slowly. "I purposely pitted you against each other. With only two bells, one of you was guaranteed to fail. The test was to see if you could overcome that for the sake of the mission. To see if you would work together or break apart. A Genin should have a natural feel for teamwork. Of course, you need individual skills, but teamwork is the most important element of a shinobi. When individuals put themselves above the squad, this can lead to failure. And death. On every mission, your life is on the line. Have you seen this stone?" He walked towards the memorial stone.

We exchanged a look and followed him.

"They are ninja who are honoured as hero in our village." His voice had a distinctly solemn note to it.

"That's it! I'm going to have my name on there!" Naruto exclaimed.

I winced and shook my head.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"They a special kind of hero," Kakashi continued. "They are the ninja who were killed in action. This is the memorial stone. The names of my closest friends are all engraved here."

My uncle, dad's younger brother, was on there and more of the clan besides. Kyougi Nara had only been added three months ago - I knew her vaguely but mostly I remember the way her mother cried at the funeral. She had been nineteen and a Chunin.

Yeah, there is honour to dieing for Konoha. But you're still dead.

"So," Kakashi said, turning to us, chasing the gloomy atmosphere away. "Now I've explained my part in the test, you get to explain yours."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked with a puzzled frown. "You just said. Our part was to work together."

"Well, you must have had a plan, didn't you? A reason why you attacked the way you did?"

Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "I just did what Shikako said." He rubbed the back of his head.

Sasuke glanced at me then back to Kakashi. "Naruto was the distraction. He was supposed to create an opening so I could go for the bells."

Kakashi nodded. "Rudimentary, but effective." He turned to me. "Now why don't you explain to your team mates the way _you_ decided who would do what."

"Umm. W-well," I stuttered. "Like Sasuke said Naruto's Shadow Clone Jutsu is good for surrounding people. And they cast shadows… so I can use them for my Jutsu. Sasuke is the best at Taijutsu out of all of us, and the fastest, so he'd have the best chance at grabbing the bells…" I trailed off, not sure what else to say.

"Why the straight out charge?" Kakashi-sensei prompted. "Most kids would have tried to hide first."

"Five reasons," I said holding up a finger. "We had to overcome you. There was no way we could get the bells by avoiding you." A second finger. "You knew we were here, so we couldn't attempt to surprise you and take you off guard." A third finger. "Your tracking skills are much greater than our stealth abilities, so even trying to hide would have been pointless." A fourth finger. "The clearing gave us more advantages than disadvantages because it allowed us to keep you in our sight. Naruto had traps spread through the trees in case you went that way." The last finger. "And we were on a time limit. Hiding might have brought us time to plan, but we had no information on your capabilities … so it was best to try something before retreating and trying for a second attempt."

Naruto looked stunned. "You thought about all that? But you came up with the plan, like, right away!"

I looked down. "Well, it wasn't a very complex plan," I mumbled.

"Are you kidding? It was great! I was like 'wazzam' and 'kapow' and then Sasuke was like 'zzzwssshhh' and he nearly got the bells!" His hands fluttered about in mock combat with each other.

"Right," Kakashi-sensei cut him off. "I think that concludes our debriefing. Team Seven will start their first mission tomorrow. For now, we can all go home."


	7. Chapter 6

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert

Author's note: If you've read the semi-recent manga, you'll know that the oath/earrings is actual canon. We don't see any but the Akimichi oath, but I twisted it a little to fit. Weird custom, but kinda neat.

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Chapter 6

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_The future depends on what we do in the present ~ Mahatma Gandhi_

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It was only barely past lunch time when Kakashi-sensei dismissed us for the day. Since he'd been hours late in showing up, and I didn't think that would change, I foresaw being on this team as having a lot of self directed training time. Which wasn't so bad for me, because I had plenty of different projects already going, but might not have been the best method for Sasuke and Naruto.

Then again, it might have been sensei's way of saying 'welcome to the real world. No one is going to push you anymore'.

That had been the really big step about going to University in my old life. It was kinda different here, and the Academy had been much less teacher driven than any primary school I'd been to back in that other life, but there was still a relevant point about taking charge of your own life. I don't know if twelve was really old enough to see that, but since they were expecting us to be child soldiers and make life or death decisions, it was probably necessary.

I remember being twelve, that first time. Twelve year olds think they can do anything. The twelve year olds around me think that they'll be fine. It's only me that has doubts.

Now that's irony.

I went to look for Ino first. Shikamaru had mumbled something about morning training last night, so they were probably finished before we were. Team Ten hadn't been given a Jounin test so there was no reason for Ino to expect that the rest of us would have, unless her father had said anything.

When I found her, she was in the Yamanaka flower shop. The Yamanaka flower shop is pretty well known in Konoha. Not only do they sell flowers, they have a sideline in distilling poisons and have a specialised greenhouse for growing medicinal plants that they sell to us, the Akimichi and the hospital. A lot of the medicinal herbs they grow don't do so well in the temperate climate of Konoha, and need a lot of looking after. It seems kind of an odd career set for a clan of mind jutsu specialists, but there are rumours that the Yamanaka have a truth serum so powerful that three drops can have you spilling all your innermost secrets.

I'm not sure that's the truth, but the body and mind are not separate things. What affects one affects the other. I'm sure that there are chemical stimulants that can make people more susceptible to mind jutsu.

Ino wasn't working, or I'd have been more hesitant to disturb her, she was just puttering around watering pots and arranging bouquets. The three of us had spent a fair amount of time in this shop over the years, and her father had never seemed to mind. He was a very calm man. I hesitate to call him laidback, since that means something extreme coming from a Nara, but he was very centred, like he had long ago decided what was important to him and wasn't going to get worked up about anything less.

"Good afternoon, Yamanaka-san," I said politely as I entered the shop. He barely had time to acknowledge me before Ino pounced.

"Shikako! Is it true? Shikamaru said that your sensei was testing you. Asuma-sensei didn't do that to us, but then again, we are the Ino-Shika-Cho. So, tell me! What was it like? Did you pass?"

Ino was smarter than people gave her credit for. A large part of that was her unfortunate fan girl tendencies but she came from a ninja clan. More than that, she came from a ninja clan that specialised in _reading people_. You don't put together a team like Team Ten to fail them. Of all the teams this year, theirs is probably the most stable. Individually they're stable with no major quirks, their techniques work together well, and all three of them are born and bred for teamwork.

"Ah," I said, bobbing a nod. "We passed."

She squealed, clapping her hands together. "I'm so glad. What was it like? What did you do?"

I gave a quick run down of the test and how we had acted. Predictably, Ino was far more interested in what Sasuke had done than in how Naruto had acted, though I swear I saw Inoichi raise a brow in surprise.

"Sasuke-kun helped you? That's so romantic." She practically had stars in her eyes. "You're so lucky to be on a team with him. All I have are Shikamaru and Chouji. One's lazy and the other eats all the time."

I rolled my eyes. "They'll watch your back," I said instead of protesting. I knew she wasn't _that_ annoyed at their personal habits. It was all surface. Beneath that, they were close friends. Of course, it wasn't like I could protest those surface habits anyway. Shikamaru _was_ lazy and he was smart enough to get away with being lazy. No matter how much I made him train with me, it would take something serious to shake him out of that. I just hoped it wasn't too serious.

"I know, I know," Ino said, shaking the platitude off. "It's just… Shikamaru and Chouji, you know? Even our sensei is…" she flopped her hand backwards and forwards, not verbalising just what exactly their sensei was. I still got the picture. Team Ten was hardly _exciting_. Ino had graduated the academy, ready and eager for the new, bright and shinning ninja world, only to be grouped with her childhood friends and a soft spoken chain smoking sensei. Comparatively Team Seven was positively exotic.

It might not have been a good thing, but I doubted it was going to be boring. Well, besides having to wait for sensei to show up in the morning.

"So, tell me. What's your sensei like? We didn't see him before we left with Asuma-sensei."

"He was late," I said dryly. Across the shop, Inoichi's shoulders twitched with a stifled laugh. It looks like he knew exactly who my sensei was too. I wondered if Genin assignments were juicy gossip, or if he'd only paid attention because Ino was graduating this year.

"Shikaaako," Ino whined. "Stop ogling my dad and talk to me."

I blinked. Opened my mouth. No words came out. I worked my jaw. "Ino!" There it was. A little squeaky but my voice was working again. Inoichi was definitely laughing now. At least someone was having fun. "You… I…" I spluttered, words having deserted me. The familiar burn of social embarrassment was starting in my chest.

Her face was so innocent it should have belonged to a kitten. "Joking, joking, I'm only joking," she giggled out after a moment. "But your face…"

I scowled at her, not very amused by the teasing. Embarrassing me in front of her dad wasn't _funny._

"You just had that look on your face. You know, 'some one has done something interesting and I must find out why'!"

"That's a look?" I asked, bemused. I wasn't aware I had been so obvious, or that it happened often enough that she had categorised it.

"Right up there with 'this book is interesting' and 'I just had an idea about how to make things explode'," Ino confirmed.

"I don't explode things!" I protested. "Often." Somehow the clarification took most of the force out of the argument.

"Exploding tags. That's all I'm going to say," Ino said. And okay, it had taken me a little while to work out how to make my own exploding tags. And yes, there had been a few times when it had not quite worked properly. And yes, I had made a few… adjustments afterwards. But hey, I had tags with a variety of strengths, timers and radius as well as fire based explosions, concussive blasts, light and sound tags and shock tags. Making tags was easy, once you knew how. The real trick of combat seal masters was applying seals without the fuss of paper and ink. They said that the Fourth could lay a seal any place he touched. Meaning, if he got his hands on you, even the barest of touches, you were dead.

I had no idea how to do it. None of the books and scrolls I had even mentioned it.

I coughed. "Anyway. Have you heard from Sakura?"

"No, not yet. Do you think she'll be done by now?" Ino frowned, a hint of worry on her face. I think she also knew that Sakura was the least likely of all of us to pass.

"Probably." I shrugged. "Do you want to go find her?"

The Haruno's didn't live far from the Yamanaka's, which was part of the reason that Ino and Sakura had always raced each other to school in the morning. Sakura's parents were both civilians and she had always been really proud of the fact that she was the first kunoichi of her family. She wore the empty circle on her clothes in the place we wore our clan symbols because of it. It was a statement of intent; she was going to have a clan, all she needed was the skill to fill in the mon.

Ino knocked on the door. Mrs Haruno answered it with a wan smile. "Hello, girls. Sakura… isn't really in the mood for visitors right now."

The horrid guilt settled in my gut. "She didn't pass." It was the most logical assumption, and to a degree, I had been expecting it. That didn't make it any better.

Ino snapped around to look at me, then at Mrs Haruno for confirmation. She nodded tiredly.

"We have to see her!" Ino blurted out. "Please, Haruno-san!"

She let us in with a sigh and we scuttled upstairs to Sakura's room. Her room was nearly as familiar to me as my own, or as Ino's, we had spent so much time at each other's houses.

"Sakura?" Ino called, knocking gently on the door before opening it.

"Go away," Sakura muttered, turning her face away from us. She had blotchy tear marks all down her face. We exchanged looks. How did you comfort someone like this?

I climbed on the bed beside her and wrapped her in a hug. Ino mirrored me on her other side. "What happened, Sakura?"

She sniffed. "Takahiro-sensei failed us. He said… he said none of us were mature or prepared enough to be a ninja… and that we didn't have any special skills to make up for the lack."

I shared a glance with Ino. It was harsh, but true. Ino was equally a fan girl, but she had her clan jutsu. Naruto was equally juvenile at times, but he had his insane stamina and healing (not to mention Kyuubi) to make up for it.

"He was right, wasn't he?" she said, voice broken like the little girl I'd met picking flowers years ago. "He called me a silly little girl playing kunoichi."

"Don't say that," Ino cut in, voice firm. "You're not… You're one of the best kunoichi in our year. You always scored better than me, remember?"

"Book smarts," Sakura sniffed. "The one time it really mattered…" she trailed off.

"It's not over yet," I said quietly. "You can try again, you know." It was poor consolation but it was the truth. Very few students opted too, but it was an option.

"I guess," Sakura said. Even if she did pass next year, she would still be a year behind us. When you were twelve, a year was a long time.

"You know," I offered gently, "you've got good chakra control. You could make a good medic nin."

"…Really?" Sakura sniffled.

I nodded. "The program at the hospital does take academy graduates. It's a lot of training, and you'll probably have to do hospital work before you're qualified for field work, but medic nins are in high demand."

"How do you know that?" Ino asked in surprise.

I shrugged. "I kinda thought about being a medic nin for a while. Since we do a lot of medicine, quite a few Nara work at the hospital. My aunt offered to sponsor me through the program. I think, if we can show her that you'll be a good medic she'll sponsor you too. If you want that is."

"I don't know," Sakura said, twisting her fingers in the hem of her dress.

"You don't have to decide now. I mean, you've got other options, like trying again next year, or the Genin Corps. You should think about it. Talk to Iruka-sensei or something." Most of the years failures ended up in the Genin Corps. I mean, our class didn't have a single repeating student.

Sakura nodded. "Yeah," she wavered. "I'll think about it."

That was all she said, but that was all there really was to say. Her parents had never really wanted her to be a ninja, but that was more because they just didn't _understand_ than anything else. They'd never really wanted her to fail. I was pretty sure they'd support her if she wanted to become a med-nin, a doctor, much more than if she wanted to go back to the Academy.

That depended on Sakura wanting to be a medic though. She would be good at it, but that didn't necessary she _wanted_ to.

We changed the topic and hung around for a few hours. Sakura was in an undeniably better mood when we left but Ino was frowning slightly. The group dynamic had just changed on her, and she hadn't seen it coming. No matter what Sakura chose, the three of us were no longer the same.

"I'd better go," I said awkwardly as we paused at the crossroads that would take me back to the clan farm. "Family tradition." I self consciously touched my ears which were currently bare. Ino, I had noticed, was already wearing a pair of studs. Earrings and jewellery weren't common on ninja - too easy to grab and pull - but we wore them for symbolism rather than vanity.

She smirked and nodded. "We went this morning," she confided. "Have fun."

It was much closer to twilight by the time dad came home and we were all ready to go, but the fading light suited us as Nara more than the bright afternoon sunlight would have. You needed light to have shadows but there was a legend that the founder of the clan, many hundreds of years ago, could control the very night itself.

"Congratulations on becoming Genin, kids," Shikaku said, slouching out of the front door. "Lets go to the memorial stone."

He didn't mean the village memorial stone, but the Akimichi-Nara-Yamanaka one. It was located to the far back of the Nara grounds and I don't know if anyone besides our three clans knew it existed. It was a private monument, one where we swore oaths.

It didn't take us long to get there.

"Ready?" Dad asked, voice unusually soft and quiet. Neither he nor Shikamaru were slouching.

Shikamaru nodded and stepped forward so he was standing in front of the monument. The three clan symbols were directly at eye height for an average Genin.

"I hereby swear that," he began, voice carrying around the small clearing, "as the sixteenth head of the Nara, I will entrust the oath entrusted to me by the fifteenth to the child that will become the seventeenth! In order to protect both the Yamanaka and the Akimichi clans and to protect Konoha, I, Shikamaru Nara, will become one with the shadows."

I knew that the Akimichi version of the oath referenced becoming a butterfly and the Yamanaka swore to open their minds. These all alluded to what we considered our supreme techniques - and the most dangerous.

Shikamaru stepped back and I walked into place. Shikamaru had sworn the oath of the clan heir, but mine was the modified version that the rest of the clan used.

"I, Shikako Nara, do hereby swear, that to protect my team mates, the clan, those allied with us and Konoha itself, I will become one with the shadows."

The order of priorities was only subtly important. We had worked with the Akimichi, Yamanaka and Sarutobi clans long before Konoha was founded. The fact that the clan head at the time had modified the oath to include it actually showed just how much the clan _believed_ in the ideals of a peaceful Konoha. After all, we certainly don't go to anymore effort than we absolutely have to.

Dads face was pensive when I turned around. He nodded. "Your oaths are heard." He reached into the pockets of his jounin vest and withdrew a small container. "These are the earrings that my younger brother and I wore. They will whisper your oaths into your ears so that you never forget them. When you become Chunin, you will gain your own earrings and become an adult in the eyes of the clan." He hesitated, then continued, voice serious. "And remember, the clan will always stand with you."


	8. Chapter 7

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert

Authors note: There are links on my profile page to Fanart for this story if anyone is interested. FFNet won't let me put them here for you. And just a side note regarding the missions, I based the information on Kabuto's nin cards which, if I recall rightly, stated that Team 7 had done 1 A-rank and 7 D-rank missions. It doesn't seem like very many, but I try not to contradict canon overtly. Also, I thought I'd get up to the Wave Mission this chapter, but it wasn't to be.

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Chapter 7

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_One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.~ Marie Curie _

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It was easy to fall into a routine with Team Seven. The day after the bell test, after my oath, we met at the Training Grounds ready to go for a mission. Kakashi-sensei had said nine o'clock, but that came and went without a sighting of him.

I felt strangely pensive. I had known the Oath before, but saying it, having it witnessed by the Clan Head… was strangely final.

_I swear, that to protect my team mates, the clan, those allied with us and Konoha itself, I will become one with the shadows._

More so than simply becoming a Genin, there was no turning back now. The Oath meant everything to the Clan.

I looked over to my team mates. Sasuke was frowning into the distance and Naruto was throwing pebbles into the lake. They were bored. I could have pulled out a book and started reading but I wanted to _connect_ with them.

"Hey," I started, clearing my throat. It wasn't particularly loud but Sasuke looked up. "Do you two want to spar?"

He looked intrigued. "Hn. Not sure the dead last has much to add to a fight."

Naruto was very hard to put down in a fight, but that didn't help if he couldn't contribute much. I wasn't really sure what his fighting was like at this stage anyway but in a free for all, he'd probably be outclassed. That wasn't arrogance but if I threw a genjutsu at him, I doubt he'd be able to break it. I bit my lip.

"Me and Naruto against you?"

Sasuke looked intrigued. "Rules?"

I thought about it. "No injuries. We have to do a mission after, and I don't know what we'll have to do. Stop before exhaustion and we can call a timeout at any time? And we stay in the clearing." No point getting lost before Kakashi-sensei showed up.

Sasuke stood and brushed off his pants. "Oi, dead last!" He called. Naruto popped up like some demented jack-in-the-box shouting back at him. "We're going to spar. You and Shikako against me!"

"Prepare to go down, bastard!" Naruto shouted at the challenge. I didn't really engage in trash talk, but I didn't like to lose either. Of course, winning might to terrible things to Naruto's ego. That could be squashed later.

We squared off across the clearing. I stood slightly behind Naruto. He'd probably start off with a straight charge, shadow clones optional. Sasuke would meet him; he didn't like to run from fights. Probably taijutsu, since he was screeds better at it than Naruto. He was a decent all rounder, but his focus was definitely in the nin-tai area.

It was early morning, so the shadows were pretty long. That gave me a fair bit to work with. I hadn't used any of my Earth Style techniques fighting Kakashi-sensei and I wasn't sure either of the boys had picked up on my genjutsu so both of those would come as a surprise. My taijutsu was good, and _if_ I could keep my shadow active during it could be positively deadly (I was still working on that, to be honest) but I'd probably try and avoid getting that close to Sasuke - with space to manoeuvre and access to weapons he'd probably be harder to take down than in the Academy sparring ring. Which had never been particularly easy anyway.

"Ready?" I asked.

Sasuke nodded.

Naruto charged forward with a yell, a line of clones popping into existence beside him.

Game on.

I ran through the seals for the Vertigo genjutsu. Genjutsu was difficult to use, it required a lot of concentration and attention to detail - particularly if you were going to try and use visual genjutsu - and precise chakra control to form Yin Release chakra. For most techniques, chakra was a mix of spiritual and physical chakra in equal proportion. When you didn't have equal amounts, the excess was just wasted, unless you formed Yin or Yang chakra which was unbalanced chakra. Yin had more spiritual than physical while Yang was the exact opposite. It takes a lot of control to hold unbalanced chakra, and even more to use both concurrently in the Yin-Yang Release _while preventing them from mixing back to normal balanced chakra._ I couldn't do that yet, but I could form them separately. Yin Release chakra is characterised as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse and passive (and, strangely, feminine which is why there are more female medics and genjutsu users than male) and is the basis for both genjutsu and most medical ninjutsu techniques.

The Vertigo genjutsu was one of my favourites really; it was simple and effective. It targeted the semi-circular canals in the inner ear and disrupted the fluid inside them, causing the nerve endings to send contradictory signals to the brain about how the body was moving. The end result was dizziness and, if left long enough, nausea and vomiting. The amount of chakra taken to stir the fluid was miniscule and all the symptoms were actual signals by the body, making it difficult to cancel. Since it affected only a very, very small area, if you could isolate your genjutsu probe from the host chakra system, you might even be able to make it _impossible_ to cancel.

That was basically the holy grail of genjutsu use.

I was no where near that stage yet but that didn't mean it wasn't useful. It was, as any Nara knew, all about timing.

"Yin Release: Vestibular Disruption!" I chanted just as Naruto reached Sasuke to attack. Sasuke stumbled, trying desperately to block a multitude of attacks and release the genjutsu at the same time. I launched my shadow forward, bouncing from clone to tree to clone in an attempt to bind him.

Naruto had got in a few good attacks and knowing he was overwhelmed Sasuke retreated, using a replacement to cross the clearing. The break gave him enough time to muster his chakra for a 'kai', even as I pelted his new location with kunai and shuriken. He was running now and I intended to keep him that way. I preferred my fights to be quick, with a sudden explosion of overwhelming force.

Sasuke knocked away the kunai and homed in on me. I was, in his eyes, the true threat right now. I abandoned the part of my shadow that was sneaking through the trees, and focused on what was pooling around my feet. We didn't 'use up' our shadows during the jutsu, just stretched them, and it was more than possible to hold multiple opponents with it. He was fast, dodging the lancing attacks of my shadow even as his hands worked through hand signs I had seen once before.

_Shit._ I quickly ran through my own set of hand signs, grateful that this technique only had four.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!" The wall barely came up to chest height and I ducked down into the lee behind it.

The fireball impacted against the wall, blowing smoke up into the air, but Sasuke was leaping through it, up over top of the wall, dropping with a heel kick where I was crouching. I rolled out of the way, coming to my feet beside him.

"Transformation Technique: Ten Thousand Fists!" When we were learning the basic clone and transformation techniques at the Academy, I had been constantly surprised at how many different ways my classmates could get it wrong. I'd manage both of them the first time and had been a little … scornful, maybe, of how slow everyone else was. Then I noticed how very spectacular some of those 'failures' were. One of the most common ways to spot a poorly formed clone was when it moved; not all the pieces moved together at the same time. There would be a lag blur.

I had applied that to my transformation technique. I was punching at Sasuke, but my real hand was obscured by illusions of dozens of other fists at different angles, distances and speeds. He had no idea which one to block. I slammed my fists into him, once in the stomach and a follow up to the chin, dropping my transformation to lash out with my shadow. I couldn't hold two techniques concurrently, yet, but I was working on it. Sasuke backflipped out of range, using my Earth Wall as a spring board to get height and distance.

And landed straight in a group of Naruto's that had been waiting for him on the other side. His expression was priceless.

"Get him!" Came their rallying cry. Naruto definitely had a brawler style. One on one, he lost to Sasuke every time. Five on one, ten on one… it was a little more even.

Sasuke weaved and dodged and lashed out, but for every clone he took out there was another to take it's place. Added to that, he had to keep an eye out for my shadow, which was darting from Naruto to Naruto, hemming him in and cutting off his choices of movement.

He was falling back, away from the Earth Wall towards the trees, where he'd replaced to before, and coincidentally, I had sent my shadow before I'd had to change tactics. It was still there, lying in wait like a long black snake.

He retreated some more, then jumped, landing safely on a branch above our heads. Naruto was less agile and couldn't follow him up there. But…

"Shadow Possession Complete," I said, hands in rat seal. I'd abandoned the shadow 'tail' that had been chasing him and reused the first that circled nearly half the clearing. I bent my neck to let Sasuke see the black trail that squirmed up the tree trunk to his feet. "Surrender?" I asked.

"Or?" He queried.

Good question. Shadow Possession didn't automatically end the fight. "I step backwards," I said. A fall from that height wouldn't really hurt much, but being paralysed he wouldn't be able to roll with it, and Naruto was waiting for him below. I wasn't _entirely_ sure that I'd be able to hold the Possession through a change in height like that though. I made a note to investigate later; I obviously needed more work in a 3D environment.

Sasuke considered, then nodded. "I surrender."

I let the jutsu go. Naruto cheered. "Good fight," I offered with a small uncertain smile. Now that we had won, I wasn't really sure how Sasuke would take it.

Sasuke nodded, jumping down from the tree branch and landing lightly on his feet. There was something like satisfaction, or maybe respect, in his eyes.

"Aren't you going to say anything, bastard?" Naruto crowed. "We won. You lost. We won!"

I cringed. "Please stop that, Naruto."

He either didn't hear me or ignored me. "Naruto!" I snapped.

He stopped in his tracks, blinking at me, startled. "Shikako?" He said uncertainly. "Aren't you happy? We won."

I took a calming breath. It wasn't news that Naruto was a poorly socialised idiot. I just had to explain, that was all. "It isn't polite to act like that, Naruto. When you win, you have to be gracious about it, otherwise all you do is create enemies. Not just the people you beat, but everyone who sees you acting like that."

"What? But I won! Everyone has totally got to see how awesome I am now!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke's hands were clenching into fists at his side was starting to glare. I needed to diffuse this. Fast.

Pity I didn't know how. "Do you see the Hokage shouting about how many fights he's won? Or Iruka-sensei?" I asked quickly, naming people I knew Naruto respected. "Iruka-sensei didn't even tell us how he got hurt after graduation. I bet he didn't act like that then."

Naruto stopped jumping and stared down at the ground. I felt a little guilty about bringing that up since he had actually told me how Iruka-sensei got hurt.

"That was… different," he said, unconsciously touching his headband. "Iruka-sensei _was_ awesome."

"Exactly," I agreed. "And when you do something awesome people will know it too. You don't have to tell them. Besides… doesn't it mean something more when other people say it?"

He looked up, eyes unfocused, like I'd just explained the entire universe to him. "Yeah. Yeah, it does."

I nodded, and let go of the tension that was building in my shoulders. "So. Good fight." I nodded to him.

He smiled back, something that was softer and calmer and more _grateful_ than his usual grins. "It was a good fight."

I tilted my head towards Sasuke, the implication clear.

Naruto scowled. "And… you too. It was a good fight. Bastard."

"Hn. You did alright. Dead last."

Naruto might have scowled harder, but that off hand comment clearly meant to world to him, even if he didn't acknowledge it.

I sighed, rolled my shoulders and checked my chakra levels. They were astonishingly depleted. Nearly half gone from that little half hour spar. I'd used what, three, four techniques? Not good. We didn't do a lot of sparring at home, even though I worked on the technical details of my jutsu a fair bit. Sparring with Shika was just an exercise in frustration and my older shinobi cousins were too busy for any kind of regular training.

We collected all our weapons and headed back to the bridge to sit down and wait.

"Did you want to talk about the match?" I asked, fumbling with the words slightly.

"What for?" Naruto blinked at me, still in an introspective mood. At least it was quieter.

"So that next time we can do better," I answered.

"Hn. You caught me off guard with that genjutsu," Sasuke offered after a pause. "What was it?"

It sort of went against my nature to explain my techniques, but this was my team. However, if I ever started doing a battle monologue helpfully entitled 'how to beat me' I'd ask someone to stab me.

"Yin Release: Vestibular Disruption induces vertigo," I explained. "It's a targeted genjutsu - that means you use it on an opponent not on your surroundings -" I clarified for Naruto at his confused expression. "It disrupts balance mostly, but if you leave it long enough it can make you nauseous and vomit."

"Gross!" Naruto exclaimed looking delighted.

"I didn't expect you to have anything but your shadow jutsu," Sasuke admitted.

"Most Nara don't," I agreed with a grimace. "I like to have a little variety though. You need to be really smart to succeed with only one kind of jutsu."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked. "Your shadow jutsu is awesome! Not as cool as my Shadow Clones, though."

I grinned. "But your Shadow Clones can't do everything. They pop easily. And you couldn't get at Sasuke once he was up the tree, could you? Although the tree walking technique will fix that, I guess. But. Each jutsu has limitations."

Sasuke grunted in agreement. We kept talking about the match until sensei got there. It was nice. Companionable. Sasuke and Naruto weren't exactly getting on but their comments were still _mostly_ constructive.

"Well good morning, my cute little Genin." Sensei perched on top of the railing and waved at us.

"You're late!" Naruto shouted, jumping to his feet and pointing.

"Well you see," Kakashi-sensei began. "There was a spider in my bathroom so I couldn't get dressed until it left."

There was a beat of stunned silence.

"Liar!" Naruto hollered. It was hard to tell, but I think Kakashi was amused by our reactions. He'd have to be, to keep using excuses like that.

"So, today we're going to take a mission. Let's go to the Hokage's Tower."

Naruto cheered. That boy had way too much energy. I pulled myself to my feet and flushed chakra through my body to dispel any lingering aches and pains. It wasn't quite a healing technique but it was still damned useful. More so than the instantaneous pain of getting hit, I hated the lingering ache of overexertion.

We ambled to the Hokage's Tower, our pace set by Kakashi-sensei who seemed to be going just slightly faster than the speed of a blind, geriatric cripple. Hmm… that actually sounded like Kakashi-sensei anyway.

Regardless, the pace seemed to be really irritating my team mates if Sasuke's hunched posture was any indication. You didn't even need to _guess_ to know Naruto was annoyed, since he was very vocally proclaiming it.

"We're finally going to get a super cool mission and you're being all _slow!_ Hurry up!"

Really, I think Kakashi-sensei just liked winding Naruto up.

Of course, given that I _knew_ what D-ranks were Naruto wasn't going to be very happy when we got there, either. D-ranks were chores, or maybe community service type missions. They were funded, or at the least subsidised by the village itself and so were usually for either the clans or other important figures. As far as I was aware, clearing and restructuring the Training Fields after they get demolished is one of the most common D-rank missions in Konoha.

Although, Naruto's utterly stunned face when the Hokage read out the possible mission assignments was kind of amusing. Sasuke seemed equally unimpressed. Kakashi-sensei gave a very good impression of not paying any attention at all.

I looked back and forth between them, wondering if any of them were going to answer the Hokage. Surely Kakashi-sensei should?

He turned a page. The scraping of paper was very loud in the silence of the Mission Assignment room.

"Uh, babysitting?" I offered uncertainly as the Hokage raised an eyebrow at us.

"Very well," he said, picking up a scroll off the table and making a mark on his list. "Team Seven accepts the mission to baby sit the Chief Councillors three year old."

"What kind of mission is that?" Naruto shouted suddenly, arms pin wheeling.

"A D-rank mission, Naruto!" Iruka-sensei shouted back. "As new Genin, these are the kinds of missions you'll be doing until you gain some experience!"

Naruto pouted.

"Ahem," the Hokage cut in. Iruka sunk back into his seat, slightly flustered. "Team Seven. Your mission scroll."

Kakashi-sensei caught the scroll lazily as it arched through the air. It might have seemed strange to throw important paperwork but properly rolled scrolls were strangely aerodynamic. That was probably the reason people still used them instead of books or files. It certainly can't have been for storage purposes.

"Alright, ducklings," Sensei said. "Let's mosey."

Shinji Hideaki was a sweet kid that was entirely too used to having ninja teams baby sit him while his father was off in important meetings. The influx of strange people into his house bothered him not at all. We were rostered on for five hours, which included lunch, and had a whole schedule included. The missions scroll was amazingly well prepared for a D-rank which just emphasised the fact that this must be a commonly reoccurring mission.

"Read me a story, please?" He asked, grabbing onto my pants and tugging. In one sticky hand he held a very battered and beloved copy of 'The Yellow Flash' which was possibly the most adored children's book in all of Konoha.

"Sure thing, sweetheart," I said, picking him up and carrying him to the couch where he eagerly squirmed into my lap. It was at least an hour before we had to start cooking lunch - of which we had strict instructions as to what he would and would not eat and how to prepare it - and the others were just standing around awkwardly. Well, four people was probably overkill for a mission like this. If there had been more than one child, maybe, but even then I'm not sure the three of them would have known what to do. I wasn't exactly big on kids, but there were several younger Nara cousins and I had been an older sister once.

"… And the Yellow Flash went Flash! Flash! Flash!" I finished, performing the required flicking finger movements, the ones that always reminded me of light bulbs or flicking water.

"Flash! Flash! Flash!" Shinji giggled and clapped. "Again?"

I looked at the clock. "Maybe not, sweetheart. Do you want to do some drawing?" I asked, spying the crayons and paper on the floor. "We'll get Naruto to sit with you." I wasn't really sure what the others were up to, but tracking chakra signals was easy enough. He was just down the hallway.

"Naruto? Can you watch Shinji while I make lunch?" I called. I wasn't entirely sure that either of my team mates could cook. I could probably ask, but it was just as easy for me to make lunch.

"Sure!" he shouted back. I waited for him to make his appearance in the living room before I left.

The kitchen was ultra organised. I pulled out the instructions for dinner and found that they had included enough food for us which was actually very kind. Many clients seemed to forget that ninja needed to eat which was why we were advised to bring enough food for the mission duration whenever we went on long distance missions. In Konoha it wasn't so bad, since we could have easily sent one of us off to buy lunch, but it was still _nice_. Thoughtful.

I wasn't the best cook in the world; I was too easily bored, impatient with waiting for things to simmer or fry or whatever, and not fussy enough about what I ate to fix either of those things. But I _had_ learnt to cook from my mum, who was a great cook, and that almost meant that cooking dinner was 'girl time' and that offset the boredom.

Of course, cooking for other people meant I at least tried to cook well. I might not be fussy but there was something slightly embarrassing about serving other people charcoal. I hummed as I chopped the vegetables and brought a pot of water to boil on the stove. The rice cooker was already going, since that took longer to cook properly.

The kitchen was very nice, I mused, as I grabbed spices from one of the upper cupboards. Surprisingly modern, but it made very efficient use of space.

"What're you making?" A curious voice asked.

I spun around and nearly froze in horror. Shinji peeked up at the counter grabbing a hold of the bench to see up, his other hand reaching towards the pot on the stove. His hand was balanced on the cutting board that I'd just abandoned and was tilting precariously. I could see it happening. He'd pull, the board would tilt, the knife would fall on him, and likely, the pot of boiling water on the stove would fall on him as well.

_Shit._

My shadow lashed out, freezing him in place, but that wouldn't stop events already in motion. Chakra strings uncoiled from my fingers, attaching to board, knife and pot and pulling them back away from the edges. I couldn't do fine manipulation with them, and I couldn't move while holding all these different things.

Where was Naruto? Who was closest?

Naruto was down the hall in the bathroom. But Sasuke was only out on the veranda.

"Sasuke!" My voice may have been slightly panicked, because he appeared with a flicker of boosted speed, one hand already reaching for a kunai. He took the scene in and grabbed Shinji, hoisting him up and retreating out of the kitchen to the hallway.

It had taken maybe a few seconds, but my heart was pounding worse than at the spar this morning. I shakily set the chopping board and knife in the sink and made sure to turn the handle of the pot towards the back. I should have had it like that to start with, but I hadn't thought about it.

_Stupid oversight._ I hadn't sensed him come in either, because children that young barely had any chakra at all. I should have at least _heard_ him. The only explanation was that I hadn't been paying enough attention.

Which was really, really dumb. And it just proved, not all the danger in the world was bandits or missing nin. Everyday life had it's own troubles.

Of course, Naruto shouldn't have goddamn left the kid alone. Not even for a bathroom break. There were four of us here, ferchrissakes! I stowed that thought. I'd talk to him once the mission was over.

I threw together lunch and carted it out to the dinning room table before making sure that everything was safely put away in the kitchen. The last thing I wanted was a repeat occurrence.

"Lunch is ready," I said softly moving into the lounge. Naruto was sulking on the couch and Sasuke was kneeling awkwardly on the ground, obviously being lectured on the intricacies of playing with action figures. He was so obviously out of his comfort zone that it was almost funny.

Action figures which got quickly abandoned at the call to food. "Lunch!" Shinji echoed looking delighted. Sasuke looked deeply relieved to have escaped.

The rest of the afternoon went much more smoothly. Councillor Hideaki came home right on time and looked pleased to find his son down for his afternoon nap. He did mutter something about the wisdom of hiring ninja under his breath, which we politely ignored, but it did make me wonder if he'd had problems before.

We were on the way back to the Hokage's Tower to collect our mission pay when Naruto exploded. I was surprised he'd stayed quiet so long; Sasuke must have said something serious to get him to stay quiet. Sensei was still mostly ignoring us.

"Alright! Now you have to explain, bastard! Where the hell do you think you get off telling me what to do, huh?"

Sasuke sneered. "The client was almost injured because of your incompetence!"

Naruto looked taken back and slightly hurt. "What the hell are you talking about?" He barked. "The kid was fine. I only left him alone for a minute!"

"Which you shouldn't have!" Sasuke shot back.

"Naruto, Shinij wandered into the kitchen and nearly tipped a pot of boiling water on himself. He could have been seriously hurt," I explained, trying to stay calm. "It's true that I should have been paying more attention myself, but I thought I could trust you to keep an eye on him. If you needed to leave, you should have called Sasuke."

Naruto deflated like a popped balloon. I ignored the stab of guilt that that caused in favour of my anger at his carelessness. We didn't speak again; it seemed like all our progress from the morning had been erased.

When I went home I grabbed my sealing book, found Shika - watching clouds, no surprise - and curled up into his side.

"What's up?" he asked casually.

"What makes you think something is up?" I queried.

"You're only this touchy feely when you're upset," he answered. "And, it's troublesome, but if there's something…"

I smiled softly. "Just a team argument," I said, going back to my book. The morning had shown me that my chakra reserves, in proportion to what I actually used in a fight, weren't all that great. I knew if _was _possible to make a chakra storage seal, but of course, possible didn't mean easy. They were almost the very opposite of easy. It would take me years to actually create one. Until then, I'd have to build my reserves the old fashioned way. I sighed.

So much to do.


	9. Chapter 8

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert

Author's notes: If there's anyone familiar with Fullmetal Alchemist in the audience, you might notice that my explanation for sealing seems similar to the explanation for alchemy. I did in fact base it a little on that. The two seem similar to me, so I hope I explained it in a way that meshes with Naruto-verse.

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Chapter 8

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"_Coincidence is the word we use when we can't see the levers and pulleys." ~ Emma Bull_

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I sat on the edge of the bank, carefully positioning my feet on the water. The river in the training field was slow moving, almost a pond, and nearly perfect to try to learn to walk on water.

Water had natural surface tension and would resists the efforts of anything trying to break through. Of course, that only went so far and anything heavier than an insect couldn't really take advantage of it. What the water walking technique was supposed to do was use chakra to enhance that natural surface tension to support human weight. It went deeper than that, though. You needed to keep it solid to balance on and anchored to avoid washing away with the current.

My chakra control was more than good enough for it but the feeling of standing on something so unstable took some getting used to. It was a reflexive reaction to channel more chakra to make the platform more stable but it really had the opposite reaction and shattered the delicate chakra balance sending you splashing down into the water.

Channelling chakra through your feet was supposedly one of the most difficult ways of channelling chakra. That was because most people moulded chakra in the Hara, the centre of energies located near the stomach, and then transported it through the body to the point they wanted to emit it. This required them to keep tight control over the moulded energy or risk losing or wasting energy as it travelled. Maybe it was because I was so much more in tune with my chakra pathways but I found it just as easy to mould it at my feet where I needed to use it.

I stood, wobbling slightly from the feel of the water underfoot. It felt… squishy, like standing on thick jello. I knew intellectually that it was stable, but it didn't feel it. I stepped forward. Disconnect the chakra. Reconnect. Test the weight. Step again. Each step was a little more certain, a little steadier, a little easier. Water Walking, like Cat Foot or Leaping Monkey, was one of the skills that became, _needed_ to become, second nature. When you needed to use it, you couldn't be thinking about it.

I jumped, a slight bounce, then higher, then higher again. I darted to the side, zigzagged back, using the chakra on my feet to counterbalance the action and pivot neatly. I loosened the anchoring aspect and slid across the water like I was skating. I suppressed a giggle. It was fun.

"Whoa!" Came an appreciative shout from the bank. "That's so cool! Can you teach me that? Please, Shikako? Please?"

I skidded back onto the back, where Naruto was standing waving his arms about. He and Sasuke had apparently shown up while I was busy experimenting. I flushed.

"Ah, sure, I guess," I said. I hadn't intended to teach them but there wasn't any reason not to. "Umm… But we'll have to start with the first stage." I added hastily as it looked like Naruto was about to dive head first into the river. It might have been spring but it was still too cold to spend the day soaking wet.

I walked towards the trees that edged the clearing. Naruto and, unsurprisingly, Sasuke followed me. Even though he hadn't said anything he was undeniably interested in learning.

"The first step, before Water Walking, is Tree Walking," I started, looking at Naruto to make sure he was listening. He was. Eagerly. "It requires good chakra control. You use your chakra to grip the tree." I reached out and touched a hand to the tree bark. "Do you see how the bark on the tree is uneven? You fill in the gaps with your chakra to grab onto it. The deeper into the tree you can get it, the more solid your grip. But, if you use too much chakra it can blow the tree apart. If you don't use enough you just wont stick."

Trees were actually easy to use to learn this technique because they had such a rough surface. Rock would probably work too, but flying stone shrapnel was probably a little more dangerous. The same principle applied with everything else, but at a much more minute level. I walked a few steps up the tree before jumping off, to Naruto's amazement.

"To actually Tree Walk, you channel chakra out your feet to stick to the tree, but it might be easier if you start with your hands." I demonstrated, moulding chakra in my hand before sticking it to the tree in front of me. "Less chance of falling off, that way."

"Awesome!" Naruto exclaimed. "I'll totally get this down before sensei gets here!"

I smiled at his enthusiasm, but doubted it. Not unless he used his Shadow Clone training…

"Hey Naruto," I asked slowly. How could I bring this up? "What does it feel like when your Shadow Clones pop?"

Naruto frowned at the weird question. "What do you mean?"

"Well," I tried to explain. "there are a lot of different types of clones, right? The Clone Jutsu we learnt at the Academy require direct manipulation - you had to keep thinking about what you wanted it to do - while some other types of Clones can carry out a basic plan like Water or Earth Clones. But your Shadow Clones seem to be autonomous - they think for themselves. I was just wondering how… how you controlled them, I guess. How it feels."

Sasuke was actually listening intently to us, even as he attempted to stick his hand to the tree.

Naruto frowned again. "I don't know. I never thought about it." He scratched the back of his head. "They do what I'm thinking when I make them but if I come up with a new plan I can sort of tell them it. Not in words but like… the idea."

"Huh." I hadn't expected that. I guess it made sense though. "And do you get things back from them?"

"I don't know," he confessed.

"Well, if you make one now and I tell it something then if you know what I told it…"

"Yeah! That's a cool idea, Shikako!" Naruto clapped his hands into a Ram Seal and with an explosion of chakra there were two of him standing in front of me.

"Right. You keep working on the Tree Walking, and we'll go over there," I said pointing back at the bridge. It was far enough away that they shouldn't be able to hear us.

"Uh, right," I said to the clone. It really was an exact copy of Naruto. Without having seen it made I would never have been able to tell the two apart, not even using my chakra sense. "Lets see… maybe if I just give you some code words?"

The Naruto grinned. "Hehe, that sounds awesome. Just like Iruka-sensei always talked about in the Academy."

"He'll be delighted to learn you were actually listening," I said dryly, drawing a blank about any code words I could possibly use. "Okay. Bridge, blue and thirteen." They weren't the most original choices, given where we were standing, but hey. I wasn't trying to fool anyone here.

"Bridge, blue, thirteen," the Naruto repeated. "Err… what should I do?"

"I don't know," I said honestly. "Can you try and … send it to him?"

His face squinched up in heavy concentration.

I waited. And waited.

"Maybe we should ask Naruto if he's got it?" I wondered.

We headed back towards Naruto just in time to see the bark crackle under his hand and send him staggering back a few steps. "Hehe, I'm still working on it," he assured me.

I winced, but nodded. "Do you know what I told your clone?" I asked.

Naruto thought about it. "Not a clue."

I nearly face palmed. "Alright. What if he pops?" With a shrug, the clone did just that, dispersing in a puff of chakra smoke.

Naruto looked frozen. "Bridge. Blue. Thirteen," he recited. "That's what you told him, right?"

I smiled. "That's what I told him."

"That's so cool!" Naruto exclaimed. "How the heck didn't I notice this before? Oh man, I can think of so many things…" he giggled.

I didn't want to know. "Like helping with your training?" I asked.

"Helping with my training?" he parroted, showing that that had _not_ been what he was thinking.

"Just a thought." I shrugged. "But you know what they say. Two heads are better than one and all that."

I turned away from him. Sasuke had moved on from using his hands to starting climbing. There weren't any great holes in his tree, so I assumed that his chakra control in his hands was fairly decent. It was considerably worse through his feet. Without the momentum of running at the tree, he was only making a few steps before either sliding or being repelled. I considered his progress.

"Hn?"

I shrugged. "You've got the gist of it. The only thing left is practice." I considered suggesting that he run at the tree, but the speed didn't really do anyone any favours. It only meant you were higher up when your control faltered. "Unless you have questions?"

He shook his head and turned back to his tree.

I went back to the river. Sensei wouldn't be here for ages and I could still use practice.

"Well, well, well. Aren't you busy little bees?"

I turned back to the bridge, where sensei was perched on the railings. I glanced at the sun, pushing a hank of slightly sweaty hair out of my face. It was probably close to eleven.

"You're late!" Came a chorus of voices, all Naruto. They exploded in a huge messy cloud of chakra smoke, leaving only one behind.

Sasuke flipped gracefully off the tree trunk he had been standing on. Neither of them had made a great deal of progress but they'd only been working for about two hours. I skated towards the bank and we all converged on the bridge around Kakashi-sensei.

He was peering at us as though we had done something very interesting and unexpected. "Mah, it looks like you've been entertaining yourselves while you waited."

"Hey!" Naruto squawked. "Did you even hear me? You're late!"

Predictably, Kakashi-sensei ignored him.

There was a long moment of silence. Kakashi-sensei seemed to want us to say something, but I was baffled as to what he was asking.

"Well, lets go get a mission, then!" He said cheerfully, hopping off the railings.

"It better not be as sucky as yesterday," Naruto complained grumpily.

I shrugged. I didn't really care about D-ranks. It wasn't as though I'd never gone shopping or weeded a garden or babysat before either. "At least we're getting paid for it," I offered. "And they don't take long."

"But they're not even actual missions!" Naruto argued.

"You heard Hokage-sama yesterday," I said. "They'll give us an 'actual' mission once we've done a few D-ranks."

"Oh, _that's_ what he was saying." Naruto nodded sagely. "We'll just do these stupid missions really fast so we can get to a proper mission."

If you ignored the wording, it was a good plan.

Naruto ended up selecting our mission for the day, which was a courier mission because 'it sounded fastest'. He even ended up explaining his whole plan of doing D-ranks really quickly so that the Hokage would give him an important mission. I would have been horribly embarrassed, but the Hokage just looked amused at him. I guess it was a step up from having him complain.

We went up three levels in the tower and were directed to a stack of papers nearly taller than Naruto was. Even Kakashi-sensei seemed nonplussed.

"Here's the list of where they need to be delivered. And a map," the Chunin at the desk said, with a quick smile. "The files all have a number corresponding to the delivery location. Any questions?"

"Alright! Let's go!" Naruto cheered, attempting to pick the entire pile up. I could see it tipping over and going _everywhere._

"Wait!" I yelped. "We should take a quarter each… a third each," I amended as I turned to find Kakashi-sensei gone like the wind.

Sasuke was already examining the map and list. "To the Academy first," he decided. "It's closest."

We divided the pile up and trundled off.

"That… was exhausting," Naruto said later as we returned to the Mission Assignment desk to report a 'mission complete'. We had literally gone all over the village, the Academy, the Hospital, the Library, weapons shops… just about everywhere that dealt with shinobi _anything_.

"Yeah," I said as Sasuke grunted in agreement. It was only mid afternoon. "Did you guys want to spar? Since we didn't this morning and all…"

Sasuke hesitated, then shook his head. "I want to work on the Tree Walking some more."

Naruto watched Sasuke leave and seemed torn. "Umm. I want to spar. But… I want to master that technique. If Sasuke is going to… I can't be left behind."

I pondered for a second. Actual combat was something I needed to work on. "Could you… get some Shadow Clones to work on it, and train with me at the same time?"

"Oh! Yeah! I totally forgot about that! Let's go!"

I smiled and followed him back to the training grounds.

That was how most of our first week as Genin went with a small variation as to the kind of missions we took. After training I'd go home and continue my own projects. Mostly, that week, I was working on seals.

Sealing, or the art of Fuinjutsu, is one of the least studied areas of the ninja arts. To be successful at sealing one needs to understand the forces that they are attempting to work with - the properties of your materials, the energy flows, and how chakra will interact with them. In this way it can be considered similar to medical ninjutsu, however, unlike medical ninjutsu there are so many more factors to take into account not just the human body. Even those who are good at one type of sealing may never succeed in another area, simply for lack of information.

But to succeed in sealing, you must also have a 'natural talent' for manipulating energy. Some seals are powered not just by the individuals chakra, but by ambient chakra in the air. Natural chakra.

There are many different sealing theories, many which even contradict each other. Some sealers used nothing more than Kanji, others said nothing could be down without complex and estoric signs - including astrological signs, symbolic images or lines of text. Some sealers go by the Five Elements (wind, water, fire, earth and lightning), or the Eight Trigrams (sky, marsh, fire, lightning, wind, water, mountain and earth) while others go by the Three States (solid, gas and liquid) or Three Treasures (Budda, Dharma and Sangha) or Yin-and-Yang and others still invent their own tenets.

Some sealers claim that circles are the basis of all seals. That the redistibution of energy, be it chakra or otherwise, must be cyclic.

_Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, merely changed from one form to another._

In cyclic sealing, the circle itself is the conduit that focuses and dictates the flow of energy and allows it to be manipulated. A subset of cyclic sealing is spiral seals which are much more powerful - and unstable. Unsurprisingly, these were most famously used by Uzushiro.

A completely different form of sealing is triangular sealing. Triangles are widely regarded as the strongest and most stable shapes, so are a natural resource for powerful seals. Triangles can be combined in many different ways to form other shapes, and a hexagram is commonly used because it forms eight multidirectional triangles.

There was the arithmetical approach. Runic based sealing. Pictorial seals, which were, I suspected, what Sai used. Geometrical seals. And many, many more.

Seals usually involve repeating elements. Prime numbers are common, particularly three, five and seven.

Blood is often used, or blood mixed with ink, because it is an excellent conductor and container for chakra.

This much, I had been able to discover. Beyond that, beyond the 'hows', the '_whys_' were … vague.

I frowned at my notebook (triple encrypted, with one layer being English which I was almost sure no one spoke) in consternation. I'd already raided the Konoha Library for sealing books at my access level, of which there aren't many. What there were focused more on the forces involved sealing - the combustion potential in exploding tags, for instance - rather than the principles behind the seals themselves. It was perfectly possible to just copy existing seals, as long as you just wanted to duplicate the same effects. Creating your own, now that was another story.

Maybe if I compared the major branches of sealing, I'd be able to uncover the principles behind the seals? It seemed as good a place to start as any.

With a sigh, I took out a new notebook and began.

It was Saturday when our schedule changed. Ninja didn't exactly have a 'working week'. We worked when there was work to do, and took breaks when we were tired, injured or not pressed for money.

On Saturday, we turned up bright and early at the mission assignment desk for a surprising announcement from the Hokage.

"Well now. Team Seven has been surprisingly productive," the Hokage said, peering at us. "What do you say, Kakashi? Are they ready for a C-rank mission?"

Naruto exploded with cheers.

Kakashi-sensei smiled. "Well, they're certainly enthusiastic for one."

The Hokage chuckled. "A C-rank mission it is, then. You'll be bodyguards on a journey to the Land of Waves."

Well. _Shit._

That was something I'd been unconsciously trying to avoid. For it to happen anyway felt a little like fate.


	10. Chapter 9

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert

Author's notes: I haven't found much information of distances in Naruto, but I do have a picture map. I remember someone mentioning that Sand was three days travel, at ninja speed, so that's what I based the distances on. If anyone knows differently, drop me a note.

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Chapter Nine

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_To complete the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping ~ Chinese proverb._

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"A C-rank mission it is, then. You'll be bodyguards on a journey to the Land of Waves."

That was one of the last things I wanted to hear. Everyone else, on the other hand, seemed delighted. Well, Naruto was delighted. Sasuke just looked interested.

"Who? Who? Will we be guarding a princess? Or some councillor?" Naruto asked, bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Don't be so impatient," the Hokage chuckled. "I will bring him in now." He raised his voice. "Send in our visitor."

To the side of the missions assignment desk was a small lounge where the prospective clients waited while the missions were handed out or completed. It kept them contained and out of the way, yet close at hand, and was a fairly efficient system. It was staffed at all times by several Chunin, which were, I assumed, who the Hokage was talking to.

The door slid open, allowing us the first glimpse of our client… and him the first glimpse of us.

"What the-? A bunch of little snot nosed brats." He drank deeply from his bottle, Adams apple bobbing rapidly.

Tazuna was… old. Maybe forty, which in ninja terms was ancient. His hair and beard were dark grey but messy and unkempt. His clothes were neat but worn and a little dusty from the road. His glasses were plain, but the fact he even had them at all spoke of at least past wealth and status. The sake bottle in his hand was cheap stuff that was popular with some of the younger shinobi. He looked nervous. Scared. That wasn't unusual. People didn't hire ninja because they felt safe. But it was at a level out of proportion for bandits or wild animals. Even for civilians, that kind of threat is a constant background knowledge - it doesn't inspire terror.

"And you, the short one with the idiotic look on your face, you expect me to believe you're a ninja?"

Like most people who met Naruto, I expect he was talking about the orange. Or Orange. It probably deserved a capital letter. Civilians have odd expectations for ninja. They expect us to dress in black, wear masks, and carry lots of weaponry. In short, they expect us to look like ANBU. Which is ironic, because to civilians, ANBU don't exist and they certainly don't take missions.

To a civilian bright, blinding orange wasn't an appropriate colour for a ninja. Therefore, it was actually a perfect colour for a ninja. Oh, sure, it stood out like hell in a forest, but the fact was, most of our time spent hiding wasn't among trees - it was among _other people_. The best ninja is the one you can't tell from a civilian.

It confounded their expectations. A tall guy dressed head to toe in black carrying a small armoury? Ninja. Small, loud blond kid in orange? Are you kidding? Ninja were invisible not because of jutsu (most of the time) but because they looked just like normal people.

That was the whole point. Even the standard Jounin-Chunin 'uniform' looked like normal civilian clothes. It took someone familiar with ninja to recognise the flack jacket as something other than a vest. And frankly, a fellow ninja was more likely to recognise your chakra than your clothes.

That was a good thing when dealing with enemies. However, apparently, it made it a little difficult for clients to take you seriously. I winced but Naruto laughed. I knew he was able to shrug off cold looks but taunts usually got to him. Maybe he was growing.

"Who's he talking about? Who's the short one with - hey! I'll demolish him!"

Or maybe not.

Kakashi-sensei snagged the back of Naruto's jacket. "You can't attack the client. It doesn't work like that."

I cast a look around. Sasuke looked exasperated. Iruka had his face hidden in his hands. The Hokage, however, just looked amused. Amused and watchful.

Not exactly a great first impression.

"I am Tazuna, a master bridge builder and I must return to my country," his voice held a rather stilted quality, as though he'd rehearsed this introduction before. His grip on his sake bottle was tight, and his eyes were bouncing over the three of us nervously. "I'm building a bridge that will change our world and I expect you to get me there safely, even if it costs you your lives."

Now that was rather presumptuous and a little insulting. He was questioning our loyalty as Konoha ninja, even if he didn't realise it.

"We are ninja of Konoha," I spoke levelly. "When we accept a mission, we do our best to see that it is fulfilled… provided the mission parameters are a true and accurate rendition of information."

He gulped. Definitely a sign of nervous behaviour.

Kakashi-sensei's hand landed lightly on my head. Approval or warning? I couldn't tell. But he must have noticed the reaction that that statement provoked. Maybe he had a plan.

"Mah, I wouldn't worry, Tazuna," Kakashi-sensei drawled. "Even if my students are only Genin, I am a Jounin, an elite ninja of Konoha."

And that did calm him down. A bit anyway.

"Alright, kids," Kakashi-sensei said, turning to us and unrolling the mission scroll I hadn't even seen him receive. "This is going to be a fairly long mission. Wave Country is located to the east of the Land of Fire, and we're going to be travelling at civilian pace, so I'd estimate it will take us about a week to get there. Our mission also includes guarding the bridge and workers as they complete the bridge which will take several more weeks. Remember that when you're packing for the mission." He smiled at us. "Lets meet at the main gate in two hours. That should give you all enough time to get ready."

"Yes, sensei," we chorused with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

I headed home, vaguely troubled. What could I remember about the Wave mission? Tazuna had had ninja after him, hired by the crime lord? Shipping company? By someone powerful anyway. There had been an ambush on the road, and Zabuza and Haku later on. I remembered those two. They had had a big impact on Naruto.

And they had died.

I shook my head. It would be nice to think I could save them, but I couldn't plan for that. There were too many things I didn't know and couldn't plan for. They had been betrayed, I remembered, but how and why were questions I couldn't answer. And if I couldn't answer them, then I couldn't convince anyone else, even _had_ I been able to get the message to them. Besides, a missing-nin like Zabuza probably spent most of his time _expecting_ to be betrayed.

Add to that, I didn't know them. If it came down to us verses them, I'd chose us in a heartbeat.

Shikamaru was still home when I got back. Either his team hadn't started for the day, or they had the day off. Either option was equally likely, frankly.

"Back already?" He asked, yawning. "They didn't have anything for you to do?"

I shook my head. "I have to pack. We have a C-rank."

"You have a C-rank already?" Shikamaru looked at me incredulously.

Mum popped out of the kitchen, frowning. "What's this I hear about a C-rank?"

"My team was given a C-rank," I said. "Several weeks long, so I need to pack."

"It's far too soon!" She fussed. "You've only been a Genin for a week. What are they thinking?"

A very good question. "I'll be fine," I reassured her, not wanting to admit I had my own doubts. I couldn't back out so I had to press forwards.

She nodded and sighed. "Yes, I suppose you will. It is only a C-rank. And you have been training hard." She rounded on Shikamaru. "You hear that, young man? Your sister is already taking C-ranks! You better step up your training. If they send you out like you are now -"

I winced and slipped up the stairs. Shikamaru was probably going to get hell while I was gone. I shuddered to think what mum would be like when she heard about what actually happened on this mission.

Assuming I made it back to tell her.

_Stop it, _I thought sternly. _There's no need for that. Positive thinking._

If you went on a mission thinking it was going to fail, you had already failed. Mindset was important.

I breathed in, breathed out, centred myself and started packing. Like all good little ninja, I had most of my mission gear already packed; it just had to be customised for each mission. Most of it, I kept in sealing scrolls, but it wasn't a good idea to keep everything in one scroll. If it got destroyed or lost then I could potentially lose everything. Besides, an empty backpack attracted attention. I filled it with an extra set of clothes, a book to read and ration packs. For a mission like this, we'd probably be able to hunt for food, but I'd rather have too much food than not enough.

I added a much more comprehensive medical kit than I would usually take, several soldier pills and an excess of weaponry. Then I stopped, because there was a point where caution became paranoia.

I refilled my kunai pouch, made sure they were sharpened, changed into clean clothes, checked my bindings and tromped back downstairs with backpack on. Mum was waiting at the foot of the stairs. She was the one who had taught me how to pack for missions, but I didn't begrudge her double checking me. I'd rather she pointed it out if I _had_ missed something.

But she just sighed. "Oh, do take care, wont you?" she asked.

"I will," I promised. "Tell dad I said bye." I'd have liked to go find him and say goodbye myself, but he was usually busy all day with important Jounin Commander-y things at the Tower. "And you tell Ino where I've gone," I said to Shika, poking him in the shoulder.

"Troublesome," he groaned. "That'll just make her want a C-rank mission." But he'd do it, if only because Ino would nag him until he told her.

"Alright," I said. Then again, more firmly. "Alright. I'll see you later!"

The Main Gate was the main entrance to Konoha. Most civilians thought it was the only gate but that wasn't quite true. It was just that the others were used only by specific people (I.e. ANBU), for secretive missions, and never, ever with civilians. So we were stuck travelling the out the Main Gate, probably all the way to the nearest town before we could branch off east. The forests around Konoha were thick and dangerous and heavily patrolled. By ourselves we'd be able to manage, but not with Tazuna.

Wave Country was directly off the east coast of the Land of Fire. Konoha was located almost exactly in the middle of the Land of Fire, so we had a fair way to travel to the coast. Still, there was a major Port City slightly north of where the Wave Bridge was being built, so there were plenty of well kept roads towards the coast. We probably wouldn't be travelling cross country, so it should be a fairly smooth trip.

Naruto was already at the gate when I arrived, practically bouncing with excitement. I quizzed him to make sure he had packed correctly, since I wouldn't put it past him to bring nothing but ramen cups. I know they say you turn into your parents eventually, but I hadn't expected the metamorphosis to be so quick.

"What's taking that teacher of yours so long?" Tazuna grumbled.

"Eh, Kakashi-sensei is always late," Naruto said, rolling his eyes. "We'll probably be as old and grey as you by the time he gets here." Apparently, Naruto _hadn't_ forgotten Tazuna's earlier slight against him.

"What was that, you brat?" Tazuna scowled. "No respect. Pah."

"Well, it's lovely to see everyone getting on so well," Kakashi-sensei said brightly, as Tazuna and Naruto glared at each other. "If everyone is ready, we can go."

"We were waiting for _you_," Naruto said resentfully, then seemed to forget all about it. His ability to change moods was rather remarkable. "Alright! This is the first time I've ever left the village! I'm a traveller now. A real ninja! This is going to be so great!"

I had been outside Konoha before on clan business. Dad had taken Shika and I with him to visit some of the outer Nara farms. Outside Konoha was… forests and farmlands with the occasional village. Hardly exciting. But Naruto was so excited and even Sasuke was looking alert. I held my tongue. There was no point in needlessly antagonising anyone, especially not when it looked like we were going to be stuck together for the next month or so.

We walked. It was a pleasant day with bright sunshine and light wind but our pace was slow to match Tazuna. Frankly, it was rather dull. To alleviate my boredom I asked Tazuna questions, not pointed ones, but generally about Wave Country. How big was it? Were there many towns? What were it's main exports?

Tazuna was seemingly willing to answer everything. Wave Country consisted of a series of linked islands, and people were fairly spread out amongst them. There were only one or two main towns but because the islands weren't very big most people didn't live very far from one or the other. The main food source for the island was, of course, fishing, though with Gatou Shipping companies controlling the waters many of the fishing boats had been grounded, leading food shortage. The Shipping company also charged high tariffs for food brought over from the mainland so the common people couldn't afford to import food. It was a very dire situation. Which was, Tazuna said, why the bridge he was building was so very important.

His conviction was obvious. I was a little surprised that he was so willing to tell us all about it. The only thing he seemed to be holding back was that there _were_ ninja after him. Which made me wonder if he knew, or if he only suspected there might be. Had he truly known before the ambush on the road? As I had already noted, civilians weren't exactly adept at spotting ninja. Even claims that Gatou had hired ninja could be bluffs or scare tactics. Ninja weren't cheap to hire. Missing nin might be cheaper but they were harder to find and less trustworthy. A keen business man wouldn't waste money keeping one on retainer when mercenaries would do. It seemed more likely that Gatou would hire ninja in response to _Tazuna_ hiring ninja.

We stopped to set up camp around an hour before dusk. Even though none of us were tired, Tazuna looked grateful for the break, and it meant that we had light available when we set up camp. We could do it in the dark - theoretically - but it _was_ our first overnight mission and I was sure we'd end up in a hopeless tangle if we tried. Kakashi-sensei talked us through procedure, to make sure we knew what we were doing, and sent us on our way.

Naruto was to set up a perimeter wire and scout for hazards. Sasuke was to hunt for some dinner. And I was to clear the area and start a fire. He was going to stay with the client.

I swept the small clearing we had chosen for debris, moving rocks and stones and setting aside twigs and broken branches for the fire. I dug up a square of turf, careful to keep the packed together and the grass attached, and set it to the side. Tomorrow, that would go back down into the fire pit, hopefully erasing all traces that we had been here. Just how we'd been taught at the Academy. A good ninja left no signs of their passing.

Then I went looking for firewood. There was plenty to be found, with this many trees about. I didn't even bother cutting down branches, just picked up what was broken and abandoned on the ground. Old dry wood would burn better than live, green stuff, anyway.

By the time I had the fire going, Naruto had returned from trap setting and Sasuke was back with what looked like two rabbits and some kind of pheasant, all skinned, plucked and disembowelled.

I eyed them for a second. That was another thing we had been taught at the Academy in our survival classes. How to hunt, kill and prepare our own food. The first time, we'd had an overnight camp on one of the forested training fields. The teachers had treated it so cavalierly that the kids hadn't even thought anything of it. They'd just been excited, because we'd been given _real_ kunai to hunt with and were getting to hunt _real _animals. A few girls had 'eww'ed at having to skin and clean their kills and a few boys had discovered that organs were squishy and _great_ to throw at people but by the end of the night we had all been eating dinner that we had killed, prepared and cooked ourselves. It had been, probably one of the biggest steps in our desensitisation program and it had gone off without a hitch.

From the perspective of an outsider, it was horrifying. From the perspective of one of the students, I had been glad that I'd caught a rabbit because it was less work than plucking a bird.

I shook the thought off and handed Sasuke the stakes I had prepared. He took them with a short nod.

"Not bad for a first effort," Kakashi-sensei said, not looking up from his book. "Took you three a bit long, but that will come with practise."

"Yes, sensei," I said obediently, unsealing my sleeping bag and positioning it by Naruto. We weren't using tents because the weather was fair and there was no expectation of rain, and because they were bulky and added a lot of weight to a pack. I had one sealed away, of course, but most Genin didn't even carry one.

Dinner was a quiet affair. We set up a rotating watch and retreated to our sleeping bags. Naruto on first watch, Sasuke with the unenviable middle watch and myself with the dawn watch. I slept lightly in what most ninja called 'mission sleep', deep enough to rest, light enough to spring to attention at need.

We'd also learnt this on that camping mission. The Chunin instructors had crept about radiating killing intent and gleefully dumped cold water over everyone. Those who hadn't been able to avoid it were given extra laps to run in the morning. It hadn't exactly been pleasant. I hadn't woken at the killing intent, but it had invaded my dreams something awful and the cold water had been more of a relief than anything.

Morning watch was cold and dark and lonely, but necessary, so I kept staring out into the darkness, stretching out with my chakra, listening for signs of intruders. There was nothing, which was what you want when you're on watch, but boring all the same.

Breakfast was a much more energetic affair. Sleep had apparently recharged Naruto to such an extent that he really couldn't sit still. Since we had a long way to travel and wanted to break camp quickly, we ate ration bars for breakfast instead of hunting.

"Ne, ne, Shikako! What's that? Those aren't the kind they sell in the supermarket!" Naruto pointed out, comparing his cheap brand ration bar to what I was holding.

I glanced down. "Oh. We get these from the Akimichi in exchange for medicines and ingredients. They make their own food packs."

There was a lot of trade between our three clans. The Ino-Shika-Cho just symbolised the closeness that already existed, it wasn't the limit of it. The Akimichi food pills were actually the result of combined efforts from all three clans - Nara research, Yamanaka herbs and Akimichi technique. I had studied them. A lot.

For ninja clans our three clans had a lot of seemingly civilian sidelines. The Akimichi owned a dozen restaurants, several produce farms, a few orchards and even an apiary - a bee farm.

Of the three clans it was the Akimichi who were undeniably the biggest. Before the pact between us, many, many generations ago, the Nara and Yamanaka clans had been vassals to the Akimichi. Their Taijutsu prowess made them capable of standing alone in battle in ways we couldn't. It was only with teamwork between the three of us that our clans were able to blossom into what we are today.

It would probably surprise a lot of people to know that the Akimichi were highly integrated into the working of Konoha. They were one of the four noble founding clans, along with the Aburame, the Hyuuga and the Uchiha.

"Akimichi? That's … Chouji's family, isn't it?" Naruto said, puzzled.

"Yes," I said. "The Akimichi place high value on proper nutrition, so they make a lot of their own food."

"They taste better too," Kakashi said dryly. I didn't blame him, field rations were famous for being less than tasty. Nutritious but… well.

"That too," I agreed.

We broke camp easily, repacking our sleeping bags and filling in the fire pit. It wasn't perfect, and if you looked you could tell we'd been there, but it wasn't immediately obvious.

Then we started walking. About mid morning I started noticing chakra in the trees. It took me a while to notice it as something out of the ordinary - in Konoha there are always people in the trees. But we were out of Konoha now and there was no one around us.

"What are you so twitchy about, girl?" Tazuna demanded, sounding mighty nervous himself. I didn't think it was a good idea to say that I thought I was sensing ninja in the trees.

"Just trying to identify the trees," I said mildly. "I'm not very good at botany. I think that one is a redwood." Not very good at trees anyway. Fruit trees were easy to identify by their fruit, and berries were usually on bushes and shrubs. Herbs and other plants with useful functions were generally a lot smaller.

"It is," Kakashi-sensei said, smiling. "And that's a cedar and that one is…"

"Fir," Sasuke half said, half grunted, joining in our impromptu guessing game.

"It's a lot different to Konoha," Naruto said, squinting at the trees.

"Mah, the forests in Konoha were planted specifically. Well, grown, anyway. A lot of the trees around Konoha don't belong in any known genus. I guess you could call them Hashirama trees."

"Hehehe, the First Hokage was so awesome he invented his own trees!" Naruto chortled.

"He also founded Konoha," Kakashi-sensei said dryly.

I was on high alert after noticing them. They weren't always following us; they came and they went and I wasn't sure it was always the same people. I paid close attention to where we were travelling and identified prime ambush sites along our route. Kakashi-sensei didn't seem fussed, or even give any idea that he'd noticed them, but watching him I saw that he circled our group, always placing himself in the area of highest danger. It was slow and subtle and appeared almost random but anyone who wanted to attack us would have to attack him first.

Still, for all my worrying, nothing happened until the sixth day. We'd made good time and we were bound to reach the coast by mid afternoon. So, of course, the ambush happened that morning.

The point they had chosen for the ambush was odd, considering they had been following us for so long. Maybe they were afraid of reinforcements from Konoha, maybe they were more familiar with the land closer to Wave Country, or maybe they wanted to make a statement to the people of Wave Country. We had passed several sites that would have been much better for an ambush; even several rivers if they required water to hide.

To be completely fair, I'm not sure I would have been able to spot the puddle as out of the ordinary if it hadn't been radiating so much chakra. I could easily see myself developing a huge reliance on my chakra sensing in future.

I softened the chakra silencing on my feet and let my steps falter into a statico of taps. At a casual glance, it was like I tripped. In reality, that pattern was code, meant to catch allied attention when they weren't looking at you.

Kakashi-sensei didn't look up from his book, but the fingers on his free hand flicked slightly in acknowledgement.

_Foreign chakra, middle of path, 200 meters. _I signed, somewhat clumsily in Konoha standard sign language. _Possible jutsu/trap/ambush._

Naruto and Sasuke both sharpened to attention.

_Specifics?_ Kakashi-sensei signed back, hand tapping easily on his thigh.

I frowned, scanning deeper. If I could sense it, so could Kakashi, which meant this question was a test.

_Multiple opponents. Greater than one, less than five. Upper Chunin level. _I conveyed. _Course of action?_

_Spring the trap,_ Kakashi-sensei signed, making sure all three of us saw his hand move. _Primary mission objective._

The primary mission objective in this case was to protect Tazuna. We gravitated slowly into a triangular Manji formation around him, trying to make it look as though we were still walking casually. The two boys had tensed up noticeably - to a ninja, anyway - but Tazuna seemed unaware that anything had changed.

I can't say that I was perfectly calm myself. My heart was racing, my palms were sweaty and I had to purposefully control my breathing. Making myself walk into that trap, knowing there were enemies waiting, knowing we were going to be attacked, even knowing they expected us to be off guard, knowing I had backup, knowing there was _nothing I could do _to change this situation was possibly the hardest, most terrifying thing I'd ever done.

The puddle was on the ground, and the chakra signatures were within it. There were no other chakra signatures in the trees or surrounding area. At a casual glance, I couldn't see any traps, and there was no residual chakra from pre-cast or delayed jutsu. Given these factors, the enemies would need to explode from the ground to attack us. There were two ways they could do that for maximum advantage. One, when we were directly over them, thus penetrating our defensive structure, causing havoc and taking us off guard, or two, once we had passed over them, attacking us from behind when our backs were turned. Kakashi-sensei had gravitated to the back of the group, several steps behind the rest of us. If they popped up in the middle, he would be facing them, if they popped up behind us, he would be the first to be attacked.

Which option they chose probably depended upon how well they could observe us while hidden. If they could identify individuals, they'd probably go for option one. If they couldn't, if all they could tell was that the group was here or there then they'd have to go for option two.

I'd said there were between two and four possible enemies, but the closer we got, the more sure I was that there were only two.

I readied my shadow. It slid thickly over the ground at my feet as I walked on. The puddle was directly in front of us. It fairly reeked of chakra. One step. Two. Beside us now. I was ready. My third step carried me past it, in line with Tazuna. Four. Five. Six -

"Ha!" The puddle exploded outwards, launching two figures into the air. They were holding a rope? No. A spiked chain. They whirled it, and it wrapped around Kakashi-sensei. I felt the flair of chakra as he used the replacement jutsu and the secondary spike as he impressed an illusionary clone overtop of the log. Illusionary clones are technically an area of effect genjutsu, and I couldn't dispel it for myself without dispelling it for everyone. I ignored it.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cried in distress as it was ripped to pieces.

I slid in front of Tazuna. With my Shadow Jutsu, I was the one most suited for the role of bodyguard, and anyone who wanted to attack Tazuna had to get in my range.

"Naruto! Clones!" I snapped, even as Sasuke was already moving, throwing a brace of shuriken towards the two. With a weapon like that - and equally nasty claw gauntlets - distance attacks were the safer option.

Naruto snapped his hands up into a cross seal immediately, unthinkingly following orders. We'd only been training together for a week, mostly while waiting for Kakashi-sensei to show up, but it was enough to give us a familiarity with each other's style. Sparring like that wasn't a real fight, but it was closer than what we'd done at the Academy and it did mean that Naruto didn't freeze up right now.

"Stay at range. Have your clones fight in close," I ordered. I didn't want the real Naruto in range of those claws. Something tickled the back of my mind about why, but I didn't question my instincts.

The rush of clones provided cover for Sasuke, and shadows for me. The chain swept through the clones, but they provided a surprising amount of resistance, entangling it. I split my shadow into two spikes, each one arching slightly to the side of where the two nin where standing.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Technique!" Sasuke cried, firing off a rapid set of small fireballs. I knew they contained shuriken concealed within them, and that Sasuke could direct them to a certain degree even after he had cast the jutsu.

The missing nin disengaged their chain and dived to the side, out of the pathway of Sasuke's jutsu… and straight into mine.

"Shadow Possession Complete," I announced, fingers twisted into the rat seal that was customary for my jutsu. "Naruto? Rope?"

Even though they were paralysed, they still needed to be tied up or knocked out. I couldn't hold them forever.

"Not to worry," a cheery voice said, even as hands garbed in Konoha standard fingerless gloves gave precise chops to my captives necks. They sagged in my jutsu, and at sensei's nod, I gratefully released them. "Good teamwork, kids."

"Sensei!" Naruto yelped, twisting to look at the cut and shattered logs littering the road. The sheer relief on his face made me feel a twinge of guilt, even though there had been no way I could have told him during the fight. He had truly been worried. "You… but… a replacement jutsu!"

Tazuna seemed in shock. The ambush had been very quick, even for us. I imagine it was a lot worse for someone who hadn't been trained for it and hadn't even been expecting it. "If you were fine the whole time… why did you leave the kids to fight?"

Sensei's eye trained on him seriously. "Because," he said slowly, "I needed to see who they were trying to attack. Us - ninja attacking ninja - or you… hmm?"

Tazuna went white. I felt more sympathy for him than I expected. His recounting of what life was like in Wave Country at the moment had given me a fair bit of insight into his situation. The difference in price between a C-rank mission and an A-rank was about two zeros. Hiring ninja isn't exactly cheap.

Tazuna summarised what I had already pieced together, throwing in a half hearted sob story about his grandson.

"Well," Sensei said, scratching his chin through his mask. "That certainly exceeds our mission parameters." I was pretty sure I caught a flash of humour in his eye as he glanced at me, but I wasn't good enough at reading Kakashi-sensei's facial expressions to be sure. Possibly he was teasing me about my first reaction to Tazuna.

"No way!" Naruto yelped, catching on to what sensei was saying. "We can't quit the mission! What kind of ninja would we be then, if we quit just because it got difficult? Besides, we took these guys no problem! Bring it on!"

Sasuke nodded in agreement, determination writ in the lines of his face.

Sensei turned to me. "Well?" He asked.

I folded my hands into a 'thinking seal', all my fingers touching at the tips, and turned away from his probing gaze trying to order my thoughts. My gaze landed on our two unconscious opponents.

"Gozu and Meizu. The Demon Brothers. Chunin ranked missing nin from Mist," I said clinically, arranging the facts in my mind. Their bingo book page sprung to mind, giving me the information I had been instinctually acting on in combat. "Distinctive weaponry: retractable shuriken chain and gauntlets. Known to use poisons - mostly contact poisons on their weaponry, but they're also known to use gaseous poisons." Which explained why I didn't want the real Naruto getting close to them, and why they were wearing Mist standard breathing masks. "Highly skilled in teamwork manoeuvres they are known to commonly band together with stronger missing nin for protection. Therefore, it is highly likely that the next enemy we face will be much stronger."

I couldn't out and out state that our next opponent would be Zabuza Momochi. Bingo books didn't update frequently enough to have that kind of information, but he was a known associate of theirs.

"I ain't afraid," Naruto said. I wished I had his confidence. I _was_ scared. We were going to be walking into a fight well out of our range. That was the thing I despised most of all, being helpless. I would have to rely solely on Kakashi to defend us.

Naruto and Sasuke had already voted to go on ahead. I was outnumbered anyway. I cast a considering gaze at Kakashi and bit my lip. Did I trust him that much? To protect us?

"Come on, Shikako," Naruto said impatient. "We took care of these guys no problem. We'll show the next guy not to mess with us too!" He clenched a fist and for a second, his inspirational nature shone through. I felt… like maybe we could do this.

Ah, hell. You don't get stronger without pushing yourself. We needed to get stronger, both individually and as a team. I would just have to trust Kakashi-sensei to catch us if we stumbled.

I dropped my hands and nodded. "Fine." No regrets now. After deciding on a course of action, looking back only got you killed.


	11. Chapter 10

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert

Author's note: You know, rewatching the Wave Arc is like 'what happened, Sasuke?"

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Chapter 10

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_Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is ~ German Proverb. _

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Tazuna had a boat waiting at the coast to ferry us across to the islands that made up the Land of Waves. It was an old paddle boat and given what Tazuna had told us about the Shipping Company, I assumed this was an 'illegal' trip out.

The fact that the point we left from was covered in fog so thick you could barely see a foot in front of your face only highlighted that feeling.

"The bridge is just ahead. It isn't far now," the boatman murmured, voice barely carrying to where I sat at the front of the boat. We sliced easily through the calm waters.

"Whoa! It's huge!" Naruto said, as the bridge loomed out of the fog. From this close, it really was impressive.

I flinched. "Shh!"

"Ooops, sorry," Naruto whispered, voice hushed.

We sailed under one of the bridges that connected the smaller islands. They had large archways, clearly designed to let boats pass through. It even had a strip of lights on the ceiling. On the other side, it was almost like a different world. The fog was gone, and the sun was shinning. I blinked a bit at sudden brightness, looking around. We were in a shallow bay, surrounded by houses the edged right out over the water. There were even trees growing in the water (mangroves? There weren't that many species of tree that would tolerate salt water). I assumed we were at high tide, or close to it at the moment.

The boat parked (docked?) next to one of the houses, allowing us to disembark. There was a walkway that extended from house to house, like a veranda, that was probably used as a dock. There didn't seem to be anyone around, or even any boats moored to the posts. It was a little eerie. Maybe they were all out?

This wasn't, apparently, the town where Tazuna lived, just the safest one for us to disembark at. We still had a fair distance to walk.

And I knew it wouldn't be long now. For all that I didn't trust my 'future knowledge', I was pretty damn sure that we'd run into Zabuza. There was no way anything I could have done would have affected that, not if everything else had happened.

We walked on, the docks giving way to housing giving way to forest. I was twitchy, constantly scanning the forest with both eyes and chakra. They boys were keeping a look out and the fact that Kakashi-sensei wasn't saying anything meant that he was worried too.

Then, suddenly, they were there. Chakra in the trees that was huge and intimidating and I knew without a doubt that we Genin could not match it. We were outclassed, a thousand times over. How could no one else feel that?

"Sensei?" I whispered, apprehensively.

"Get down!"

Something huge and metal arched out of the trees, whistling through the air. I snagged Tazuna in my shadow and hurled us both to the ground, even as Naruto and Sasuke mirrored me.

It crashed into the tree, biting deep into the wood. Then, with a blur of movement almost too fast to follow, there was a man standing on it.

_Zabuza Momochi_.

He chuckled, the sound echoing menacingly. Intimidation tactics, part of my mind recognised dimly. That didn't stop it from working. It would have been a ridiculous opening if it hadn't been quite so terrifying.

"Well, well," Kakashi-sensei said casually, sounding neither surprised nor worried. His blasé attitude was strangely calming. "If it isn't Zabuza Momochi, rouge ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist." The extra dialogue was probably for our benefit, since I didn't expect Naruto or Sasuke to recognise him. They hadn't even recognised _Kakashi_.

Sasuke looked like it was beginning to dawn on him just how much trouble we were in. His muscles were tensed and ready to spring into action, and his jaw was clenched shut. Naruto, on the other hand, looked like he was eager to attack. I caught his eye and signed, very slowly, _primary mission objective. _

Protect Tazuna. It was a reminder he needed. He looked torn, but didn't leap forward. I counted that as a win. Naruto had handled himself well in the first ambush and didn't feel the overpowering urge to prove himself, but he was probably over confident because of it. Overconfident and ignorant.

Not really a good combination.

The three of us slid into a triangle formation around Tazuna. I took the side facing the chakra signature that I assumed was Haku. If he decided to attack, I was the only one who knew he was there. Not so happily, that put me with my back to Zabuza. I could still sense him but turning your back on someone like that seemed so dumb I couldn't believe I was doing it.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan," Zabuza said in turn, voice husky and darkly amused. "Did I get that right? It's a shame, but you'll have to hand over the old man."

For pre battle banter, everything was remarkably civil. You didn't need to be cruel to get things done.

"Unfortunately, I can't do that," Sensei replied. "Team, protect Tazuna and don't interfere. This guy is out of your league." His voice was heavy and serious.

I couldn't see, but by the sharp stillness of the group, I assumed Kakashi had just lifted his headband.

"The Sharingan. So I get to see it in action," Zabuza said. "This is an honour."

I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or truly meant it. I think he did, in a warped way. Maybe in a 'you're taking me seriously right from the start' way.

"What the hell?" Naruto shouted. "What's this Sharingan stuff?"

"Sharingan is a Bloodlimit. It's a dojutsu, a visual jutsu that resides in the eyes," Sasuke explained to him, voice low. "It allows the user to see and comprehend any gen, nin or taijutsu used against it and reflect it back against the attacker."

It could also predict attacks and cast genjutsu, I knew but didn't say. Now really wasn't the time for lessons on Bloodlimits.

"There's more to it than that," Zabuza added, "it can analyse an opponents techniques, then copy it to the smallest detail. In the Assassination Unit of the Hidden Mist we had a standing order to destroy you on sight, Kakashi Hatake."

The closest analogue Konoha had to the Assassination Unit would have been ANBU and that really wasn't the same because they had other functions. Konoha got no where near the volume of assassination missions that Mist did. Probably no where near the volume that other villages did either. Our PR as the 'nice' village probably saw to that.

"Your profile was in our Bingo Book," Zabuza continued. "It called you the man who copied over a thousand jutsu. Kakashi, the copy-ninja."

That surprised Sasuke and Naruto, whereas I had _seen_ the page that Zabuza was talking about. It certainly did list some serious skills and assumed missions under Kakashi-sensei's name. Although, I wondered why Zabuza was giving us this impromptu lesson. Maybe he was bored. I can't imagine he'd get much scintillating conversation with Gatou's thugs.

"Wow," Naruto breathed, sounding highly impressed. "That's so cool."

"Enough talking," Zabuza decided finally. "I've been hired to get rid of the bridge builder, but I guess I'll have to go through you first, Kakashi."

"I'm afraid so," Kakashi-sensei said. "It wont be easy for you."

Zabuza sneered and leapt away, gaining distance. The fog roared in, obscuring both him and Kakashi-sensei from our view.

"I can't see anything!" Naruto hissed, alarmed.

"The Land of Waves is surrounded by ocean. These swirling mists are constant," Tazuna explained.

I shook my head. "This is no natural fog. It's a water release jutsu. The Hiding in the Mist Technique."

"Who was that guy?" Naruto asked, wonder in his voice.

"Zabuza Momochi. He's known as the Demon of Hidden Mist," I answered quietly, trying to track Zabuza and Sensei's chakra through the fog. It was difficult. The fog was chakra enhanced, so it was like trying to listen through static. You knew something was there, but you couldn't hear what they were saying. "He was the leader of the Mist Assassination Unit before he tried to kill the Mizukage and became a missing nin. There are rumours that he's been working with the Mist Rebellion."

"So, he's strong," Sasuke said ponderously.

"Very strong," I confirmed. "Supposedly, he's the master of the Silent Killing Technique, able to complete assassinations even when his target is under the heaviest of guards." His giant sword, Kubikiri Bocho, didn't exactly seem like it was designed for stealth and he had just challenged Kakashi-sensei to an out and out fight rather than try and work around him. He had had the advantage of secrecy and just given it up.

It didn't really make sense.

Then the mantra started.

"Eight points," Zabuza's voice rasped out of the fog, everywhere at once. The quiet, deliberate menace sent shivers down my spine. "Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, sub clavian artery, kidneys, heart. Now, which will be my attack point?"

Intimidation tactics, again.

It made no sense. Why speak to us, then hide? Why set us on our guard? It was terrifying, but it would have been so much worse if he hadn't introduced himself.

_Hello, my name is Zabuza Momochi and I'll be your assassin for this evening._

I squashed the giggle that threatened to burst from my throat. He was getting to me.

I needed to _think._ There had to be some tactic, some plan I could use that would make this okay. But I couldn't. My mind, before so reliable at tossing out analysis and ideas, was spinning in circles. The hamster was off his wheel. The train of thought had been derailed. The light bulb had blown.

I had _known_ we would face Zabuza. I had thought about it. I had _planned _for it. What had I… what had I…

Then the Killing Intent hit. It was pressing and heavy, blanketing and smothering; the darkness after a nightmare, the suffocation of being underwater, the vertigo of extreme heights… The eye of the predator was moving, and if you twitched, if you blinked, you would draw his attention and _die_.

It was the intent of two Jounin about to attack. For all their banter, they were serious. Deadly serious.

I wanted to run. To scream. To cry. To _attack_. Instead I did nothing, counting the frantic beats of my heart, breathing steady and shallow.

_One, twothreefour_…

"Sasuke!" Sensei's voice snapped out. I jerked. Shit, I hadn't been paying attention to my surroundings. In trying to keep calm, I'd given myself tunnel vision. "Calm down. I'll protect you with my life. All of you." And with his words he sent a wave of Positive Intent washing over us. The near opposite of Killing Intent, it was so much harder to produce but wiped away our fear as though it had never been. I knew what it was. Dad used it sometimes and in my mind it was so heavily associated with safety that my brain didn't even have a chance to protest as all my muscles relaxed and my heart returned to a steady resting beat. The brain might have thought it was in charge, but often the body belied that. "I will not allow my comrades to die. Trust me."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Zabuza rasped, right behind me. "It's over."

My shadow lashed out without thought, grabbing and holding. To get so close to Tazuna, he had had to get close to me. My hands rotated, spinning the sharp edge of the sword until it was towards his body and pulling close. There was no thought, just action.

"Urk!" He grunted, as it stabbed in, blood gushing out. No. There was too much for it to be blood.

"A water clone!" I realised.

"Good work, Shikako," Kakashi-sensei praised. He was right by our little formation. He must have raced for us the instant Zabuza revealed himself. "Let's get rid of this fog, yeah?"

He pulsed with chakra, whipping the air around him and blowing the fog away. Being able to _see_ again was relieving.

"A Nara, huh?" Zabuza's voice echoed. "Yeah, I've run into your clan before." He chuckled. "What a joke."

I scowled. He wasn't just using _intimidation_ tactics, but trying to get me angry as well. Either option would cloud my thinking. The type of ninja who fought with huge swords and massive jutsu often looked down on us, but I knew better. Tactics, subtlety and misdirection nearly _always_ trumped straight force. And that was exactly what Zabuza was trying to do. He was blending to the shadows, making _us _exhaust ourselves. In a small way, it was an achievement that he even registered me.

I told myself that. It didn't stop the little bubble of anger. Clan pride was always such an easy target. I could take insults to myself - they hurt but I could shake them off - but calling my _family _a joke?

_Breathe. He's doing it on purpose. Control yourself and you control your environment. Control your environment and you control the battle_. It was a pithy saying, but the meaning was true and deep.

"Stay alert," Sensei murmured. Or sensei's clone? I squinted at it. There were more chakra signals in the area then there were people. "We're only just getting started."

"No, I think we're finishing up," Zabuza rasped, appearing behind him, sword already swinging.

I was the only one not surprised when Sensei dissolved into a splash of water.

"Behind you," Kakashi-sensei announced, kunai pulled tight against Zabuza's throat.

"Hmp. So you copied my water clone," Zabuza mused. "Good. But not good enough." And then he dissolved into water. Clones behind clones. My head ached trying to see who was truly leading this fight.

Sensei reacted a fraction of a second before he would have been decapitated. There was a brief flurry of taijutsu, dragging the two of them away from us. Zabuza's fighting style was brutal and his ability to control the massive weight of Kubikiri Bocho was nothing short of astonishing, even when momentum and inertia should have dragged it from his hand. Kakashi-sensei ducked and dodged and weaved around it, but was retreating step by step, away from us and onto the water.

Against a Mist ninja, that was probably the last place you wanted to be.

Sensei seemed to be handling it though. He was trying to keep distance between the two of them, relying more on ninjutsu than risking another taijutsu confrontation.

Then, abruptly, he was sucked under water.

"Water Release; Water Prison!" Zabuza shouted. A mass of water swirled and rose from the lake, Kakashi-sensei trapped inside it. "Water clones don't have to be formed on the surface, you know, they can wait patiently beneath the water until the unwary walk over them." He smirked.

Once I might have wondered if Sensei had done it on purpose. Going _into_ the water against a Mist ninja seemed like asking for trouble. Only now, looking at the horror on his face, I knew there was no chance it was part of a plan.

_Shit_.

Sensei, in trying to protect us and draw Zabuza away had miscalculated. He hadn't expected the Water Prison. Why should he have? True to it's name the Water Prison didn't actually harm - well, no more than being held underwater for a prolonged period of time - and actually limited the caster. It seemed a bizarre choice of jutsu to use.

_Why capture sensei and not hurt him?_

A clone was more than enough to deal with three Genin, without even considering Haku in the trees, but still… it seemed so odd. If he knew how much of a threat Kakashi-sensei was, if he was such a well known ninja that his death would increase Zabuza's reputation, why not go for the killing blow to get him out of the way permanently?

"This prison made of water, but it's stronger than steel. Hard to fight when you can't move." He smirked. "So much for the great Kakashi. I'll finish you off later. But first for your little friends. Water Clone Jutsu!"

A clone unfolded from the water. It strode forward. My mouth went dry; there was nothing between it and us. No sensei, no safety.

"You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja. When you've hovered between life and death so many times it doesn't faze you, then you may be called a ninja. When you've become so deadly your profile is entered in my Bingo Book, then you may have earned the title _ninja_. But to call upstarts like you 'ninja' is a joke."

Naruto clenched his fists. Zabuza was hitting him where it hurt. He was _proud_ of being a ninja and he'd worked hard to get there. "Ah, shut up!" Naruto shouted. "Iruka-sensei gave me this headband and _he _decided I was good enough to be a ninja!" He formed a cross seal with his fingers. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Fifty Naruto's charged forward, dog piling onto the water clone. Their team cohesion was a lot higher than it had been during the bell test and not a single one got in each other's way. It didn't help them, though.

"Che," Zabuza's clone said, throwing them off to explode into chakra smoke. "Shadow Clones huh? They wont help you. It'd take a thousand of you to even match me!"

There was a glint in Naruto's eye that seemed to say 'challenge accepted'.

Sensei _growled._ "Listen! Get the bridge builder and run. You can't win this fight!"

Sensei was talking. Underwater. I took a completely inappropriate moment to marvel at it. I knew there was a jutsu that could strip oxygen from the water to allow you to breathe, but that was just…

"Zabuza can only fight you with his water clone, but the clone can't go far from his real body! If you get away, he can't follow you. Now run!"

Sensei would probably be fine. Maybe. Zabuza didn't seem to want to kill him. But he had a partner that sensei didn't know about; Haku. Getting away wouldn't stop him.

And … sensei might _not_ be fine.

I swallowed, that thought twisting my gut.

"Not an option," Sasuke said firmly. "That became impossible the instant you got caught. No matter how far we run, he'll track us down and wipe us out. Any defence we have… he can get around it in an instant. If we're on our own…"

I was thankful to Sasuke for making that decision. He'd assumed the position of mission leader, given us our objective and direction. I didn't _have_ to make that decision now. I only had to follow.

"Shikako!" Sensei tried again. "Be sensible! Take the team and go!" I stared at him. Why single me out? Did he think I could _make_ them? Did he think I was most likely to run? Did he think I could just… leave him there?

"We've got to rescue him," Sasuke said, voice low.

I drew in a breath, then let it out slowly. "Distance is no safety," I agreed. But my mind was blank. I could think of nothing.

Water, he was using water. Water was strong against fire, but weak to … lightning. And Earth.

No. Wait. Back up further. We had two objectives. Stop the clone attacking us. And free sensei. Zabuza couldn't move away from the Water Prison, so making him move would force him to release it.

Make him move.

Well.

What was I, a Nara or something?

Carefully, unobtrusively, I activated my shadow. Behind us were trees. They circled the clearing, right down to the water's edge. I could do this.

"We _are_ ninja," Naruto shouted fiercely. "We _wont_ run away!"

"What are you doing?" Kakashi-sensei shouted, frustration in his voice. "This fight was over the moment I got caught. Now take Tazuna and run! Your mission is not to prove how brave you are; it's to save the bridge builder! Stay on mission!"

Naruto flinched. "Bridge builder?" He asked, voice abnormally tentative.

Tazuna sighed, shoulders slumping over. "I guess this all happened because of me and my desire to live. But I wont let that stand in your way now. Forget about me and do what you have to do! Go and fight to save your sensei!"

Tazuna really was courageous. Defying Gatou to build a bridge to save his people and now…

Accepting the inevitable is a kind of courage too.

Although, our defeat only _appeared_ inevitable.

"Alright," Sasuke said. The corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk. "You hear that?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. Let's do this!"

I straightened. "I'll back you up." I couldn't tell them what I was actually doing, but I hoped they guessed.

Zabuza's clone just chuckled at our determination. "You really haven't learnt anything, have you? Still playing your little games, pretending to be ninja. When I was your age, this hand had already crushed many opponents."

"Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist…" Kakashi-sensei said.

"Heh. So I was in your book too." Zabuza sounded more resigned than proud.

"Long ago, the Village Hidden in the Mist, was also known as the Village of the Bloody Mist, " Kakashi-sensei started.

I quirked an eyebrow. Were we really going to have a history lesson in the middle of battle? Well never let it be said that I didn't appreciate proper stalling tactics. I was appreciating them a whole lot right now. I had to move my shadow deep into the forest, where it wouldn't be seen from the clearing, then circle around. The more Kakashi-sensei could stall, the better.

"Before a student could become a ninja, they had one final test…"

I shivered. I already knew this story, but his grim tones held my attention. Yes, I was glad I had been reborn in Konoha.

"You know about the graduation exam?" Zabuza asked, sounding honestly surprised. I suppose he had a right to be. That exam hadn't been held for almost twenty years.

"What? What's the big deal?" Naruto asked. "We had graduation exams too…"

"Did you have to kill the other students to pass?" Zabuza asked, seeming amused. "Imagine, young ninja like you, eating together, training together, and then comes the final exam. And then the rules changed. You couldn't stop until you killed your opponent. He was your friend, shared your dreams. Now it's either him … or you."

"But the exam changed," Kakashi-sensei continued. "One year, a boy, not even a ninja, approached the class and without pause or hesitation… took down over one hundred other students."

I couldn't help but suck in a breath. One hundred. That was… a huge number to try and wrap your head around. One hundred people.

"It felt… so good!" Zabuza's clone said, voice edging into a snarl.

Then he attacked. No warning, just an angry explosion of energy. Sasuke took the brunt of the attack, too shocked to properly react. The clone wasn't using his sword, just brutal taijutsu; kicks, knees, elbows.

He flattened Sasuke, laying him out on the ground, then stamping down on him. Sasuke gasped for air.

I abandoned my shadow for a moment, wringing my hands through a rapid set of seals. "Earth Release: Earth Spike!" I yelled, slapping my hands down on the ground. A huge pillar of sharpened earth erupted from the ground, curving around Sasuke, forcing Zabuza's clone to back off.

"You want a thousand of me?" Naruto growled. He and Sasuke didn't call each other 'friend' but they were team mates. "MASS SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" He roared.

I used the distraction that was offered. In the sea of orange, my shadow cut across the ground, slipping out of the trees and seamlessly into the water. The lake was deep, but that changed nothing.

Half my attention remained on watching Naruto and Sasuke fighting. I sent out a shadow spike toward the clone, half to make him dodge, half to convince Zabuza that I was focused on the fight. I didn't want him questioning what I was doing.

The rest of my attention was focused on getting my shadow to Zabuza without attracting his attention. As long as he didn't look down… the water was reasonably clear, he would probably be able to see it on the lake bed.

But Naruto was _good_ at keeping attention focused on him. A thousand Naruto's was a force to be reckoned with, if just for sheer number. The fact that Sasuke was hiding amongst them only made it worse.

_Careful. Careful._

"Shadow Possession Complete!" I announced, then yanked both hands in tightly to my chest.

And Sensei exploded out of the Water Prison like a vengeful god.

The escalation in violence was as sudden as it was alarming. Before, Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza had been fighting minimally. They had used basic jutsu - clones and mist - mixed with taijutsu and trickery. Now, they were throwing overkill jutsu at each other. I couldn't hear what Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza were saying to each other, out there on the water, but I could see them. Zabuza looked… afraid. Sensei's shoulders were tight with anger, and more than that, worry.

He looked like someone who had escaped a horrifying mistake by the narrowest of margins and was going to ensure it _never_ happened again.

By very final and permanent means.

I didn't really have time to watch, however much I would have wanted to. I held my Shadow Possession Jutsu through Sensei's first attack before it gave out to the stress of distance and power difference. Then I turned my attention back to the water clone that was still throwing Naruto and Sasuke about. It wouldn't do for the clone to kill us before Sensei was finished with the real one.

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!" I barked, sending a wall up between Sasuke and the sword attempting to kill him. He flicked me a grateful look, before vaulting over the wall and back into the fray. They weren't actually doing too badly. The fact was, when it came to thinking on the fly, Naruto could be pretty damn crafty.

My chakra was starting to run dry. I could do another earth technique. Maybe two. Jumping into the fight wouldn't help, there were already enough bodies over there. It would leave Tazuna undefended, anyway. I had my shadow and maybe a genjutsu?

I bit my lip. Did genjutsu work on clones? And if they did what would be the best one to use?

"Hah!" Naruto shouted, bursting out of the ground behind Zabuza, grabbing him in a lock. Had he? Yes, he'd tunnelled through the earth, starting in the lee behind my Earth Wall where Zabuza couldn't see. Sasuke took immediate advantage, stabbing him with a kunai straight into the ribs.

"Brats," he growled, dissolving into water.

"Hah," Naruto panted, clones puffing out of existence. "Take that, you freak."

Sasuke smirked. "Heh."

We barely had time to brace ourselves before a wave of water blasted past us, carrying Sensei and Zabuza with it. It was obvious now who was winning.

"Your future, Zabuza," Kakashi-sensei intoned. "Is death!"

Chakra spiked behind me, a signal I had almost forgotten about. Haku!

_Shit. He better not be attacking._

I didn't see him move. He was fast. Very fast. Senbon whistled through the air with inhuman accuracy and Zabuza collapsed. His enormous chakra vanished so fast it felt like it disappeared. But… no, there was still the smallest, tiniest spark burning steady. If I hadn't been looking for it, I probably wouldn't have noticed it.

"Thank you," the crouching boy in the Hunter-nin mask said. "I have been tracking him for some time."

Kakashi looked over him with a lazy eye, crouching to check Zabuza's pulse. "He's dead," he said. It was an odd situation; if Haku had been willing to let him fight Zabuza, then interfering at the moment of the kill seemed suspicious.

Haku crouched and pulled Zabuza's body over his shoulders. "Farewell." He vanished.

There was a beat of silence.

"What the hell?" Naruto exploded. "Who the hell was that guy?"

"That mask marks him as one of the elite Hunter-nin from Hidden Mist," Kakashi-sensei explained, sliding his headband back down. "It's their job to hunt down missing ninja and kill them, in order to protect their village's secrets."

Naruto frowned. "That's so…"

Sensei might have smiled bitterly. I couldn't tell. "That's how life is in the ninja world. Now, we had better get back to our mission …"

He trailed off, swaying where he was standing.

Then, without fanfare, collapsed.


	12. Chapter 11

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: _Fear is the mind killer, _is a quote from Dune. Its such a good line that I had to use it. I haven't read Dune in years and I still remember it. Also please note that I am in no way any kind of engineer. All bridge info was gained from Wikipedia. XD

And, also, thank you very much to everyone who leaves such thoughtful reviews. I appreciate it. You're what inspires me to write the next chapter so very quickly.

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Chapter 11

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_Always keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark ~ Robert Heinlein_

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I sprinted for Kakashi-sensei, boosting my legs with chakra to achieve more than twice my usual speed.

Having your Jounin sensei pass out on you was _not_ a good thing.

I rolled him onto his back, checking the ABC's of first aid.

_Airways. Breathing. Circulation._

For half a second, I panicked over his mask, but it was surprisingly thin material. I could feel his breath puffing out, could measure the slow beat of his carotid pulse. His heart rate was incredibly low, but I didn't worry about that. Ninja were extreme athletes, our hearts were conditioned to have a large stroke volume in order to supply large amounts of oxygen while we were exercising. That meant then, that our resting heart rates were very low due to the much lower oxygen demand. So a slow pulse wasn't automatically something to worry about.

I sat back on my heels, that first flutter of panic fading. My hands walked slowly through the seals, as I formed the Yin chakra. "Yin Release: Diagnostic Jutsu!"

My hands glowed green and I lowered them to his chest. A good medic can assimilate all the information that the jutsu gives them in under a second. I definitely couldn't. I had to focus specifically on different areas in order to clarify and understand the readings my chakra was giving me.

"No water in the lungs," I murmured, frowning with concentration. That was the first thought that had come to mind; that whatever jutsu he was using to breath underwater wasn't as efficient as it appeared. Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case. "Blood pressure… normal. No internal bleeding. No _external_ bleeding. No broken bones." Obviously broken bones anyway. I wasn't sure I'd pick up finer details like hairline fractures. "Nervous system… clear. Chakra system… hmmm."

Yup. That was the most likely problem. His chakra system was practically empty. Not only that, but his Sharingan eye, even covered, was eating chakra at an alarming rate. His chakra production rate only exceeded it by a tiny amount, meaning it would take him a loooong time to recover his full reserves. Chakra exhaustion often caused collapse, but more of the 'my arms and legs aren't working' variety than full out unconsciousness. It was like Kakashi-sensei's system had pre-empted him and just shut down.

But, well, I was hardly a medic-nin. I couldn't tell if there was anything else wrong with him.

"Chakra exhaustion," I told the boys. "He's not going to be getting up any time soon."

They sighed in relief.

"My place isn't far from here," Tazuna offered. He looked remarkably calm, except for the death grip he had on his sake bottle.

I nodded and assessed my chakra levels. They were nearly gutted out. There was no way I'd be able to walk him there with my Shadow Jutsu. "Naruto? Do you think you have enough chakra for a few clones?"

Naruto grinned. "Sure thing!" Several Naruto's shimmered into existence around us, one turning into a stretcher shortly afterwards. I started, then shrugged. They were chakra constructs after all, why couldn't they change their shape? The Shadow Clone Jutsu was the parent jutsu of the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu tree and you could use it to create duplicates of just about anything.

We were greeted with a large measure of relief by Tazuna's daughter - Tsunami - as we arrived, though she looked very worried when she caught sight of Kakashi-sensei limp form.

"Is there somewhere we can put Sensei?" Sasuke asked, once introductions were done.

"There's a guest room upstairs," Tazuna said, looking more relaxed now that he was home than he had been the whole journey. "Do you need anything?"

I cast a worried glance at Sensei. "I don't think so. We'll let you know."

Navigating a stretcher up a narrow flight of stairs is slightly trickier than it sounds, but we managed easily enough.

"So… can you fix him?" Naruto asked, looking at me once we had Sensei situated on a futon.

"Sensei is chakra exhausted. I could do a chakra transfusion but…" I bit my lip nervously. "I… I don't have enough chakra to heal him."

The two exchanged looks that seemed to say 'well, fuck'. I forged on. "I mean, I know a technique… but I've never really used it before…"

"Well, what does it do?" Naruto asked impatiently.

"Umm… It uses other peoples chakra." That was the most simplified version of it. There was more to it than that. You had to purify it and convert it and channel it. If you did it wrong, you could end up with chakra poisoning which was similar to blood poisoning. "I… Naruto has the most chakra out of all of us," I confessed. Sasuke might have been a better match element wise since he'd been lightening element too, but I didn't think Sasuke had enough to heal sensei without sending _him_ into an exhaustion state. No, Sasuke's chakra was more useful in himself.

Naruto didn't even pause. "Yes! You totally can use my chakra. Come on, we have to fix sensei!" He bounced on his feet, previous worry forgotten.

"I don't know if it will work," I said, a ball of nervousness writing in my stomach. Especially since Naruto had… other chakra. Which was supposedly poisonous to people. That was the last thing we needed. "I need to practice. Can you channel chakra to your hands?"

They lit up in a blue glow. Cautiously, I touched it, chakra snaking over it in ribbons. He giggled at the feeling. I have only ever been able to describe how chakra feels like by comparing it to something else. Sensei's chakra is like static electricity, building and buzzing for a moment of attack. Sasuke's is like an ember, smouldering before bursting into flame once more. Shikamaru's is like a lazy black cat winding around your ankles.

Naruto's… Naruto's is like the sun. Bright and cheerful and playful with the potential for scorching, pitiless force. Any Sand nin will tell you that high summer in the desert is the most dangerous time of all.

But there wasn't an ounce of Kyuubi in it.

I puffed out a breath. "I think I can do it." I nodded, as if to convince myself. "Naruto, can you do that _and_ create Shadow Clones?"

He looked puzzled. "Yeah, of course."

"Maybe we should set up a perimeter?" I asked, glancing at Sasuke.

He caught on quickly and nodded. "Hn. Give me four clones and we'll scout out the surroundings and set up a patrol."

Narutos puffed into existence, though they looked less than enthusiastic about following Sasuke.

"Right," I said, trying not to tremble. "Let's do this."

Chakra transfusions weren't used a lot. Long term, they weren't exactly healthy, since the body started actually producing _less_ chakra. Most of the time, Medic-nin just proscribed rest and food in order to rebuild your own reserves. But at the rate that Sensei's chakra reserves were filling even in a weeks time he'd still be at less than half his maximum.

I knelt beside Sensei, Naruto directly across from me. "Yin Release: Chakra Transfusion Jutsu." My hands glowed green. Naruto placed his, glowing blue, overtop of them.

I started drawing it in and purifying it, smoothing out the waves and flows, removing as much of the elemental nature of the chakra as I could, then carefully and delicately introducing it to Sensei's coils. It was slow going and took a lot of concentration.

After ten minutes, my hands started to go numb from the amount of chakra pushing through them. I gritted my teeth and kept going. It _was_ working. Slowly but surely, Kakashi-sensei's chakra system was filling up. It was a little like trying to fill a bucket with a teaspoon, but we'd get there eventually.

Sensei snapped awake so fast I didn't even register. Once second he was out of it, the next, my wrists were pinned in an unforgiving grip and his grey eye bored mercilessly into me.

"Sensei?" I said timidly. My wrists ached at the grip, it felt like my bones were grinding together. I wanted to reinforce them with chakra, but I didn't dare. It might have been taken as a threat, and rule one of dealing with injured jounin is to never make a move that might be considered an attack.

Of course, Naruto clearly hadn't read the same book. "Hey! Hey, Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing?" he exclaimed. Loudly.

Sensei's eye flickered to him, then his grip relaxed. I let out the breath I wasn't aware I had been holding.

"Well, good morning, my cute little students," he said, eye curving as he smiled. "What are you two up to?"

"We're healing you," I answered politely. "Please allow me to finish, sensei."

Like hell was I going to try without asking for permission, not after that.

"Maa, that's not really necessary, Shikako," he replied, waving it off. I huffed in frustration. His chakra levels were only about a quarter filled. While chakra transfusions weren't as good as letting them refill naturally, in this situation I was pretty sure an exception should be made.

"Sensei," I tried. "You really need healing." He looked absolutely unconvinced. I hated arguing. However, I wanted to die even less. "You're the only one with the skill to fight Zabuza if he comes back."

Naruto interrupted me. "Zabuza is dead, remember? That freaky Hunter-nin guy got him."

I bit my lip again. I really had to stop doing that. "I could be wrong but… his chakra was still there. It was compressed but… I think he's still alive." The fight had gone differently to canon, but Haku had still come. And I was pretty sure he had still pulled the same trick. That was the only reason I had sensed deep enough to find Zabuza's chakra. If I hadn't been looking, I wouldn't have found it. But I didn't like trying to use future knowledge without present evidence to back it up. Too many things could change and what I did know was vague.

Sensei looked troubled. "Yes. Hunter nin generally dispose of the body on the spot to prevent people from gaining village secrets. And senbon are not usually killing weapons."

Things always seemed obvious when someone else pointed them out.

I could see him torn between his dislike of healing and the new information he was assimilating.

"Please, Kakashi-sensei?" I added.

He sighed. "It would be for the best."

I nodded at Naruto and we resumed. With Kakashi-sensei awake and able to willingly receive chakra it went much faster than before, but Sasuke had returned by the time we were finished.

"Done," I said, sitting back, exhausted. I pushed by bangs out of my eyes and flexed my fingers. Both my hands were full of pins and needles as they overcompensated for releasing the technique.

"The house is secure," Sasuke reported. "And there are four Shadow Clone patrolling in a reverse rotation pattern. That doesn't cover the water, though."

"Very efficient," Kakashi-sensei said approvingly. "I guess that makes up for ignoring my order before." There was a wry tone to his voice.

Sasuke shrugged and looked away from him. I yawned, then quickly covered it with my hand.

Naruto snorted and crossed his arms looking completely unimpressed. "Shouldn't give stupid orders, then."

Kakashi-sensei sighed. "Well, I suppose that's as good as I'm going to get. Let's go talk to Tazuna then."

Tazuna was surprised to see Kakashi up and about already but grateful to him. We were all exhausted, so dinner was a quiet affair. We set a night watch before conking out. I had dawn watch again, a fact that I was grateful for. I wasn't sure I could have stayed awake for the dusk watch.

Naruto woke me after what felt like not nearly enough sleep. If I'd been at home, you wouldn't have been able to drag me out of bed for love or money, but… Mission.

Grudgingly, I stumbled outside, letting the cold air wake me. Naruto had passed on the location of all the perimeter traps and obstacles, information which had felt like it went in one ear and out the other, but apparently did stick in my memory. I checked them all on automatic, my mind slowly revving itself up back to normal capacity.

Zabuza's encounter had been quite _odd_. I'd even noted that at the time, but had been too distracted by needing to _do_ things. And by terror. I was able to admit that. Fear had been incredibly distracting.

_Fear is the mind killer,_ went the saying. Far too true. Doubly bad since my mind should have been my most important tactical asset.

But now, free from that fear, things started grabbing my attention. Haku. Why stay hidden? Zabuza can't have _expected _he'd need saving, could he? Why attack at all, then? Why the pre-battle conversation? He had to have recognised Kakashi-sensei even before the Sharingan was unveiled. He was pretty distinctive. His chances of success would have been much higher if Kakashi-sensei hadn't known who was attacking. Particularly since Sensei admitted that even his Sharingan couldn't negate Zabuza's skill with the Silent Killing Technique.

It was counter intuitive.

We held a team meeting after breakfast, all four of us and Tazuna crowding around the low table. Tsunami was in the kitchens washing the dishes, and there was a smaller chakra presence upstairs. The grandson we hadn't yet met.

"Alright team," Kakashi-sensei started. "Good news first. You did a good job getting Tazuna to safety and securing the house. Bad news, Zabuza isn't dead. Heavily injured, maybe, but we can count on him coming back for another round. I'd give it a week, at least, which means we have time to get you lot up to scratch."

Sasuke was the only one of us who hadn't heard this information last night and he expressed no surprise at all. I suspected that Naruto had filled him in while I was asleep. Which was good, passing important information on to your team members was part of team work too. No one should be operating in the dark.

Tazuna, on the other hand, was very surprised. "Not dead? But you … how could he have survived?"

Kakashi motioned at me with his hand.

"Err," I stuttered. He wanted me to explain? Why? "The person that collected him wasn't actually a Hunter-nin. He was likely Zabuza's partner. They arrived together and his chakra remained hidden in the trees during the whole fight. He interfered during the end of the fight to save Zabuza's life by putting him in a near death state with his senbon. By protocol, Hunter-nin are supposed to destroy the body in the location that it is killed, in order to prevent it becoming lost, stolen or activating fail safes. The fact that he took it away is highly suspicious. Added to that, although Kakashi-sensei confirmed that Zabuza wasn't breathing and was without a pulse, his chakra was still present."

Kakashi-sensei was staring at me very seriously. "What?" I asked nervously, running over the facts I'd just given. Had I got it wrong?

His eye curved into a smile. "Nothing," he said. _Fake_, I diagnosed, but let it go.

"So what does that mean for us?" Sasuke asked, to the point.

"It means that we're going to run into Zabuza again. He isn't the kind of person to give up. It also means there is another ninja out there with an unknown skill level. He might be more than a match for you."

"How can he be?" Naruto protested. "He wasn't that much older than us!"

"You'll eventually learn, that in the ninja world, there can be people that are younger than you… but stronger than me." I didn't, didn't, glance towards Sasuke, even though that reference fit Itachi to a T. At our age, he had been ANBU captain. It was hard to say he had been stronger than Kakashi then… but he definitely was now.

"Sensei?" I asked tentatively. "That fight… it's bothering me. It was…strange." I didn't know how to word it better than that. "Zabuza's actions…they don't make sense."

Tazuna snorted. "He wanted to kill me. What doesn't make sense?"

I glanced at him. "You're alive," I said bluntly. "He could have struck before any of us knew he was there. But he didn't. He gave up an advantage and gained nothing tangible for it. Why…" I trailed off, looking back at Sensei. His expression was unreadable.

"Why do _you_ think he did it?" Kakashi-sensei asked instead.

I sighed. _If I knew I wouldn't ask_, I wanted to retort. I didn't. Instead, I arched my fingers together and stared at them. The 'thinking seal' didn't actually do anything for me, it was just somewhere to direct my attention. It was also a cue to those around me: shut up, I'm thinking about something.

"It was a warning," I decided. "Zabuza was very forthright about his intentions, even though it would have served him better to sneak up on us, maybe a night time assassination. He had several options where he could have succeed against us, not to mention his partner, the Hunter-nin, who only interfered to remove him from the situation and not to attack us. It's possible he is ideologically opposed to Gatou's plans, given his main argument against the Mizukage involved the extreme oppression in Mist. Therefore, Gatou either has something to use against him, unlikely, something he desperately requires, or he's using Gatou as a cover to accomplish something else."

I sorted through the information I knew, things I assumed, and made several leaps. "If Zabuza is working with the Mist Rebels as rumoured, it's possible that he's trying to gain the support of the Shipping Company for their cause. Given the island nature of the Land of Water, the rebels either have to stay hidden on a small island, or be capable of transporting themselves back and forth quickly and stealthily, which smuggling with the Shipping Company would provide. If he isn't working with the rebels, the most likely consideration for taking this mission would be money, as it has been noted that Gatou is one of the wealthiest men in the world. I can't really think of any other tasks Zabuza could be trying to accomplish in the area. There really isn't much around Land of Waves. Unless he's trying to lie low but then he probably would have avoided us instead."

Tazuna's sake bottle missed his mouth and dribbled down his chin as he stared at me.

Kakashi-sensei hummed. "It's possible," he allowed. "But then Zabuza will feel motivated to complete this mission not just for success of the mission itself, but because it's important to his cause. So he wouldn't deliberately cause complications."

I frowned, staring back down at my hands, to find a counter argument to his devil's advocate. "Unless Gatou has give him reason to believe that he isn't trustworthy, or if the conditions of the arrangement aren't to his satisfaction. Then he would likely draw the mission out to force Gatou's hand in one direction or another." Gatou certainly didn't sound like a man that would honour his word. At least ninja stuck to a mission once it had been accepted. And a rebellion might not have that much to offer him in return for his assistance. Except for hired ninja, of course, which might explain why someone like Zabuza was here in the first place.

It was a good theory, but only a theory. And it relied on a crucial piece of information that I was only assuming. Whether Zabuza really was working with the Rebellion.

"Is it really important?" Sasuke asked. Naruto was wearing a stunned mullet expression.

"People's motives are important," I said quietly. "Because knowing _why_ someone is doing something will help you discover what they're going to do next. For example, if Zabuza was only trying to discover our capabilities, he would probably come up with a way to draw Kakashi-sensei off to attack Tazuna, or use his assassination skills to get around us."

Tazuna went pale and started drinking again.

"But," I continued. "If he's trying to bargain with Gatou, he might stage a huge confrontation or actively sabotage him and blame it on us so that Gatou thinks an alliance with him is in his best interests."

"Wow," Naruto breathed. "That's… incredible! You're really smart."

I flushed. "But I don't know which one is right," I admitted. Dad would have been able to pinpoint the day, time, location and method of attack down to the minute, as well as explain every conceivable reason behind it. Heck, even Shika could have probably done better.

"Well, we'll just have to account for all eventualities, then," Kakashi-sensei said brightly, clapping his hands together, and not offering _any_ opinion on which option he thought was most likely. "So, suggestions?"

Naruto looked at me. I looked helplessly back at him and Sasuke.

"One of us should remain with Tazuna at all times," Sasuke stated. "We should maintain a safe perimeter around the house to prevent intruders or hostage takers. We should scout the bridge before he arrives every morning for traps."

"A textbook answer," Kakashi-sensei said. "Well, you were top of the class, so I guess it's too be expected."

Was that praise or disappointment? I frowned. Judging by Sasuke's blank face, he picked up on the ambiguity too.

It was what we were taught was common procedure. Although, granted, it probably wouldn't do much against Zabuza. The only thing to do there would be to let Kakashi-sensei handle it. Still, Gatou apparently had a small army of thugs and mercenaries working for him and they were covered by our mission orders.

"It doesn't matter what you do," a sour voice interjected. The small chakra presence that had been upstairs was now in the hallway staring at us, giving us our first look at Tazuna's grandson. He was about eight or nine, wearing an oversized bucket hat.

"Oh, Inari!" Tazuna called. "There you are. Come and say hello to these people. They are the ones who protected Grandpa."

"Gatou is too strong. You're only going die!" Inari said, ignoring Tazuna's introduction.

"Sa, kid," I said. "That's the thing about life. No one gets out alive." It was a pithy quote, one I'd remembered for how utterly _true_ it was. Speaking as someone who'd already died once…

I didn't want to die again. There was too much here, too much still to do. And Shika, Chouji, Ino, Sakura, Naruto… I didn't want to leave them behind. There was a place in my heart that still ached terribly whenever I thought about the life I had left behind. I didn't think I could manage that again.

"Well on that cheerful note, lets talk about your assignments for the day."

"Didn't you hear me?" the boy shouted. "Gatou's too strong!"

"Then we'll just get stronger!" Naruto shouted back. "Giving up like a wuss is no way to do things!"

And hearing Naruto say it made it so simple. Why was the issue any more complicated than that? I could give thousands of reasons why it was, but Naruto cut straight to the heart of the matter.

"I'm going to be Hokage one day!" Naruto continued. "Whoever this Gatou guy is, he doesn't stand a chance against me!"

"Pff, what do you think you are? A hero? There's no such things as heroes." That was a lot of scorn from such a little kid. "If you don't want to die, you should leave." He turned to go back upstairs.

"If we leave," I said calmly, reasonably, "then it will be your Grandfather that dies."

He froze and cast a stricken look back at us, then bolted for the stairs, slamming the sliding door shut behind him.

"Sorry," Tazuna said, lowing his face in shame. "Gatou's oppression of Wave Country has resulted in many terrible things. It's been hard on a lot of people, Inari included."

"People react in many different ways to traumatic events," I said shrugging. "Trying to pull others down into misery with them is fairly common. Misery loves company and all that."

"We'll show him," Naruto said fiercely, staring at the now shut door. "There _are so_ such things as heroes."

In Naruto's personal, private world, everything existed as so much larger than life. There were heroes and there were monsters, there were dragons to be fought and princesses to be rescued, and there was fame and appreciation and crowds roaring with applause for the one who managed it. He was determined to be one of those heroes.

Sasuke might not have believed in heroes, but Sasuke believed in getting stronger. Inari's 'give up or you'll die' attitude was the antithesis of everything he believed. Sasuke believed 'if you give up, you die'.

"Right," Kakashi-sensei said, shifting a bit. "Now, how are you boys at Tree Walking?"

"Awesome!" Naruto said. "I don't fall off anymore at all!"

Sasuke nodded.

That was kind of impressive. It'd been less than a week since I showed them, and we'd been doing missions and other training too. Then again, Sasuke was mule-headed stubborn once he got something in his head to do and Naruto had had Shadow Clones training with him.

"Good, good. That'll help your control." Sensei scratched his chin through his mask. "Given the location, I think it'd help you learn water walking."

Which made sense. Pretty much any place we fought was going to have large quantities of water in it.

"Since Shikako can already do that, she can go with Tazuna to the bridge today."

Naruto spotted a flaw in this arrangement. "And what are you going to be doing? Huh Sensei?"

Kakashi-sensei smiled at him cheerily. "Oh, this and that. More of that than this, I think."

There was a second of disbelief, which was starting to become the norm when Kakashi-sensei sprouted off nonsensical lines. Sasuke shook his head in disgust.

Naruto crossed his arms and glowered. "Probably going to laze around reading your stupid book," he huffed.

Sensei looked affronted. "Icha Icha isn't stupid."

Okay, _that_ was enough of the comedy act. "Tazuna," I said, turning to the bridge builder. "What time do you normally begin work at the bridge?"

"As early as I can," Tazuna replied. "A lot of the men get there before me since these old bones don't like the mornings like they used to. They know what to do, in any case. I'm more like the overseer, the manager of the project."

"Alright." An idea came to me. "Hey, Naruto, how long do your clones last?"

He blinked away from his glaring at Sensei. "Eh, I don't know. Why?"

"Can I take one with me? In case I need to call for reinforcements or pass a message, or something?"

"Oh! Because of the memory thing! Sure."

Okay, so _I_ was abusing the Shadow Clone Jutsu and I didn't even know it. But it wasn't like it was hurting Naruto or anything. The last thing I wanted was to be stranded alone and facing Zabuza or Haku without any way to call for backup. Even if I suspected that Sensei would be around and keeping an eye on things.

"And maybe keep one at the house with Tsunami and Inari? In case people try and come after them?"

Naruto nodded eagerly. I was a little worried he would complain about the extra work, but I think he liked being important. His clones seemed to be indispensable. Well, they were. Coordinating things between team members was one of the big stumbling blocks of ninja teams, particularly when spread over a large area.

There were ways to do it, summons, messenger birds, radios, certain jutsu and seals, but none of them were readily available to us at the moment.

This was, so I was going to make the most of it.

I followed Tazuna to the bridge, leaving him with the clone for a short period of time to dash ahead and check for ambushes or traps. There was nothing, thankfully. The workers seemed highly relieved to see Tazuna; they must have worried ever since he left to hire ninja. They seemed like good people; hard workers and brave enough to go against Gatou by building the bridge. Given the state of the economy, I can't imagine that Tazuna was able to pay them much, if at all for their help.

The bridge was _huge._ I had noted that before, when we had sailed past it, but from up here it was even more obvious. The distance between the Land of Waves and the Land of Fire was maybe a kilometre, maybe a bit more. The width of the bridge would have been six lanes, easily. Even in my old world, a bridge that size would have been unique.

As far as I could understand, the bridge was a simple structure beam bridge, with nearly one hundred pairs of piers dug deep into the ocean floor. Beam bridges tended to be short spans, because they grew weaker with length due to the compression forces on the deck, but using so many piers meant there were many short spans instead of one long one. The piers themselves connected into a support frame called a trestle.

It all seemed much more complicated than I had thought it would be. I'd never really thought about _how_ bridges were built before.

Most of this information I gleaned listening to Tazuna talk to the workers and the conversations between the workers themselves. There was also a fair bit of complaining about Gatou. Apparently the situation had become much worse in the time that Tazuna had been gone. Food prices were up because supplies were down again. Someone's warehouse had burnt down under suspicious circumstances. Someone's food stall had been charged extra 'taxes'; _that_ sounded like a standard protection racket charge. A dozen of Gatou's men had gotten drunk at the pub and started a bar brawl that ended with a few locals seriously injured. The local doctor had been called to a port town on the coast and hadn't been able to return.

Tazuna listened grimly and offered what hope he could. It was grouchy, terse encouragement, but it was hope all the same. These people looked up to him. They trusted that his bridge would make things better. Tazuna wasn't the village mayor or elder or anything of the kind, but he might as well have been.

I shadowed Tazuna for most of the morning, scouting the bridge for hazards and ambush sites and potential avenues of attack if we were ambushed. I listened to the conversations around me but eventually I retreated to the top of a stack of crates that nobody was using. From there I could see most of the bridge and keep an eye on Tazuna easily.

It also meant I had a chance to sit down. I felt exhausted. After yesterday, both fights, then healing Kakashi-sensei my chakra was severely depleted. Sleep helped, but it took more than a day to fully replenish your reserves. I'd taken in a bit of Naruto's chakra during the transfusion - not by choice, but simply because it slipped away from me, which was probably the only reason I wasn't _actually_ chakra exhausted. That was probably also the reason that Sensei hadn't given me any training to do while I watched Tazuna.

"This is boring," the Naruto clone groaned, stretching out on the crates beside me.

"A little," I agreed. "Did you want to play Shogi?"

I had a tiny travel set sealed into my scroll. The pieces were all magnetised to stick to the board so you didn't lose them. I could play _and_ keep an eye on Tazuna easily enough.

"I don't know how," Naruto admitted. Naruto's clone. It was hard to remember that it wasn't the real one.

"That's okay. I'll teach you," I said, unsealing it and placing it on the crates between us. "It'll make the time go faster."

Naruto was a pretty awful player. He couldn't remember what pieces did what, or work out how to use them together to create game tactics. That was alright. I didn't really expect him to pick it up immediately.

When the sun started to creep towards the horizon, I packed the game back up and jumped down to land lightly beside Tazuna.

He flinched. "Oh, it's just you. Where've you been?"

"Keeping watch." I shrugged. "No sign of any suspicious activity."

"Good, good. Let's hope it stays that way." He peered at the groups still working. "We'll be heading off now. Got to stop by the shops to pick up some groceries for Tsunami, though."

I nodded. "Alright." I turned to Naruto. "Why don't you dispel and let the others know we'll be home soon?"

"Sure thing!" He dispelled in a puff of smoke.

Tazuna shook his head. "Still don't know how you can do things like that."

"Ninja tricks," I said wryly. He wouldn't care for a technical explanation anyway. Civilians barely believed in chakra let alone understood how it worked.

The town was bustling, but not in a good way. There were beggars holding signs and raggedy children running about with no shoes on. People were just … standing about. And the shops were nearly empty. Only a few, pitiful examples of vegetables at outrageous prices. Tazuna brought the barest of minimum food that would feed seven people… and even then the price was beyond what it would cost to feed that many people in a respectable restaurant in Konoha.

I thought guiltily of the food packs stashed into my bag. Maybe I should share them? It was to feed us, after all.

We heard Naruto before we saw him. In order to master water walking, he had created a whole army of clones, running suicidally from dock at the back of the house onto the water. A large number by Naruto's was, by definition, _loud_. Still they were actually managing to get a fair way out before stumbling and falling in.

Sasuke looked equally wet and bedraggled, but there was only one of him. Like Naruto, he was also mostly capable of water walking. Once you had mastered the ability to channel out your feet, it was only a matter of adjusting _how_ you were channelling. After learning tree walking, water walking was much easier.

"Hey," I greeted, standing on the dock to watch them. "How are you guys doing?"

"I've nearly got it, see?" A Naruto exclaimed, before wobbling and falling in. Three more cried out as his fall disturbed the water underneath them and they failed to compensate for it.

"It's… difficult," Sasuke said, diplomatically, frowning at the water.

"It feels very unstable, doesn't it?" I commiserated.

"Hn. How was the bridge?"

"No sign of either Zabuza or the Hunter-nin. I caught a bit of the local gossip about Gatou - seems he's really pushing the people lately; taxes, shipping tariffs, out and out extortion basically. He has a whole private army, too, made up of wannabe samurai and such."

"What a jerk," Naruto commented with a scowl.

"Yup," I replied. "The town is a mess too. This must have been going on for a while before Tazuna decided to start the bridge. It's horrible."

"Heh. Well, that's why we're here, right?" Naruto asked. "We're going to make sure it gets better." There was no hesitation in his voice, just sheer confidence. _This is how it's going to be. _

I smiled brightly at him.


	13. Chapter 12

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Thank you everyone for the wonderful reviews. If you left questions, I try to reply to them with PM's. Still, there was one anonymous reviewer who made a point that I feel I should clarify - Kakashi's sharp interest in Shikako's post battle analysis wasn't a huge thing, it was just that (if you read it carefully) there was a small tidbit of information that hadn't been mentioned before; that Haku had come with Zabuza and was present for the whole fight. She knew it, we knew it, but it gave Kakashi a pause. Also the fact that she could _tell_ he was there.

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Chapter 12

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_Before anything else, preparation is the key to success. ~Alexander Graham Bell_

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The next day was more of the same. Sensei didn't want to teach us any new Jutsu. He thought it would be better if we simply worked on things that would help our chakra control and improve what we could already do.

I thought that he was maybe a little surprised at how quickly the boys had picked up water walking. They hadn't mastered it in a day, but they were adequate.

I, on the other hand, thought a week was a perfectly reasonable period of time to learn a new jutsu. Naruto, who learnt Shadow Clones in a matter of hours, and Sasuke, who had devoted himself to the Great Fireball Jutsu until he had mastered it, agreed with me.

Sensei's eye roved over our serious yet hopeful faces.

"Please teach us a cool jutsu," Naruto begged.

"There isn't really anything I can teach you that will enable you to match Zabuza," Kakashi-sensei said seriously. "So it'd be best if you mastered the skill you already have. You've done well to learn water walking and tree walking. There are a few more chakra control techniques you could do."

There were as many chakra control techniques as you had imagination, in fact.

"Sensei," I argued softly. "If the next attack comes at the bridge we'll be at a disadvantage. The concrete and steel nature of the deck means my earth jutsu will be limited to the amount of mud I can spit… and that isn't much. Sasuke's fire techniques are, well, useless when there's so much water around." I gave an apologetic shrug in his direction. "Is there anything that you could teach us that might be useful in such a situation? Even if it's just a trick?"

'Trick' was actually ninja slang for a chakra technique that wasn't well known or developed enough to qualify as a jutsu. Over a lifetime, most ninja invented or refined enough tricks to fill a whole jutsu library. And most of them were lost. They were tiny things; breathing underwater, fire sparks to light cigarettes, condensation to refill a canteen, body temperature adjustment on a hot day… things like that.

Sensei sighed. "Well, I suppose there's a minor lightning jutsu or two you _might_ be able to pick up." He stressed the 'might'. He was probably assuming that we'd work out on our own that learning jutsu was more difficult than we thought.

Naruto cheered.

"Alright. Naruto, you're with Tazuna today. Leave a clone here with your team mates and I'll run you through the jutsu." Sensei looked like the thought of teaching us was more hassle than he wanted to contemplate. Yet there was a hit of something else… was he _pleased?_

It was official. Kakashi-sensei made _no sense._

"Okay," Kakashi-sensei said later on, at the start of our lesson. We listened intently. "This is Lightning Release: Striking Bolt. It's a C-rank, short to mid range elemental jutsu. Be _careful_ with it. Water conducts electricity, so it should work well against Zabuza and the Hunter-nin, but it will be just as easy for you to electrocute yourselves or each other."

There were four seals; ox for power, rabbit for control, bird for flight and monkey for lightning. Lightning crackled at his fingertips before leaping away, slamming into a nearby tree leaving scorch marks on the barks.

"You can direct it a little, but mostly it will target the nearest object in the direction you point it. The range is about five meters, give or take. If there's nothing to hit, it will either just ground out… or rebound to hit _you_." He smiled cheerily. "So have fun learning. Try not to hit yourselves."

He vanished.

I felt like sweat dropping. "Eh… maybe we should spread out a bit. And maybe you," I pointed at the Naruto clone. "Should have more clones doing the jutsu so you don't cancel yourself. It wouldn't be good if Naruto tried to learn this on the bridge surrounded by metal and people…"

We spread out, close enough for shouting distance, far enough that we wouldn't accidentally attack each other and got to work.

The interplay between Lightning and Earth, as chakra natures, seemed counter intuitive. Lighting was grounded by Earth, so one would expect Earth to beat Lightning. Instead, it was the other way around.

That's because, when working with chakra, the physicality of the elements isn't the most important aspect; the chakra itself is. Earth Chakra is highly stable, filled with strong bonds between particles. It is most readily shaped for defence, and an army will _break_ on a wall of Earth. Lightning Chakra, on the other hand, is highly agitated, overcharged, energetic. It overloads and shatters bonds.

Introducing Lightning Chakra to an Earth Jutsu will, therefore, cause the Earth Jutsu to collapse.

Which means as a natural Earth type, Lightning was the last thing my chakra wanted to form. It was the complete opposite in both form and ability.

But I had been the one to _ask_ for a technique to learn, so no way was I going to give up.

By lunchtime I had achieved… not very much at all. The yelping and assorted curses flowing through the forest told me that Naruto was slightly ahead of me, but still well behind the 'controlling it' part.

It was a new experience for me, to have to struggle with my chakra like this. Maybe 'struggle' was the wrong word. That implied it was being uncooperative. That wasn't it. I was my chakra and my chakra was me… it was just that I wasn't succeeding as I was used to.

It used a lot of chakra too. My earth jutsu took a fair chunk, but even unfinished this jutsu took more because it wasn't my natural chakra nature.

I took a break. Maybe I'd go get some lunch and bring it out for the boys and wait for my reserves to recuperate.

That sounded like a good idea.

An hour later, I sat on the dock at the back of the house, swinging my feet and savouring my lunch. I'd given Tsunami a stash of my ration bars and the easing of some of the worry in her face had made it worth it. The boys were still working on the jutsu, barely breaking to scoff down the food that I'd brought them.

I hummed to myself, using my chakra to scoop up a ball of water. It was an easy trick. All you had to do was create a ball of chakra and hollow out the inside, leaving a thin shell. The water would be restrained inside, as long as you made the shell thick enough that it didn't leak, and didn't lose concentration.

This kind of thing… didn't use any chakra. What I emitted, I could reabsorb once I was done with it. It was slightly harder to control outside my body, but not by much. I spun the chakra into a hollow tube, like an enclosed straw filled with water. Currently, I could only make it about the width of my finger, but I was planning on eventually making it thin enough to be used as a pen. I could make it thicker, but thinner was harder.

It was highly mobile. I could use it like a whip or a staff, if I wanted. Water was non-compressible, so when I hit something with it, it would act as a solid. Providing that I didn't lose concentration. I'd never actually used it in a fight before.

I didn't actually know how to fight with either staves or whips - beyond the obvious 'hit them with it' - but as a chakra construct it negated a lot of the skill required. I hadn't been intending on using it, but having something solid between myself and Zabuza's huge sword sounded like a good idea. Using water against Haku was probably wasted effort, though, with his Ice blood limit.

I stepped out onto the water, twirling my construct like a staff.

_Longer, shorter, rigid staff to flowing whip…_

The lightning jutsu was the problem though. I _wanted_ to learn it. I knew enough to know I'd probably never be a ninjutsu fighter, but that didn't mean I didn't want to learn jutsu. They were interesting. Fascinating. Magical. Not for what they did but for what they _were_.

And the fact that Sensei taught us it. I couldn't _not_ learn it. What would he think? Would he ever give us anything to learn ever again?

_So how to learn something that goes directly against my nature?_

It was possible to learn elemental recombination for different elements. It wasn't really necessary for jutsu of this level, and I had no idea how to go about it anyway. Being able to use 'pure' elemental chakra made jutsu stronger, certainly but people could do elemental ninjutsu without being able to convert chakra to different elements.

That was the problem. Converting elements. My earth affinity didn't go to lightning.

_Converting…_

Something tickled the back of my mind. Converting. Changing from one form to another. Adapting. Altering. Transferring.

I frowned.

_Transferring? Transfusion?_

Part of the chakra transfusion jutsu _was_ purifying chakra of its elemental affinity, yes. But that was other people's chakra… well no. I had used Naruto's because I didn't have much chakra. But you could use your own.

You'd still have to purify it then. So, there _was_ a way to purify your own chakra of it's elemental affinity. Then you'd have base chakra to work with. I'd still have to convert it to lightning… but I wouldn't be trying to swim against the current, so to speak.

That was my plan then. I'd work on it this afternoon to see if it was viable.

Dinner came quickly. I'd made _some_ progress on the Striking Bolt jutsu. Purifying chakra was something I already knew how to do, but using it on my own chakra, then holding that base chakra separate, _then_ trying to use it in a jutsu was taxing. The process had to be repeated each time I tried to use the lightning jutsu, and it was time consuming.

The boys bolted their food down and raced back outside to keep practicing. Or, in Naruto's case, to finally start practicing, since he'd been complaining about how boring being at the bridge was. I wondered how strange it felt to be in two (or many) different places at once. It didn't seem to be affecting him negatively, so I shrugged it off.

"Not going to join them?" Kakashi-sensei asked, amused.

"My chakra supplies are low," I said with a yawn. "It'd be more efficient for me to rest and keep training in the morning."

That didn't stop me from casting a long look at the door though. More efficient, yes, but I had been _close_ to getting it. I was sure.

The next day was Sasuke's turn to guard the bridge, while Sensei disappeared off to do whatever scouting Sensei did during the day, leaving me with Naruto. Naruto who had had dawn watch so was wide awake and _LOUD_ while I was still blinking sleep out of my eyes.

" - was a boy, but he was prettier than Sakura-chan!" Naruto said, waving his chopsticks in the air. "That's so weird. He was looking for some herbs or something and he asked me if I was a ninja -"

His voice droned on. I blinked at him. Something about that was very familiar.

"- name was Haku, he was pretty neat, he asked me if I had precious people to protect …" His voice trailed off pensively.

_Ah_. That was it. I couldn't work up the energy to be worried about it. Haku hadn't attacked him and it wasn't like Tazuna's location was secret or anything. The fact that Naruto _had_ run into him meant that he hadn't got near the house, which was the whole point of the night watch. I couldn't fault Naruto for being friendly about it.

"Do you?" I asked, picking at my breakfast.

"Do I what?" Naruto repeated, snapping out of his thoughts.

"Have precious people to protect?" That was a bit of a tongue twister.

He looked startled, but grinned. "Of course! There's the old man and Iruka-sensei and the Ichirakus and you and I guess even Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei…"

_Me?_ I blinked, ignoring the warm feeling in my chest. "Well, I guess we better go start training, so we can do that protecting."

Inari gave a snort, but we both ignored it. I wasn't really in the mood for one of his _resistance is futile_ talks.

The week passed. Sasuke, unsurprisingly, ended up with the strongest lightning attack which led me to believe that his secondary affinity _was_ lightning, and it probably wasn't much weaker than his fire affinity. Naruto's attack was weaker, comparatively, and less controlled, but since he had so much chakra he could throw more of them. My attack was decent, but the amount of time it took me to mould and convert my chakra to use it was much longer than either of theirs. Long enough to be a risk in battle.

"Well done, team," Sensei said. "I must admit, I didn't actually expect you all to learn that." He smiled cheerily. We all stared back smugly. Exceeding his expectations felt _good_. "Alright then. Tomorrow is the most likely time for Zabuza to attack. By now he should have healed from the near death state the Hunter-nin put him in. That said, all of us are going to be accompanying Tazuna to the bridge tomorrow."

It seemed that Sensei did think that Zabuza was going to stage a confrontation. We exchanged _looks_, half anticipation, half excitement, half dread. We'd been expecting an attack through the whole week and it had been tiring. It finally have it in sight…

We prepared carefully in the morning, amped for the coming fight.

"Maybe Naruto should leave a few clones by the house," I suggested before we were about to leave. "To make sure they don't come after Inari and Tsunami." Hostage situations were tense and unnerving and very rarely had a good outcome.

"Good thinking," Naruto said, creating a few clones to guard the house. Some of them stayed obvious, others hid themselves in the forest.

Tazuna eyed us all warily. "You sure about this?"

"Fairly sure," I tried to smile reassuringly at him. I'm not sure it really worked.

"… I don't pretend to know about being a ninja, but shouldn't we avoid walking into a trap?" Tazuna asked doubtfully.

"The trap you know about is less dangerous than the trap you don't," Sasuke recited easily. "Springing an obvious trap is a chance to turn it back against the ambusher."

"Don't worry, old man! You've got Naruto Uzumaki with you! We're going to win this!" Naruto grinned, fierce and sharp. "Zabuza doesn't stand a chance against us!"

As we closed in on the bridge, I felt it. There was no need to race ahead to check.

"They're here."


	14. Chapter 13

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Nemesis Jedi - thanks for the wonderful review and for pointing out discrepancy. I just realised I forgot to close that plot point properly. Yes they do know, and assume it either got better with age, or she's just working through it on sheer stubbornness. I'll try and address the issue somewhere along the line, though it probably wont be till after the Wave Arc. And to all reviewers, questions are always welcome, because sometimes I don't even realise I've missed things. XD

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Chapter 13

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_Betrayal is the only truth that sticks. ~ Arthur Miller_

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"They're here."

My heart pounded and my pulse raced. I smiled grimly.

_Time to dance. _

Kakashi-sensei was the only one who could take Zabuza. One of us needed to guard Tazuna. That left two for Haku and that was assuming they hadn't brought anyone else with them. What combinations would work best?

My first instinct was to place myself with Tazuna. I'd already noted that Shadow Jutsu were good for body guarding. But I could remember, vaguely, what Naruto and Sasuke had been hit with. It had not gone well.

Calling senbon hard to kill with was a bit of an exaggeration. In the end, they were 20cm of pointy metal. Aimed with slightly less precision, Sasuke might have actually died.

But his speed and Sharingan were probably our greatest asset against Haku's speed. I was fairly fast, particularly if I boosted my speed with chakra, but I didn't think I'd be able to match Haku's mirrors. But Naruto had been the one to get through to him, to commiserate with him.

The bridge loomed eerily out of the fog. Land of Waves had a lot of fog, but even at a distance I could tell this fog was imbued with chakra. It was Zabuza's Hiding in the Mist Technique.

We walked forward. Trap or no trap, we needed to face them.

"What the-?" Tazuna gasped seeing his men spread out, lying lifelessly on the bridge. It was a creepy scene, as though we had just walked in on the middle of a massacre. _Intimidation tactics again_.

"They're alive," I said quietly, seeking out their chakra. It was weak - civilian level - but pulsing steadily. "Just knocked out." That was another mark in our favour. Killing the bridge workers would stop it being built just as surely as killing Tazuna.

Whatever Zabuza's true goals were, they weren't as obvious as he proclaimed.

"Well, well. You just couldn't wait for round two, could you?" Kakashi-sensei said to the open air, a hint of black humour in his voice. The fact was, after merely a week, Zabuza couldn't _possibly_ be on top form, while Kakashi-sensei was completely recovered.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Kakashi," Zabuza rasped, voice coming from everywhere at once. It was still hard to sense with the mist covering chakra signatures, but I had experience at it now. He was circling us at a distance, looking for an opening. "I see you've still got those brats with you."

"Sa…" Kakashi-sensei acknowledged, with a tilt of his head. "They kind of grow on you. Like a fungus." He added helpfully, completely shattering the affection his previous statement had built.

"Fungus!" Naruto spluttered, indignant. "Who are you calling a fungus?"

"Gee, sensei," I said dryly. "Love you too."

Sasuke gave a disapproving 'hn', though whether it was for Sensei's comment, or simply the silly banter I didn't know.

Zabuza chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm prepared for you this time." His voice came in stereo, as shapes started moving in the fog. Two, then three then six then finally ten identical forms surrounding us at a distance. They were arranged in a circle, covering all directions, with enough room between them to swing their swords - and far enough away that they could see my shadow coming.

"Water clones," I said under my breath. "All of them. Real ones at one o'clock, one hundred fifty meters off Sensei." Using Sensei as a marker point, Zabuza and Haku were straight ahead and slightly to the right. The rest of us had automatically moved to box Tazuna in and were facing different directions, hence why I had to specify who I was marking off.

We were all eager to leap into battle but the way that the clones were spread out one person wouldn't be able to take them all. But if all three of us went to fight, the real Zabuza and Haku could take on Sensei and Tazuna.

"Clones for clones?" Sasuke suggested.

Sasuke willingly standing back to let Naruto attack? That was surprising. Good strategy, but surprising all the same. On the other hand, I was glad that _I_ didn't have to suggest it.

I could _hear_ Kakashi-sensei smile. "You heard the man, Naruto. Think you're up for it?"

"Oh, yeah!" Naruto growled. "I've been waiting for this. Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

He didn't spam out clones. There were only about twice as many as Zabuza had water clones. They attacked with what was one of the most basic combinations - distract and takedown. One clone would attack to form an opening - either with taijutsu, thrown kunai or Striking Bolt - which the other would then take. The clones that succeeded would then turn to help their neighbours. Some of the initial attacks hit and some of the clones were sacrificed outright but Naruto seemed to be rapidly learning how to dodge giant sword swings.

All in all, it was a fairly successful blitz attack. Of course, even with the clones destroyed, that still left us encircled by water. That was something to keep an eye on.

"Even if those clones were merely a tenth of the strength of your original water clone… it is still impressive that he managed to take them all out, Zabuza-sama," a second, perfectly calm voice said. The Hunter-nin. Haku.

There was a blur of body flicker speed, and both Zabuza and Haku appeared in front of our team. The fog swirled around them, disturbed by the sudden movement. Haku was still wearing the Hunter-nin mask, taunting us with the fact that we believed his lies in our last encounter.

"So I had it right," Kakashi-sensei said, unsurprised. His ability to remain casually conversational even after being attacked was enviable. "It was all an act."

"So, all that about being a tracker ninja protecting his village was a lie?" Tazuna asked warily.

"They look pretty chummy to me," Kakashi-sensei agreed. "I'd say they've been pulling scams like that for a long time. And hiding behind that mask, who does he think he's fooling?" Kakashi-sensei's tone was congenial and completely false. The irony of that comment.

"Certainly not you, sensei," I agreed. The high tension of battle appeared to bring out my snarky side. I hadn't been aware I had one.

_You learn something new everyday…_

Still, I was perfectly content to follow Kakashi-sensei's lead on this. If he wanted to do pre-battle banter, we could do pre-battle banter. Another history lesson or exposition dump would have been nice though…

"Heh, he thinks he's got you all worked out, Haku," Zabuza rasped, looking at his companion. Like Kakashi-sensei he appeared to be completely at ease with the situation. I guess it was something that came with experience.

"Haku?" Naruto repeated uncertainly. He recognised the name. I wasn't surprised. That one conversation made a big impact on him. _Protecting precious people_ was an idea that resonated deeply within him. He had trained harder than ever after than conversation and repeated those words to Inari with deep conviction.

The Hunter-nin removed his mask, showing a surprisingly pretty face. "Hello again, Naruto. I told you we would meet again soon."

"You were there… on purpose?" Naruto asked, off balance. There was a hint of vulnerability in his voice, as if expecting Haku's wisdom and kindness to have been lies.

Haku smiled softly. "No. I was really just gathering herbs. It was just lucky coincidence that we ran into each other."

"But… you're such a nice person! Why are you working for that jerk Gatou?" Naruto was distressed, I could tell. But I hoped that this conversation would lead to a revelation… or a resolution.

Haku flinched and dropped his eyes from Naruto's searching gaze. "It is not pleasant. But in this world of shinobi… we must do things which we do not enjoy in order to further our own dreams. Gatou is… a necessary evil."

"He's destroying this country!" Naruto shouted back. "The people… the kids… They're all in trouble because of him! Without this bridge, they'll all starve!"

We'd all seen it, walking around the village. People were _already_ starving and things were only getting worse.

"Please don't hate me. I, too, want to protect someone precious to me. To work for that person. To fight for that person. To make that person's dreams come true. That is my dream. For that I became a shinobi. For that reason… I will do these things…" His voice trailed off into a murmur, dropping from the strident tones he had begun with.

"Haku is my tool," Zabuza cut in, leaning on his sword menacingly. "He'll do as he's told."

That just _incensed _Naruto. He clenched his fists. "A tool? A tool? What kind of explanation is that? He just said he'd work for your dreams and all you call him is a tool?" He nearly leapt for Zabuza, all his muscles tensed.

"Naruto," Kakashi-sensei said, voice soothing. "Stay calm. Remember our mission. We have to protect Tazuna, so you can't go getting angry like that."

"I am happy to be Zabuza-sama's tool," Haku said honestly. "It gives my life meaning. In this world… there is nothing more painful than being an unwanted person…"

"Unwanted…" Naruto repeated quietly.

"When I met you in that forest," Haku continued, "I knew we were the same. I knew that you would understand this… If you met someone who acknowledged you so completely… would you not do anything to make them happy?"

"It's still not right," Naruto argued. "You can find other reasons. And why's Zabuza got to do this anyway?"

"Care to shed a little light, Zabuza?" Kakashi-sensei commented lightly, but his eye was watchful.

Zabuza snorted. "For the money. Why else?" He hefted his huge sword onto his shoulder. "All this talking… it's not achieving anything. Give up the bridge builder."

"We can't do that, I'm afraid," Kakashi-sensei retorted pleasantly. "But we don't have to fight. You could still leave."

Offer and counter offer. Both refused.

_Didn't expect anything else, really_,I thought.

"Haku." Zabuza didn't add anything else, but it was enough. Haku sprang into action, straight for us.

I had considered many plans of action when it came to this situation. I had created many tactics and discarded many more.

But I had overlooked one crucial, tiny factor.

I hadn't told my team mates.

"We got this!" Sasuke growled, leaping forward.

I watched helplessly as the two boys charged Haku. I wanted to grab them, to drag them back and make them listen to me. I couldn't. There was no time anymore.

_Shit. Note to self; communication is key._

Naruto and Sasuke worked as a good team, surprisingly. Sasuke was the main force of the attack, engaging Haku's attention while Naruto flittered about, distracting, creating openings, preventing Haku from taking advantage of Sasuke's mistakes.

The thing is, Taijutsu fights don't go down like in DBZ or anything. There isn't an exchange of blows, perfectly blocked, that lasts five episodes. Usually it's over pretty quickly, as one overpowers or out thinks the other. Then everyone has to step up their game.

Haku was thrown backwards.

He flipped back to his feet easily. "I don't want to have to kill you," he said, a frown creasing his brow, "but you wont stand down, will you?"

Sasuke snorted. "Don't be foolish."

"You're the one losing," Naruto added.

"I see. You two make a formidable opponent. However, do not think that you can match my true skills." He drew senbon, holding them between his fingers like Wolverine claws. We'd already seen what Haku could do with those needles.

"You're not as fast as you think. From this point on, you'll be the one defending from our attacks," Sasuke said, landing on one side of him while Naruto landed on the other. He was trapped between them for now. "Thought you were quicker, huh? Now what else are you wrong about?"

"You made a bit of a mistake, insulting these ninja and calling them brats," Sensei said casually, giving the impression he was only half paying attention to the fight. "That's just guaranteed to bring out Sasuke's attitude, and he's the best young fighter of the Hidden Leaf."

Sensei's phrasing was interesting. 'Young fighter'. Not Rookie of the year, not Genin. Just how good did Sensei think Sasuke was? I already knew we weren't average. None of our year was. It was hard to keep it in perspective sometimes, but Rookie 9 was extraordinary.

"Shikako here is definitely our sharpest mind. And Naruto… our most unpredictable ninja." The praise was nice, even if it wasn't completely truthful. Shika was smarter than I was but I didn't expect Kakashi-sensei to know that.

"Haku," Zabuza ordered over his shoulder, unimpressed. "Stop playing around."

"…Of course, Zabuza-sama," Haku acknowledged. He threw the senbon and raced through a set of hand seals. "Ice Release: Ice Foundation!" The water beneath his feet iced over and raced out, covering a circular area around him. Both Naruto and Sasuke moved quickly to avoid having their legs frozen, jumping on top of it but had problems gaining stability on the ice. Either the slippery surface made the chakra formation subtlety different from tree walking, or it's nature as a chakra construct prevented them from doing it at all.

_Clever_. He'd reduced their speed and manoeuvrability while increasing his own.

"Ice…?" Sensei said, eye widening. "That's…"

"A Bloodlimit," Zabuza said in satisfaction. "Your brats… don't stand a chance against Haku."

Kakashi-sensei made an aborted movement, like he wanted to go towards them. Zabuza's sword cut through his intended path.

"Hey Kakashi. Your opponent … is me. If you want to go towards them… I'll get by you and kill those two."

I didn't rate my chances against Zabuza well… but I didn't like his utterly dismissive attitude. I started partitioning off and purifying a portion of my chakra, just enough for one lightning jutsu. Just in case. I wouldn't go down easy.

"You're underestimating them," Kakashi-sensei said. "They're better than you think. But… if you insist…" he withdrew a kunai from his leg holster, one hand going to raise his headband.

"The Sharingan again? Is that the only trick you have? A shinobi's supreme technique shouldn't be shown to the enemy over and over again."

"You should feel lucky," Kakashi-sensei replied. "You're the only one who's seen it twice."

Zabuza smirked and just when it looked like the two of them were going to clash… faded back. "Hidden in the Mist Jutsu!"

The fog rushed in, even thicker than before. "I'm starting to hate this technique," I decided. Naruto, Sasuke and Haku were completely out of sight. I could barely see _myself_.

_Irritating._

Sensei chuckled. "Be on guard," he suggested. Like I was going to be anything else.

"Last time we fought," Zabuza's voiced echoed out of the mist. That really was a neat trick. I needed to learn how to do that. "You used your Sharingan to see right through me. But with this mist… you can't see a thing, can you? This mist is as familiar to me as the training grounds in the Bloody Mist Village… but to you it must be a pathway to hell." He laughed. "Next time you see me, it will be the end."

"You're awfully confident," Kakashi-sensei mused. Completely healed and with full chakra reserves, he was more willing to draw this confrontation out than he might otherwise have been. I think that he had a fair bit of confidence in us too, as individuals and as a team.

I closed my eyes, ignoring the white mists swirling in front of me and focusing on my chakra sense. I used the point of my kunai to indicate where Zabuza was moving. I could feel, further off, Naruto and Sasuke fighting Haku. There was a lot of chakra being thrown around, but I couldn't tell who was winning. I couldn't even hear them.

"You have fast reflexes," Zabuza said, as shuriken clashed. "But it wont save you forever, Kakashi."

He kept moving soundlessly through the mist. I tracked him, pointing his position for Sensei and trying to keep myself between him and Tazuna.

Zabuza tried a few attacks. Kunai, shuriken, Water Bullets, counting on the changing directions of attack to make up for their simplicity. They didn't work. Sensei deflected the incoming projectiles with ease, even raising a brief wind blast to destroy the Water Bullets.

"You have some skill," Zabuza said grudgingly.

"Sharingan isn't the only thing I know," Kakashi-sensei replied with slight amusement. "You don't last this long with only one skill."

So Zabuza didn't know I could sense him. I was glad about it and grateful Kakashi-sensei didn't feel like alerting him. If he did know… he'd probably target me too. Not something I was looking forward too. I was happy to stand in the shadows… if that wasn't too cliché.

And of course, just when you start thinking things are going well… is when they invariably turn to shit.

"SASUKE!" Naruto _screamed._

It wasn't an annoyed 'Sasuke', as in 'you idiot'. It wasn't a frustrated 'Sasuke, why did you do that?'. It wasn't even a warning 'Sasuke, get down'.

It was worry, and fear. And just a little bit of disbelief.

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

Then came the nightmare.

I froze. That chakra…

Red and malevolent and angry and _evil_… yes, I knew that chakra. I had felt it before.

I needed to… I needed to move…

_There was only darkness. I was small and helpless, lost and confused and alone and trapped in a body that would not, could not respond to my helpless panicked thoughts. I could hear a child, a baby, screaming but it wasn't me because I couldn't move, couldn't breathe couldn't do anything but lie still and hope we were hidden and please, please don't notice me…_

_Please, please, please…_

I gasped, choking for air, for breath, for anything…

Later, when it had been explained to me, I would know that Kakashi-sensei had blasted the mist away with a powerful wind jutsu when he had sensed the seal weakening. Naruto had utterly _destroyed _Haku's Ice attacks, the Kyuubi chakra giving him enhanced speed and healing and the bubbling chakra acting like a shield. He had knocked Haku around, beating him down and nearly killed him. His rage had been short lived, though, in face of Haku's utter despair at being so overmatched.

Zabuza had been blasted with the wind jutsu and retreated further back down the bridge. He had grabbed Haku and once again the two of them were facing off against us. Only… Naruto was hunched over in the middle of the bridge, frozen in an attack pose, tears leaking down his face.

Sasuke was… Sasuke was lying limp in the middle of the remains of what looked like a field of mirrors. His chakra was diminished, but there.

That was the scene I returned to.

Mechanically, I picked up the kunai that I had dropped, distantly grateful that it hadn't gone through my foot.

"Naruto," I rasped, then coughed. My jaw ached, my throat felt raw. I swallowed, tasting the bitter acid of fear. "Naruto. Grab Sasuke and bring him here."

Naruto stared at me blankly for a long moment, before turning and making his way over to Sasuke. No one else moved.

It was a long journey back to us. Every step weighed down heavily on him. I could almost see him ageing as he walked.

Then gently, ever so gently, he lay Sasuke on the ground at my feet.

I swallowed and briefly closed my eyes. Those senbon… they had gone right through his neck. There was another straight through his wrist… and his back… and more besides…

_Shit. If I didn't know…_ If I didn't know he was alive, I'd think he was dead, simply from the sheer amount of metal in him.

Carefully, I knelt and touched the ones around his neck. Kakashi-sensei loomed above us like an angry presence, eyes scorching into Zabuza and Haku. Having seen Kakashi-sensei swear to protect us… I didn't want to think about what he would do if one of us was truly dead.

_Tnk. Tnk. Tnk._

The thin metal needles clattered on the concrete floor. The sound was obscenely loud in the sudden silence.

Tazuna sucked in a breath. "Is he…" he asked, half afraid of the answer.

"He… will be fine," I said, trying to inject confidence into my voice. This technique was something I knew nothing about. But his chakra was still there, a tiny burning ember in his heart, strong enough to roar back to life.

Naruto let out a sobbing cry, reaching for another senbon.

I stood, letting him continue that work, guiltily glad to turn away from the bloodied wreck of my team mate.

For a second, I spread my chakra sense wide, trying to see if there was anyone else in the area. I didn't have much range, which was something I knew I needed to work on.

_Damn. Gatou came here… didn't he?_

The problem with trying to remember… was that it was all so long ago. Memories naturally degrade with age, even those you try and remember.

I wondered if Gatou had some means of observing us. Scouts or binoculars or something of the kind. If that was the case, we'd have to get into a situation where one side appeared to lose.

_Tough call_.

Especially if Sensei didn't want to play anymore.

Because even with his mask… it was easy to tell that he was angry. It rolled off him in waves, like chakra, like Killing Intent, like heat. If you stood too close, you'd burn.

"I'm sorry Zabuza-sama," Haku said quietly, bowing his head. "I was unable to become the weapon you sought. I was … unable to defeat that boy. There is no reason for a weak shinobi such as I to exist."

"You've always been too soft, Haku," Zabuza said, hefting his sword again. "What's the matter, Kakashi? Haku kill one of your brats? Anyway, I'm about to send you all to the same place as him. You can apologise in the next world for not being strong enough to protect them."

Anger _spiked._

Tazuna's bridge had odd sides. There was a raised lip, like a foot path or a bench, on top of which the railings sat. That extra height cast shadows, even now when it was nearly noon. There was a crane, half loaded with steel beams for the days work at the end of the bridge. It was positioned almost perfectly behind me.

They knew I was a Nara. They should have been watching for it. That they weren't was … disappointing.

My shadows ghosted down the side of the bridge and circled behind them, latching on silently.

"Shadow Paralysis Complete." I preferred the older form of the Jutsu, the one that paralysed instead of mimicked. It was simply easier when I didn't have to account for my opponent moving.

Almost in tandem Sensei and I raced forward. Zabuza swore.

I tackled Haku to the ground, knees bracketing his sides and pinning his hands down while I had a kunai to his throat. Sensei deprived Zabuza of his weapons, twisted his arms hard up against his back and slammed him face first into the pavement. Hard.

At this range, with touch, Shadow Paralysis was easy to hold. I don't know what Sensei was using, but he was bound to know a few tricks.

"Sasuke isn't dead, is he?" I asked Haku, not quite able to keep the urgency out of my voice. "You used the same needle trick you used on Zabuza on him, didn't you?"

He swallowed; the facial muscles are some of the few that the Shadow Jutsu doesn't paralyse. "If I say no, will you kill me?"

It was a little heartbreaking, if I'd been a more empathetic person. He would rather die than disappoint Zabuza, even a little bit.

I considered it. "No. But I'll probably cry." It wouldn't spark rage in me like it did in Naruto. Besides, I _knew_ Sasuke wasn't dead. I could feel his chakra pulsing like a banked ember. I just… needed to know that he'd be okay.

There was a large difference between alive and alright.

Then I felt it.

"Incoming! Chakra signs from the east! At least fifty, civilian level!" The east was out over the water. They were coming by boat.

Sensei made a sound that might have been a swearword. "Backup, Zabuza?"

The boat was swift and silent and docked easily. If we hadn't had warning, if the mist had still been up, we could have missed it. The men disembarked. My guess had been close to accurate, and they were all mercenaries, bar for one.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

His cane tapped against the floor. He was short, with wild hair and glasses. He was dressed in a pretentious suit. Immediately, I suspected who it was.

"Oooh, you're getting your ass kicked, how disappointing," he mocked.

_What an idiot._ You should at least make sure your ninja opponents are heavily injured before you start insulting them.

"Gatou. Why are you here?" Zabuza grunted sounding annoyed. "And what's with all these men?"

"Hehe, the plan has changed," Gatou said. Then he seemed to consider. "Well, actually, I planned to do this from the beginning. Zabuza, I'm going to have you killed here."

_No, seriously. An idiot._

"What?" Zabuza barked, straining against Sensei's hold.

Gatou seemed only too pleased to elaborate, rubbing Zabuza's face in his victory. "I never planned on paying you any money. Hiring normal ninja from a village is expensive, and they may betray me. So I get missing-nin who are easy to take care of afterwards. I have the ninja battle each other, and once they're weakened, I kill them off with numbers." I wondered just how many times he'd done this… and to what calibre ninja. Fifty men after a long battle would do me in… but Sensei would probably survive it. "It doesn't cost me anything. Good plan, don't you think? The only problem with this plan was you, Zabuza. The Devil of the Hidden Mist? What a joke if you ask me. You're just a cute little baby devil."

Haku's face below me was shocked.

"Well, in that case," I drawled, shrugging and spinning my kunai to reholster it. I stood, releasing my jutsu and offering him a hand. Numbly, he took it and I hauled him to his feet. It looked like a truce had been declared.

"We can kill you easy," one of the thugs boasted.

"Kakashi, this fight is over," Zabuza snarled. "Now that I have no reason to go after Tazuna, I have no reason to fight you."

Kakashi-sensei considered, logic overriding his rage. "Very well."

There was a ripple of unease in the crowd as Zabuza stood and picked up Kubikiri Bocho. Yes, he and Haku had some injuries, and yes, there was blood smeared on them… but it wasn't excessive by any means.

But they weren't clever enough to know that they were getting in over their heads.

"I didn't like you from the day I set foot here," Zabuza spat. "And I especially dislike those who go back on their word." He levelled his sword at the group. "I think I'll enjoy killing you."

Gatou's eyes flickered madly, landing on me. "Isn't he your enemy?"

What, did I look easy to manipulate just because I was a girl? "Nah, not really. Just because we were fighting doesn't mean we're enemies. Besides," I said offhandedly. "You're the one threatening our client, so this works out best for us."

"Get them!" Gatou ordered. There was a clattering of metal, as swords were drawn.

Then Naruto stood, raising his chin and glaring at Gatou. "You know… we've got reinforcements too."

"That's right!" Another, familiar voice shouted. Inari? "If you come any further onto this island, the citizens of this country will stop you with everything we've got!"

It _was_ Inari. And four Naruto clones, backed by half the population of Wave Country carrying crossbows and pitchforks and shovels and … frying pans?

I smirked, bemused.

Then it was on. Melee. Mayhem. Madness. That was the only word for it. I couldn't keep track of what was going happening. My shadow lashed out, freezing fighters where they stood. I blocked a sword with my kunai, threw a brace of shuriken, kicked someone in the groin, clawed someone across the face. There were Naruto's dancing through the combat, hitting and taking hits and popping into smoke. There was ice and water and Sensei flickering in and out of eyesight. The villagers had charged.

It was chaos. It was terrifying.

And Zabuza was tearing through the thugs like a demon. There was… a genjutsu? No, it was his chakra solidified and projected into the terrifying shape of a demons head, towering above the bridge. Gatou cowered and tried to run but there was no where to go. He had no escape from the Devil trying to send him to hell.

Then it stopped. Men lay groaning, lay dieing. The villagers stumbled back, shock and disbelief and _hope_ and _pride_ in their faces. They had fought for their homes. They had _won_.

And Sasuke was sitting up.


	15. Chapter 14

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: It kinda surprised me how many people are looking forward to the Chunin Exam Arc. I guess that _is _the next Canon Station we have to pass through…

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Chapter 14

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_Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson_

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Sasuke was sitting up.

I wove my way through the crowds back to him, not quite able to stem the traitorous tears that rose to my eyes. The battle was over, the shock and detachment fading and everything was starting to catch up to me.

I knelt next to him, relief at seeing him well coursing through me. "Hi," I whispered inanely.

He blinked at me. "What happened?"

"We won?" I offered uncertainly. How to explain all this? "Gatou is dead. He betrayed Zabuza and Haku, so they aren't fighting us anymore."

"Huh," he said. All that had happened while he was out of it, so yeah, he was probably confused.

"You probably shouldn't be moving," I said, using my diagnosis technique to scan him. He actually didn't seem too badly off, surprisingly. I was wary of the damage to his neck, but other than that it all seemed very minor. Most of the senbon had lodged in his ribs, not penetrating into the lungs or heart. He'd take a few to the arms and legs, but they'd gone through muscle and missed the major arteries that could have made him bleed out.

"I thought…" Sasuke trailed off.

_I thought I was dead._

"So did we," I said softly, activating my Mystical Palm Jutsu and beginning to heal up the most pressing of his injuries. It was slow going but doable, since senbon were very thin and only left small holes. I was grateful that my first excursion into post battle healing didn't involve gaping wounds or mortal injuries.

When I had done what I could, I looked up. Sensei and Zabuza were walking amongst the fallen forms of Gatou's men. And if they paid particular attention to one or another and then that form stopped moving or groaning in pain… I pretended not to see.

Naruto was with the villagers and Inari, basking in post fight excitement. I could see a few injuries on the villagers that I'd probably deal with soon.

But first… "Haku!" My voice didn't carry well, but he heard me all the same. He was standing awkwardly off to the side, just watching. At my call, he made his way over to us.

"Yes?"

"Could you please tell me about the attack you used?" I asked over Sasuke's scowl and wary look. I didn't know what had gone down between them while I hadn't been able to see and part of me cynically thought I was being overly trusting.

Haku knelt gracefully and folded his hands in his lap. "The senbon induce a temporary death state, by stopping breathing, pulse and nervous system activity for a short period of time. The first senbon pierces the vertebral column between the 3rd and 4th cervical vertebra, which stops movement and breathing. The next targets the external carotid artery, preventing blood flow to the brain and inducing unconsciousness as well as blocking movement to prevent the pulse from being taken. The third senbon targets the third cervical tenketsu point, shutting down the chakra system but at the same time allowing for reanimation after a short period of time."

By those directions, the needles in Sasuke's neck had been precisely in place. It was a little horrifying, as part of my brain insisted that such a thing was not possible - piercing the spinal cord, blocking an artery… all that would lead to was death. But chakra… that was the confounding aspect.

"And side effects?" I asked carefully.

Haku acknowledged the point. "The second senbon can often cause excessive bleeding, either escaping through the wound or remaining internal, particularly if it isn't removed carefully." There was a carefully blank look and a slight flicker of the eyes towards Zabuza. Likely that observation came through experience. "There is a degree of muscle paralysis or weakness that can persist for about a week, as well as symptoms similar to chakra exhaustion as the chakra system reboots."

"I see," I said, hands hovering over Sasuke's neck for a second longer. There was no excess bleeding that I could find and I couldn't fix the other factors. I let my hands drop. "Thank you for not killing my team mate."

Haku looked startled and dropped his gaze. "I… I did not wish to kill them," he admitted. "It is a failing of mine but…"

I tried to smile but I'm not sure it worked, covered in exhaustion and sadness. "I don't think it's much of a failing."

"A tool that does not work is useless, as is a shinobi who will not kill," Haku said. He looked as sad as I felt. "My very reason for existing is to be a tool for Zabuza-sama. Without that… I am nothing."

I couldn't help myself. I reached over and lightly touched his hand. "You don't believe that, Haku," I said earnestly. "And more importantly, Zabuza doesn't believe it either."

He gaped. "How can you say that?"

"Because I'm alive," I answered evenly. I wasn't good with heartfelt words, not like Naruto, but I could do facts. "If he truly believed Shinobi were supposed to kill without emotion, he wouldn't have spared us. That fight, with the water clone… the three of us didn't stand a chance, but he never aimed to kill. Beat us down, defeat us, yes, but not kill. Even here on this bridge…"

"I…" he looked torn between wanting to believe and what he thought he knew. "That is what I have always been taught. Shinobi are simply tools."

"Maybe he wants to believe it," I offered. "If you were only a tool, then it wouldn't hurt so much if you were used, like what happened here…. Maybe he wanted to spare you that pain."

He smiled wanly. "Maybe."

I let the matter drop. "You're bleeding. Do you want me to…?" I offered, activating my Mystical Palm Jutsu again.

He hesitated a second, just long enough for me to realise how forward I was being, then tilted his head back to let me heal it. "You didn't have to," he said awkwardly. "I've got salve for things like that."

I shrugged. "Cuts are pretty easy to fix. Don't worry about it. What kind of salve do you use?" I asked purely out of curiosity. It was a semi-safe topic for a conversation anyway.

We were just settling into a conversation about the properties of salves made out of coastal plants verse stuff made out of inland growing plants - which Sasuke was ignoring - when Naruto came jogging over.

"Hey!" He greeted cheerfully, but his eyes lingered on Sasuke longer than normal. "Some of the guys that came to help are injured, and they said that there isn't a doctor here anymore…" He trailed off.

I remembered hearing something like that. "I'll see what I can do," I said, standing and brushing dirt from my pants.

"I can help," Haku offered. "If it can make up for…"

"That would be appreciated," I accepted. Anything more serious than cuts and bruises I couldn't really deal with. A second set of hands wouldn't hurt in any case. "Maybe you two should see what Sensei has to say?"

"Hn," Sasuke said, which might have translated to anything from 'good idea' to 'I can't move'.

The villagers had actually managed to escape serious injury. There were a few cuts and stab wounds, which were easy to deal with, and a few broken bones, which I could do nothing more than splint. There _was_ a Jutsu that could knit bone together, but I didn't know it and I didn't really want to experiment.

They left the bridge slowly, in groups of two or three, in high spirits until it was only us ninja left.

We grouped together, an invisible battle line drawn between our two teams. Yeah, there really wasn't a whole lot of trust going on here. I couldn't really fault anyone for that. An hour ago we'd been doing our best to kill each other.

Well. Sort of.

"So what are your plans now?" Kakashi-sensei asked casually.

Zabuza grunted. "A company as big as that wont disappear just because we killed the guy in charge. It might take a while, but they'll sort out who's next in line to take over eventually. We still… have business with them."

"You think they're still going to talk with you after you killed their boss?" Naruto asked disbelievingly.

"Eh, I always find a good assassination makes negotiating _much_ easier," Zabuza said with a grin filled with very, very sharp teeth. Frankly, it was a little unnerving, which was probably the point. I wasn't entirely sure when or why he'd taken off the bandages.

"Yes well," Sensei said. "If that's the case…"

Zabuza shrugged. "Your bridge builder is safe," he said with rolled eyes. "We won't come up against you again. I'm done stuffing around with requests and bullshit. Shoulda done it my way to start off with."

Haku sighed. "We will not trouble you again," he assured us. "If there's anything I can do…"

For Naruto, that settled the matter. "Hey, hey, can you teach me some of those cool jutsu you used? Please?"

Haku blinked at him, flabbergasted. Zabuza laughed.

I figured that was as good an opening as I was going to get. "Umm… are you guys working with the Mist Rebellion?"

"What makes you ask that?" Zabuza asked warily. It occurred to me that most hidden villages tended to like the status quo staying as it was. A rebellion in one place might lead to others thinking it was a good idea.

I looked down. "Well, it was really the only reason that I could think of for someone of your rank being somewhere like this," I confessed. I didn't want to get into the whole explanation that I'd come up with. That would just be embarrassing.

Zabuza eyed us for a second longer then shrugged, apparently deciding he didn't care. "Yeah, we are. It isn't that much of a secret."

"Cool," I said, pleased to be validated. No one really knew that much about the Mist Rebellion, which was basically how they'd survived.

"Well, our mission lasts until the bridge is complete," Sensei said, half as an offer of peace, half as a warning.

Naruto saw something else in it. "Yeah! We're going to stay here too. So you can visit us, right Haku? Since you said you were staying."

"I… that might not be a good idea. We _did_ attack you, after all," Haku said gently.

Naruto scoffed. "Who cares about that? You guys were lied to by that jerk Gatou. He's the real bad guy. We can all be friends now."

"Friends?" Haku smiled tentatively. "I'd like that." He glanced at the rest of us, to see how we'd taken Naruto's statement. Sasuke scowled, but I smiled back.

"Eh, don't worry about Sasuke," Naruto said, hands behind his head and face squinching into a mischievous grin. "He's just upset that you beat him."

Sasuke glared. "Idiot. You were the one that got _beaten_. I saved you."

"You're lucky Haku is so nice!" Naruto protested. "Otherwise -" He cut himself off; it was too soon to joke about it. "And anyway! You awakened your Sharingan thing, so it's not all bad, right?"

"Sharingan? You're an Uchiha. Huh. No wonder…" Zabuza murmured.

Naruto heard it anyway. He rounded on Zabuza with a loud, "Hey! Hey! What do you mean 'no wonder'? Don't go thinking that Sasuke is all that. You better remember _my_ name. It's Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage!"

"Easy, kids," Sensei said soothingly. "No need to start _another_ fight now." Sensei was getting pretty good at diffusing situations like that. I had a feeling he was going to get a _lot_ of practice.

"Future Hokage, you say?" Zabuza smirked. "I'll keep an eye on you. You might even make it into my bingo book."

Even as they left, Naruto almost _glowed._ Offhand it might have been, but you couldn't deny it was a compliment.

"That went… well," Kakashi-sensei said. He was a master of understatement.

I flopped down on the ground with an exhausted sigh, sitting next to Sasuke. "I guess you could say that."

"So, boys," Kakashi-sensei added, leaning against the railings. "Care to fill us in on what went on in your fight?"

I gave half my attention to their explanation and the other half to watching everyone's reactions. Sensei had retreated to his usual nonchalant slouch, but for someone with three quarters of his face completely covered he had a very expressive eye.

After Haku had iced the ground over, he'd kept out of their reach and simply pelted them with senbon, either real ones or water jutsu ones. They'd tried to get off the ice but he'd simply started cutting off their escape routes with walls of ice that had eventually turned into a kind of maze, separating them. He'd been able to merge with any of the ice, bouncing from one surface to the other faster than the eye could see. The boys had spent most of the time trying to regroup, and eventually managed, thanks to some quick thinking with Shadow Clones and a newly awakened Sharingan. Of course, once they'd begun to effectively retaliate, Haku had simply stepped up his game again, inflicting more and more serious hits on them. Naruto had been down and unable to stand when Haku had tried to get him with the temporary death technique - though they didn't know it at the time.

"_My body just moved on its own._ Che. What kind of excuse is that anyway?" Naruto muttered, looking down. Embarrassment, annoyance, gratitude and shame at having to be saved warred within him.

"Idiot. I don't know why I did it," Sasuke growled back. "I just did, okay?"

"Sasuke," I said quietly but seriously. "I know you don't like people touching you, but I'm going to hug you now." Fair warning given, I practically wrapped myself around him, tilting my chin down so they couldn't see my watery eyes. "You aren't allowed to die. You hear me? Rule Number One of Team 7: No dying."

It was stupid and idiotic and impossible.

"I like that rule," Kakashi-sensei said.

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_Small and helpless and it was looming over me and it was like fire on my insides and hatredmaliceevilevilevil living and breathing and ohgod how can something like that exist?_

I snapped awake with a shudder, stifling the scream that wanted to break free, the tears the sprung to my eyes. I was no stranger to nightmares, but Shika wasn't here and neither of my team mates would fill in for him. Well, Naruto might, but he was… it was… it was _right there_.

I stumbled to my feet, chakra light guiding my way as I fled from the room, from the house. The cold ocean breeze slapped across my face, stealing away remembered heat and leaving salt spray to mask my tears.

Tazuna's house had a veranda that edged out over the ocean, and there was a nook there, in the far wall, that was just big enough for a small child to squeeze into. I huddled into it, knees pulled to my chest, curled into a tight small ball. It wasn't a pose that lent itself to sudden movement - no balance, no explosive uncoiling - I wasn't defensive, I was hiding, plain and simple. The walls pressed in on me reassuringly, and my hands were thrust out front of me to push the darkness away. The water glimmered eerily in the reflected chakra light.

My chakra was curled within me, a tight ball of fear that eased with every breath that passed. I was safe. I was hidden. Nothing could get me. There was nothing out there at all.

Well, nothing except Kakashi-sensei. I frowned as I focused on his chakra signal. He was awake and moving, first to the where the boys were still asleep, then ghosting through the house in and out of each room. What was he doing? Was he looking for something?

_Oh_, I realised sheepishly, boosting my chakra signal so it was back into normal range. I had pulled my chakra in so tightly that it couldn't be sensed, of course it had woken him. Dad had once mentioned that it worried him, but home was safe and I rarely felt the need to hide there. Here was _not_ safe.

Sensei homed in on me, confirming my thoughts. I wiped my face on my sleeve and smiled weakly at him as he rounded the corner. To his credit, he didn't even look surprised at the odd position I'd wedged myself into.

"Mah, it's a bit early for you to be up, isn't it?" He asked cheerily, dropping to sit on the edge of the veranda, legs dangling over the side. That put him a good deal in front of me, but slightly to the side. Close but not too close.

It was a bit of an understatement. Judging by the stars and my internal body clock, it was probably around midnight. Late, rather than early.

I considered lying. Or deflecting. But the fact that he'd come looking for me, the amount of space he had given me, the set of his shoulders as he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye… it all spoke of worry. I didn't want to worry anyone.

"I had a nightmare," I admitted, voice scratchy and slightly wobbly. I coughed and swallowed and tried again. "It's nothing big."

He hummed non-judgementally. "Is that the first time you've seen someone killed?" He asked, voice soft and smooth and patient. "It can be upsetting."

I blinked. _Oh. _Truthfully, that had barely crossed my mind. And I was pretty sure I was responsible for at least a few of those deaths today, either by paralysing them or by kunai; it was hard to know. But Kakashi-sensei was trying to help. For all that he left us to our own devices, he did care. "It's not that," I said, hesitantly, wondering how to have this conversation. There was really no choice but to jump straight in. If I wanted to get information, this was the best time. Probably the only opportunity I was going to have. "That chakra… that Naruto had…" Sensei didn't stiffen, didn't react at all, but his eye flicked to me from where it had been scanning the horizon. "What was it?"

"I can't tell you that," Kakashi-sensei said after a long thoughtful pause. "That is… Naruto's secret."

"It's Kyuubi, isn't it?"

This time, he did turn to look at me. I fidgeted and drew back further into my hidey hole. "I …" I swallowed. "I remember that chakra. When I was really small." I couldn't seem to speak coherently, to explain. I could only hope he understood what I was trying to say. "I was really scared," I whispered. In the night silence it seemed too loud. I buried my face into my knees so I didn't have to look at him.

"You would only have been a few weeks old," Kakashi-sensei said, a note of shock buried in his voice. I wondered how he could have known - oh, our files. "Most people don't remember anything from that age."

Lucky them. "Bad things are always easier to remember than good things," I said, voice thick. "I remember… Shikamaru was crying, was screaming, but I couldn't. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe, the air was so thick with it…" I trembled. That memory sprang to the surface too easily, the feelings of helpless terror flooding back even now. They didn't seem to weaken, not even after all this time.

Was it always going to be like this?

"It's alright. I remember too," Kakashi-sensei said, voice distant. He was seeing something that wasn't there. He'd probably been fighting that night, in the thick of it.

"That chakra was Kyuubi's," I said, when I'd stopped trembling again. "So how does Naruto have it?"

Kakashi-sensei sighed. I could guess he was weighing up his options. It was a gamble asking him this. By rights he shouldn't say anything. But if he didn't then he would be allowing me to form my own conclusions as to _why_… And who knows what I would come up with? Since I'd already managed to nail the important points, I.e. that Kyuubi was present, there was probably a little leeway in explaining the details. If he left me to guessing chances were very slim that I'd come up with the right answer. And those wrong answers might cause problems.

"I'm going to get in trouble for this," he muttered, running a hand through his hair.

And he told me. Starting with the theory of sealing Jinchuriki before moving on to the specifics of Naruto's situation as opposed to the history taught at the Academy. That segued into a debate about the philosophy of just how much 'mind' a chakra construct could have and whether the concept of 'mind' was different from that of the 'mental energy' that composed chakra and how you would go about sealing an abstract concept like that from affecting the host anyway.

"I don't know," Sensei admitted. "Seals of that level are beyond my understanding. But the Fourth Hokage was a Seal _Master_. He would have created a seal that did nothing less. Naruto is not influenced by his prisoner." He seemed pretty desperate to get that point across.

I nodded, swinging my feet. Somewhere along the line of the conversation, I'd crept out of my hidey hole to sit beside Sensei and lean against him. "I believe you. Naruto's chakra is completely different from the Kyuubi's… it's just interesting, that's all…" I trailed off. I knew you could seal physical things, and I knew you could seal chakra, but I hadn't actually considered the metaphysics of how Naruto's Jinchuriki seal might actually work.

Now that my fear had faded a bit, it was _interesting_. How much of the mind was in the chakra and how much was in the brain? I had a tendency to think towards the physical, simply due to my previous existence, but Kyuubi had no physical body and it had intelligence enough to _talk_. In fact, where was the Kyuubi sealed _in_? There was a mental connection between Naruto's mind and Kyuubi's prison, but he couldn't be physically _inside_ Naruto. A pocket dimension maybe? Was the possible?

"Of course it is," Sensei sighed. Was he humouring me, or mocking me? I gave him a narrow eyed stare. He smiled cheerily and ruffled my hair. "Now, back to bed with you. It's late."

Almost on cue, I yawned.

.

.

We still had a week to go on our mission before the bridge was complete but with Gatou dead and Zabuza and Haku confirmed to be not a threat there wasn't really much for us to do.

We still went to the bridge or helped out in the village a bit. The villagers had taken a rather large shine to Naruto, after he had rounded them up with Inari and convinced them to come and help at the bridge. Already, the stories of his 'speech' were being incredibly exaggerated. He was sounding more and more like a hero of legend every day.

He'd given them hope, and that was irreplaceable.

Other than that, we spent most of our time at Tazuna's place. Sasuke was immobile and cranky about it, especially when Kakashi-sensei gave us a second lightning jutsu to practice (Lightning Release: Radiating Shockwave) and he wasn't able to wrangle his chakra enough to learn it.

I myself oscillated between being clingy to my team mates and scribbling down notes for all the things I wanted to look up when I got home. I'd brought a book with me, but I'd long since finished reading that.

"Did you want to play Shogi?" I asked Naruto. We'd had a few games since the bridge. Sasuke was a better player, but I'd been trouncing him all morning and he was fed up.

Naruto made a face. "I don't like Shogi," he whined. "The pieces make no sense!"

I sighed. Trying to teach Naruto tactics seemed to be like trying to hold water in your hands. Frustrating and ultimately pointless. Still, I was sure that if he could get basic strategy down, then his innate unpredictableness would be that much more deadly.

I had thought that presenting it as a game would help, but he seemed to lack the patience for it. Or didn't see the applications to real life. Then, I had an idea.

"Naruto. Make forty clones. We're going to play a game."

His face lit up. "A fun one? Really? That's so awesome!" He danced about a bit before making the required clones. Sasuke watched with detached interest.

"Right, you twenty, henge so you're wearing black. You, white." I divided them into half groups and lined them up in the shogi formation across the clearing. "You're Genin," I told the first line who stood in the place of pawns. "You can only move one step forward on any turn. You," I told the two in the next line, who were normally called Bishop and Rook, "are the ANBU captain and ANBU. I want you to henge into… okay, good. The Captain can only move diagonally, but you can go as many steps as you want. The ANBU can move forward, backwards and side to side as many steps as you want. " The next line was made of mixed types. "The two of you on the edge are Chunin. Henge a vest." They didn't just henge a vest, they turned into Iruka-sensei. I stifled a laugh. "You can move straight forward as many steps as you like. The next two in are Special Jounin. Henge a vest and a sword." The sword had no purpose, but to keep them from getting confused with the others. "You can move one step sideways and two steps forward. But! You can jump over any of the others in your way. You're the only ones that can do that," I added hastily. "You next two are Jounin." They turned into Kakashi-sensei, I rolled my eyes. They were the pieces normally called Silver Generals, so I suppose it fit. " You can move one step diagonally in any direction, and one step forward. The next two are the Elite Jounin. You can move one step sideways, backwards and forwards as well as one step forwards diagonally. And finally," I turned to the last Naruto in the middle of the file, "You are the Hokage."

He looked at me with round eyes. "Really?"

I laughed and nodded. "Yup. You're the Hokage. You can move one step in any direction." He performed henge with a flourish, turning himself into a black robed Hokage with a huge grin on his face.

"Right, Naruto," I turned to the original, who was watching with an odd look on his face. "Now you have an army, and I have an army. Lets play!"

"Finally! Attack!" The clones shuffled, apparently having a better idea of what was going on than the original.

"Err, boss?" Black Hokage Naruto spoke up. "You can only make one of us move at a time. And only, uh, how Shikako told us too."

Naruto frowned. "What? Why? That sucks!"

"Well, ninja are good at different things, right? So if you were ordering them around, you have to make sure you send the right people to do the right job. So you have to know what they can do. And you can only move one a turn, because it might take a while to get a message to ninja on the field," I invented quickly.

Naruto bought it. "Alright. Umm… what can you guys do again?" He walked down the lines listening to them repeat their moves. The clones had it easier, because they only had to remember one instruction not all of them.

It took a while to play, he had to repeatedly ask for moves, and sometimes the clones offered suggestions as what they could do. I didn't stop them. They were only thinking of their own moves, and what they could see of the battlefield, but Naruto had to consider the whole field. He'd work that out though, probably.

The first time I 'caught' a piece, he was outraged. "You can't do that!"

I laughed. "I, your evil enemy Shiro-Kage, have kidnapped one of your ninja!" I proclaimed. "I am going to brainwash him, so now he will fight for my side!" I nudged him, and he obediently turned his clothes white. I couldn't drop him back onto the field yet, but I would soon, just to prove I could. Shogi pieces weren't normally coloured, so that conversions like this could happen, but it made it easier to keep track of who belonged to who.

Naruto glowered. "You! Move forward!"

Of course, once I managed to get one of my pieces into the 'promotion zone' things got more difficult.

"Well done, Chunin! You've earned yourself a field medal! Now you can move one step sideways, backwards, forwards or forward diagonally! Just like an Elite Jounin!" I made him henge a tacky looking medal on, so we could tell him apart from the others.

Naruto glowered again. "That's not cool"

"You have to reward hard work! He made it all the way inside your Hidden Village, you know," I commented.

Afterwards, we dispelled all the clones. I wonder what it felt like for Naruto to be the general of the game as well as every soldier on both the winning and losing sides. He blinked dizzily for a moment.

Hmm, maybe the contradictory memories were causing problems…

"Let's play again!" he said, determined.

His next game was better by leaps and bounds. That was Shadow Clone learning at work. He still wasn't very _good_ but it was noticeably better. A few weeks of this and he might end up being a half decent player.

We ran into Haku and Zabuza a few times, too, despite their intentions. Gatou had apparently liked to horde his power, so there was no clear cut inheritor. That just meant that his underlings were fighting it out, mostly via blackmail and politics rather than actual fighting. That left them in a state of limbo, unable to go anywhere.

Zabuza grumbled but Haku had bonded with Naruto and didn't seem to mind overly much. I got the feeling it made Sensei wary, but he didn't say anything against it. Naruto even managed to get him to teach us the Hidden in the Mist Jutsu amidst Zabuza's protests of village secrets.

Now that was a Jutsu that interested me. Okay, it was as annoying as _hell_ from the opposite side but incredibly useful for an attacker. I could manage a light mist in a small area about the size of a bedroom but Naruto could practically smother people with his. If there was a way for Sasuke and Naruto to learn to navigate in it…

It was something to consider.

By the time Sasuke was back on his feet… I was a _little_ bored.

A dangerous state of affairs.

I crept through the branches, suspended above the ground, a predator hunting it's prey. I was the hunting jungle cat, I was the wolf on the prowl. I felt like smirking as I observed Sasuke's turned back. He didn't even know I was here.

_Hehehe…_

I was a younger sister, too. More importantly, I was a younger sister whose brother sometimes needed to be… motivated to play.

Cat's Foot technique ensured that my steps made no sound. I slunk across the branch, redistributing my weight so it didn't as much as shudder. No leaves rustled with my passing. Nothing gave me away.

I pounced.

There was a surprisingly girlish shriek that didn't come from me as I barrelled squarely into his back, sending us both crashing to the ground. I jumped over his retaliatory leg grab, spinning and running. He was up and chasing me before he registered _why_.

I was fleet of foot, like the deer the clan raised. Sasuke's initial reaction was anger, which faded to puzzlement. But he didn't stop chasing.

"Nyeh!" I teased, darting around trees, always, always staying just that little bit ahead of him. He was fast, but so was I.

My heart pounded. I felt like giggling.

Sasuke grabbed for me. I dodged, darting around him for freedom. He looked like he had no idea what he was doing, but he was playing anyway. Even if he didn't know he was playing.

"Catch me if you can!" I taunted lightly, giggling as I went. We wove through the trees, in and out of the forest, circling around the house. Sensei looked bemused as he watched us darting across the lawn.

"Hi Haku, hi Zabuza!" I chirped, seeing them standing next to Kakashi-sensei. "Nice to see you!"

Sasuke growled, as I escaped him again, trying to sound annoyed, instead sounding like a giant playful dog. I laughed, delighted. He lunged. I barely slipped from his grip, darting to what every child knew was the 'safe zone'. "Nyeh!" I stuck my tongue at him from behind Sensei.

Sasuke's face was a picture of disbelief.

"Now, now kids…" Sensei said.

Sasuke grabbed for me. I circled keeping Kakashi-sensei between us. He feinted right, then lunged left. I scrambled backwards, abandoning the Kakashi-sensei to duck behind Zabuza.

"This wont end well," Sensei muttered under his breath.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

_Fast!_ I giggled, zipping away up onto the veranda around the house, using chakra to slide quickly over the smooth wood.

"Hey guys! What are you -"

I could have dodged. Really. But where would be the fun in that? I crashed into Naruto full force, sending him flying into the water as Sasuke rounded the corner, tripped over me and landed beside him.

They hauled themselves, dripping, from the water as I laughed helplessly.

They exchanged a look. "Get her."

I shrieked.

"What is your brat pack doing around there?" Zabuza's voice drifted to us. "Trying to kill each other?"

Given that I was trying to force Naruto's head underwater while Sasuke was sending crashing waves over both of us, it might not have been that wild a guess.

"I don't even know," Sensei sighed, as they rounded on the water. He stared at the three of us, laughing and exhilarated and wet from head to toe. "I'm not sure I want to."

We exchanged a single look, the idea zipping between us instantly. It was like we were of one mind.

A sheet of water went _flying_ for the bank.

"You'll have to do better than that," Kakashi-sensei said, a second before my chakra powered water hose caught him in the face.

"Oh, you think that's funny, do you?" Sensei growled. Just like that his book was gone and there was a _glint_ in his eye. His hand blurred and then there were three miniature dragons rising from the water and _chasing_ us.

It was brilliant.

Possibly the most epic water fight ever.

In between jumping on Kakashi-sensei and being dragged upside down through the air in the mouth of a water dragon, I caught sight of the pair on the bank.

Zabuza was shaking his head, possibly at the foolishness of Konoha ninja and _how had he lost to that?_

Haku looked amused but also a little sad. I quirked my eyebrow at him in a way that said _come to the dark side, we have cookies_.

He considered.

Then there was a yelp and a splash and Haku was the only one standing on the bank.

I screamed with laughter and was summarily dunked head first into the water.

An hour later we were drying in the bright sunshine, exhausted and panting. Haku was staying out of easy reach of Zabuza, but kept shaking with giggles.

"Right," Sensei said, cracking his one eye half open to glare at us. "What I was going to say before was that the bridge is going to be open tomorrow. We'll head back to Konoha after that."

"I see," Haku said. "This will probably be the last time we will see you then." He looked wistful. "I wish you well."

"No way!" Naruto exclaimed. "We're totally going to see each other again. You can count on it! So, you don't have to look so sad."

Even Sasuke had warmed up to Haku after their initial bad start. He was warm and friendly and calm and polite and hadn't _really_ hurt anyone, after all. He was hard to _dislike_. Haku's talk about protecting precious people and living for your dreams had made Sasuke oddly pensive and considering for a while, especially when Haku had told him that his sacrifice had earnt his respect. I hoped it was a good thing. "Who knows what will happen in the future?" He shrugged. "Regardless, I've learnt a lot here."

Haku smiled. "I as well."

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The next morning dawned clear and fine. We packed our things up, chasing down loose odds and ends and double checking to make sure we hadn't left anything behind.

We disarmed all the traps we had set around the house and made sure we hadn't left any stray shuriken on the lawn just so that no one got hurt.

Then we went to the opening of the bridge.

It wasn't a big ceremony. There was only a thin red ribbon tied between two posts and a placard to be lifted into place, but the whole island was there. Dozens of people packed in to listen to Tazuna's speech.

"In this land," Tazuna began. The crowd hushed instantly. "We've had a lot of hardship. We've had a lot of struggle. Gatou pushed us down for a long time. But we fought back. We built this bridge to freedom. We built this bridge out of hope. We built this bridge out of courage and determination and with own two hands!"

There was a cheer.

"The old man is good speaker," Naruto whispered, surprised.

"But it wouldn't have been enough. Not on our own. It was the ninja from the Village Hidden in the Leaves that came and changed our hearts. They were the ones who gave us the courage to fight back. They inspired us. They fought with us, beside us and for us… despite having no reason to do so. That is why the perfect name for this bridge is… THE GREAT NARUTO BRIDGE!"

The cheer, this time, was so much louder. Two men lifted the placard into place alongside the bridge. There, emblazoned in the bronze in huge ornate letters, was the name of the bridge.

Beside me, Naruto was frozen.

"I like it," I said. Maybe it overshadowed us, but Naruto was the one the villagers saw, who had inspired them to fight, who had given them courage, who had made them band together and take back what Gatou had stolen. Having the will to fight for something woken like that… meant they were less likely to have it taken from them again.

That was important too.

Tazuna cut the ribbon on the posts, the two severed ends fluttering lightly to the ground. He beckoned us up to stand beside himself and Inari.

"Please, walk with us to be the first people to use our new bridge."

It was almost like a parade, everyone walking down the bridge with us at the head. Bemusing and strange, but almost right.

_This is what it was for._ All the fighting, the training, the fear, it had been for these people, so they could have this bridge. Nothing had changed yet, there was no trade in, no relaxing of tariffs… but the people were lighter and happier already. They had _hope_.

By the time we reached the soil of the Land of Fire, Naruto had snapped out of his shock and started to sniffle. Just a little bit.

"Hah," Inari said, wiping his own watery eyes. "Don't be such a crybaby."

"Idiot," Naruto retorted. "It's okay to cry if you're happy!"

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AN: So is everyone okay with the scene breaks? I know all the other chapters were done in one long continuous stretch, but I thought this worked better here.


	16. Chapter 15

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: More Team Seven bonding and random administrative stuffs. I _like_ imagining this kind of thing.

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Chapter 15

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_No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. – Lin Yutang_

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The trip back to Konoha took three days at ninja speed, compared to the week it had taken us to get there with Tazuna. That still put our total mission time at just under a month, though.

We'd been gone for a long time and we were all eager to get home.

So it was with excitement that we clocked in with the gate guards and headed to the Missions Assignment Desk to report 'Mission Accomplished'. For our D-ranks, closing the mission had been a simple affair. We'd shown up, reported our task accomplished and been paid.

It wasn't quite so easy this time. The client's information had been falsified, we'd been attacked by enemy ninja - upping the rank from C to B then to A - and independently decided to proceed with the upgraded mission. There needed to be a debriefing.

The Hokage's pipe puffed contemplatively as Kakashi-sensei reported that there had been complications.

"I'll take this, Iwashi," he said calmly standing from behind the desk and escorting us out of the main room. There were separate debriefing rooms not far away, to keep from holding up the process in the Assignment room. It was a bit of a surprise that the Hokage himself wanted to debrief us, but he did take a heavy interest in the new Genin teams and Naruto in particular.

Instead of letting us try to muddle our way through explanations like he normally did, Kakashi-sensei took over, explaining concisely and exactly what had happened over the mission. Actually, hearing the summary of how things had gone, it didn't really sound that bad. We'd actually managed to tie things up very neatly what with Gatou being killed, Wave Country respecting us and the friendly semi-alliance we'd built with Haku and Zabuza.

If you ignored Sensei's chakra exhaustion and Sasuke nearly dying, we hadn't even come out of it with injuries.

Now that was impressive.

"I see," the Hokage said, picking up a brush to make on note on some paper. "I will have a representative sent to the Land of Waves to renegotiate mission fees. I'm sure with this outcome, they will be more than willing to pay." Given that there were negotiators on staff with tongues so silver they could convince you to give up a first born, that really wouldn't be a problem. It was actually fairly common for mission contracts to be rewritten in the field so to speak, as new information or circumstances came to light. Konoha negotiators were also fairly lenient when it came to payment, it didn't have to be upfront in cash - trade increases, payments over time, concessions in this or that, these things benefited us too and they had the added bonuses of not making us seem greedy.

"Given the inclusion of a missing-nin such as Zabuza Momochi, your mission has been upgraded post-completion to that of A-rank. You will be paid as such. Congratulations on your first successful A-rank mission." He smiled.

Naruto cheered. "Take that! I bet none of the other teams have done an A-rank yet!"

The Hokage chucked. "Indeed not. It's quite an achievement. But before you go, there is some paper work that needs to be filed to validate your mission upgrade. I'll have it sent in to you."

Sensei groaned.

"Aww, man," Naruto complained. "I wanted to go tell Iruka-sensei! Maybe he'd buy me some ramen."

"Administrative duties are also part of being a ninja," the Hokage explained on his way out of the room. "A distasteful, unpleasant part, but important all the same."

"Can't get paid without the paperwork," I translated, with a smile. "Maybe you can buy your own ramen then."

Naruto pouted.

There wasn't really all that much paperwork to do, anyway. A Chunin brought the file - and some pens - into the briefing room and left us to fill it out. It was pretty simple, in the end. Name, ninja ID, team, number of members, assigned mission, assigned mission rank, rank upgrade to…, because of…, authorised by…, approved by…

The last one we left blank for the Hokage to sign and we trooped back out to the Mission Assignment desk. The Hokage flicked through the papers, signed them then handed them off to the payment desk.

Naruto eagerly got his payment in cash, but I requested a transferral slip.

"What's that?" Naruto asked, puzzled. "Aren't you getting your money?"

I blinked at him. "It's a type of payment slip. There isn't really any point in me cashing in here, since I have to transfer it through the clan anyway and pay dues. Clan tax," I clarified. "If I use payment slips, then they know the exact amount I was paid, where if I got cash they might say I lied about it."

"Clan tax?" Naruto repeated. "They take your money?"

"Well, sort of, I guess," I said. Even though our clan had a fair bit of income from our medicinal produce, it still needed support from active duty members. "We give them a percentage of the money we earn on missions and in return the clan looks after us. Housing, equipment, medical treatment, research grants… that kind of stuff." It wasn't a bad system. Certainly it was better than what some other clans did, or what lengths non-clan ninja had to go to for financial security.

"How much is it?" Sasuke asked, intrigued, as we walked outside. That was kind of a rude question, but I didn't get offended. Sasuke was probably too young at the time to know what kind of system his own clan had had.

"Mmm, I'm not sure. Probably around 40% for me, I think. It depends on a lot of factors like your rank and the mission rank and… well stuff like that." Like if you were single or married or had dependents or … well there were thousands of qualifiers. Everyone in the clan had their own tax rate which got recalculated every few months baring significant events. Like loss of limbs.

We stepped out of the Tower into the sunshine. I breathed in deeply, glad to be home. I couldn't wait to get back to the clan grounds, to see Mum and Dad and Shika. It'd be nice to see them all again after so long.

I glanced at my team mates and felt a twinge of guilt. None of them really had anyone to go home too. Empty rooms and empty cupboards were all that awaited them.

I was lucky.

"Did you guys want to come to my place for dinner?" I offered awkwardly, impulsively. "To celebrate our first successful mission and all…"

Naruto looked uncharacteristically nervous. "Wouldn't your parents mind?"

I shook my head. Dad wouldn't and I could talk mum around if she did. We had a pretty lax policy about guests at home anyway. Ino and Sakura often came home with me, and Chouji and Shika were inseparable. "Nah, they'll be cool with it." I cast my gaze from Naruto to Sasuke to Sensei. "Only if you guys want to. You don't have to…"

"We'd love to!" Naruto said hastily, accepting for all of them. "I bet your mum and dad are awesome."

I nodded. "They are!" I assured them. "It'll be great."

"Well, mission accomplished, team." Kakashi-sensei smiled. "You've got tomorrow off, so make the most of it. We'll start training again after that."

"Yes, sensei," we chorused, looking forward to doing just that. It had been a long mission, even if there had been no excitement after Zabuza left.

Kakashi-sensei fell into step beside me. "I'll walk you home," he offered. "I need to have a word with your father."

I nodded. "Of course, sensei." Call it paranoia or hubris, but that 'word' was probably going to be about me.

"Tadaima!" I called as I entered the foyer and shucked off my shoes. _I'm home!_

"Okaeri," Mum responded, coming out of the kitchen. She looked incredibly happy to see me.

"Sensei needs to talk to dad," I explained. "Is he home?"

"Out playing shogi with your brother." She rolled her eyes. "Can I get you some tea, Hakate-sensei?"

I left Sensei to mum's mercies and padded over to open the sliding door leading to the veranda. "Hi," I said softly, taking in the game. Shikamaru was losing, of course.

Dad stood, glancing over my shoulder. "Welcome back. I'll go see what your sensei needs. Why don't you stay here and keep Shikamaru company?"

I wondered if Sensei had signalled him for a private conversation. It didn't really matter. "Sure," I said, plopping down beside Shika and leaning into him, trying to plot possible tactics on the game. Shika was a better Shogi player than me, so he'd probably already noticed them all.

Dad slid the shoji door shut behind him. Of course, that wasn't exactly going to stop me listening in. I channelled chakra to my ears to enhance my hearing. It was a trick I was only just starting to manage with any reliability. Hearing was easier than sight and more useful than smell. To me anyway, I doubt the Inuzuka would agree, but my sense of smell has always been rather poor naturally.

"What about a rising silver?" I asked, point to one of Shika's pieces on the board and naming a common tactic. If I could hear them, they could hear us. Best they heard something mundane.

He snorted. "Are you kidding? And walk into that trap there?" He motioned at some of dads pieces.

"Hmm, I see. But if you did it in combination with-" Only half my concentration was on the game, which was why I wasn't coming up with anything brilliant.

"_- nightmares often?"_ Kakashi-sensei was saying.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and took over our conversation because he knew exactly how nosey I was.

"_Fairly frequently. Is it interfering with her missions?"_ Mum sounded… anxious? Worried, maybe.

"_Not exactly._" He paused. There was a creaking sound. Sensei leaning back in his chair? _"There was an incident on this mission. Naruto used… his special chakra. It affected her badly."_

I winced. I'd frozen up in the middle of a fight, been completely useless, and had nightmares. Badly was an understatement.

There was a weighty silence inside. "But your knight…" I said to Shika offhandedly.

"No. See here…"

"_I see," _Dad said. _"Shikako is extremely sensitive to chakra. She feels it very strongly. It was unexpected that she learnt to use it at all. Given the nature of … that chakra, it isn't surprising that she was affected."_

"_Even that day, she was strongly affected by it,"_ Mum added, sounding distant. I could picture her worried face, see her clenching and unclenching her fists. _"We were very worried. A lot of people… never recovered, particularly young kids. They just gave up and died. We thought… we thought she might be one of them. She was very loud before then but afterwards… she didn't make a sound."_

"_She said she remembered that day,"_ Sensei said carefully. _"And she recognised that chakra for what it was. Named it, even."_

"_She knows?"_

Sensei made an affirmative sound. _"She guessed. I felt it better to clarify than allow her to make any further conclusions on her own."_

"_She always has been very clever,"_ Mum said, but she sounded shocked.

"_And will that affect her team placement?"_ Dad asked.

"_Not unless you have objections. She hasn't shown any indication to being affected by the information but you may want to talk with her. Particularly to emphasise the secrecy around the issue."_

I sighed, resting my head on Shikamaru's shoulder. Right. S-class secret. Can't tell anyone. Though Shikamaru could probably work it out pretty easily, given the right clues. Not that I'd do that, either, but it wouldn't stay secret forever.

"_Thank you for alerting us,"_ Mum said and their conversation degraded into pleasant goodbyes. I cut the chakra to my ears when I heard the main door open and shut. Just in time too, as Dad opened the sliding shoji door. There wasn't any physical give away for enhanced senses, but I still suspected that Dad would be able to tell. Maybe because he was a ninja, maybe because he was a parent. Either way, I'd probably be in trouble.

"Teaming up on me?" He asked, amused.

"Nah," I said, standing with a stretch. "I invited my team around for dinner, so I better go and tell mum. Besides, the game's nearly over."

"Traitor," Shikamaru muttered.

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"So how did your mission go?" Mum asked as we puttered around in the kitchen.

I froze, casting a glance through the door. Shika and Dad had migrated into the living room after the end of their Shogi match and, yup, they were listening too.

My first reaction was to lie. Lie like the world was ending. I squashed that thought. Not only were my parents ninja and would probably notice, Dad was Jounin Commander and could look up mission reports, and I had invited my team mates around for dinner. It would not stay secret with Naruto here.

In fact, them putting together what had happened by offhand comments would make them react worse than if I straight out told them.

And they'd be disappointed.

Very disappointed.

So that was out.

I couldn't claim that I couldn't tell them. Yes, it was A-ranked, but secrecy hadn't been one of the requirements. Telling them that would actually be much worse, because things were only classified if they were _highly_ sensitive and Genin had no business being on those missions.

That didn't mean I wasn't going to tell the truth _carefully._ If I managed to say it right, it would sound much less dangerous than if I didn't watch my words. Of course, Sensei had already given the game away a little bit. I'd need to be a professional spin doctor to get myself out of this.

"Well, our C-rank mission was to escort a guy to the Land of Waves," I began before the silence could draw out and make them too suspicious. "He was a bridge builder and…"

I wove the tale carefully, mentioning the ambush but leaving out that Sensei had left us to fight it. I told them Tazuna had been targeted by the local crime boss, but left out that that boss was _Gatou_. It was a famous name. I had to mention Zabuza by name, since there was really no way around it.

"Zabuza Momochi!" Mum yelped. "He's an A-rank missing nin! What was he doing there? You couldn't possibly have fought him! That's not _C-rank!_"

"Sensei fought him," I said soothingly, not mentioning the water clone. At all. "He used his Sharingan. Sasuke was really surprised that he had one, but it was pretty awesome. I think he hypnotised Zabuza with it or something, because he really freaked him out. They both used these _huge_ water dragons… it was really impressive." I carried on a bit about the fight I'd only partially seen. Hey, Sensei had been awesome, and Mum was buying the 'if Kakashi-sensei was fighting, we weren't' implication.

There was a heavy stare on my back. I glanced out into the living room to meet Dad's eyes. Okay, Mum might have been buying it, but I don't think Dad was.

"Sensei almost got him, but then Zabuza was rescued by his partner, who was pretending to be a Hunter-nin. Since we were more concerned about protecting Tazuna than chasing him down, he got away." _because Sensei was out of it_, I did not add. No way was I stating, saying, or even implying that we had been left pretty much defenceless against an unknown opponent. I could _see_ the explosion that would cause.

I chattered on about the bridge, and the people we'd met and how Kakashi-sensei had taught us a few jutsu, trying to draw a picture that said 'it wasn't dangerous at all, honest'. I had a whole two weeks of material to draw on, and Tsunami had shown me how to make a few traditional Wave Country dishes when I'd offered to help her with the cooking.

Mum was relaxing, just a bit. "Oh? Snapper Yakizakana? That sounds nice."

"Oh, it was. Tsunami was a very good cook." Particularly with the minimal ingredients that she had to work with at the time. "She let me copy most of her recipe book too."

The last bit was the really _delicate_ bit to tell.

"Zabuza and Haku, that was the fake Hunter-nin guys name, tried to attack Tazuna again once more. Kakashi-sensei fought Zabuza again, and Naruto and Sasuke took on Haku. I didn't really see what happened, but Sasuke got knocked out and we thought he was dead. That made Naruto _really_ angry."

Mum and Dad could read in between the lines there.

"We won the fight and were about to tie them up," or whatever Kakashi-sensei had intended to do. I didn't really know. "when the crime boss showed up. He must have thought they were dead or injured or something, because he started insulting them and said he wouldn't pay them."

There was a snort from behind me. My lips quirked into a smirk. "Yeah, they weren't too happy about that either. They said that they didn't have a reason to fight us anymore, so we let them go. Then they killed him." I shrugged. "That pretty much solved all our problems."

"Neat," Shikamaru said. I think it appealed to him, having all your problems solved without having to do anything.

"Just like that?" Mum asked.

I nodded. "Pretty much. We had to stick around for another week till the bridge was finished, but there was no other attacks. The villagers thought we were heroes; they even named their bridge after Naruto."

"After… Naruto?" Mum blinked. Okay, without the full story, that probably came a little out of left field.

"He makes an impression on people, you know? The villagers all liked him."

They didn't know. They'd never _really _met him. Sure, Shika and I had hung out with him at the Academy, but we hadn't been awfully close and he'd only come around once or twice. That wasn't a lot for them to base judgement on.

Story time over and with no explosions I let myself relax, just a bit.

"A little extreme for your first C-rank," Dad commented idly.

I shrugged. "Luck of the draw, I guess. At least we had Kakashi-sensei." It wasn't like there was anything I could have done about _that._

"Too much excitement for me." Shikamaru shuddered.

I smirked again. "Ino make you take a C-rank?" I asked. If they'd got a shorter one, they could have accomplished it in the time we were gone.

"Yes," he groaned. "It was troublesome. We were delivering messages to all these outposts… so much running…"

I laughed, feeling lighter than I had since we'd taken the Wave Mission.

It was good to be home.

It was around six o'clock when the doorbell rang, the first of my team mates to show up.

"I'll get it," Mum said, drying her hands off, as I was elbow deep in peeling vegetables for dinner.

"It's Naruto," I said. After spending so long with them, their chakra signatures were so familiar to me I could pick them out of a crowd. Telling who was on the other side of the closed door was easy.

To her credit, Mum only hesitated for a second. "Good evening. Welcome to our home," she said, politely as she opened the door. I leant sideways, just a little, so I could see what was going on.

"Um, I got told it was polite to bring a gift, so … here! Uh, thank you for inviting me, Nara-san." Well, that was uncharacteristically polite of him. If he'd found Iruka-sensei like he said he was going to, he'd probably been given a lecture on politeness.

Mum blinked at the potted plan that was thrust at her and Naruto's nervous expression. I could see what she saw in that instant, scruffy and unkempt but with a good heart underneath. Without really trying, he had won her over.

"That wasn't really necessary, but thank you anyway, Naruto. Please call me Yoshino, there are too many Nara's here for formalities." She gently took the plant from him. We weren't exactly gardeners, but it looked well cared for. "Please, come in. Shikako is in the kitchen at the moment."

"Hey, Naruto," I said, waving through the doorway. "Shika is in the living room. You can go bother him for a while, if you like."

"Ah… do you need any help?" he asked.

"No, we're fine," I smiled. "Don't worry, I'll be done soon. Just have to start everything cooking and all."

Sasuke arrived shortly after and Mum shooed me out of the kitchen to go talk to them. I tried to keep the conversation light, asking about what they were going to do with their day off and such, but Shika ruined it for me, lazily asking Naruto what our mission had been like.

When Naruto launched into a spirited retelling, aided by comments from Sasuke, of all the fights I'd left out of my own tale… well.

I sighed. _Should have figured this would happen,_ I thought, ignoring the fact that I had anticipated it. Regardless, despite Dad's raised eyebrow and Mum's disbelieving reactions, it didn't actually go down that badly. The fact that it didn't _contradict_ anything I'd told them probably helped.

Naruto seemed gratified that they were listening to him, and Sasuke shot down most of his embellishments, so if you ignored the 'Genin facing off against A-rank nin' aspect, it didn't sound too horrifying. We went, we fought, we won. Simple. Expected.

_Yeah, maybe not,_ I thought, eyeing Mum. She was going to have _words_ at me later.

Kakashi-sensei hadn't shown up by the time the food was ready, and it didn't look like he was going to anytime soon, so we started eating without him. It was a fun dinner, with plenty of lively conversation. It wasn't that we never talked at the table, it was just we tended to have pointed short conversations about something in particular.

Naruto just talked.

And before you knew it, everyone else was talking too. It was a kind of charisma, I guess, one that didn't rely so much on being _nice_ but on being _real_.

Dinner was over and I was clearing plates off the table when I felt something that made me grin. It drew out for a long moment and my grin faltered.

I stared at the door. Kakashi-sensei's chakra hovered on the other side of it. Was he going to knock or just stand there? Maybe he thought coming was a bad idea and was just going to turn around and leave. Should I open the door anyway?

The doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!"

I slammed the door open and chirped, "Hi, sensei!"

He blinked, hands deep in his pockets. Even though he was in his usual lazy slouch, I thought I could read his awkwardness. "Sorry, I'm late. I had to rearrange my garden gnomes, Timothy and Sir Bedevere aren't getting along so I had to separate them."

I blinked and then giggled at the image of Kakashi-sensei having a set of garden gnomes that he'd given names and personalities. They would probably have little headbands and Henohenomoheji capes like his summons.

"It's okay, sensei," I said, leading him into the house. "We just finished eating, but I can heat you up some leftovers."

"Ahh, that's not really necessary," he said, shrugging uncomfortably.

"Sure it is," I grinned. "There's lots of leftovers and I helped cook it specially. You can't turn that down."

"Guess I can't," he said, eye crinkling with a smile.

I piled a plate high and zapped it in the microwave. "You can bring it out to the living room or eat in here or whatever. Just leave the plate on the counter when you're done," I offered, not sure if Kakashi-sensei really was as pedantic about his mask as everyone made out.

"Ah, thanks." He scratched his cheek through his mask. "I'll eat in here."

"Okay." I left him there and went back into the living room

"Ne, ne, Shikako, come play with us!" Naruto said excitedly. I blinked to see him sitting next to Sasuke and across a Shogi board from Shikamaru. "We'll play Team Seven verses Shikamaru!"

I grinned. "Sounds awesome," I said, sinking down between the boys. It was a little crowded but not all that bad. "Prepare to be beaten."

Shikamaru scoffed. "Troublesome girl."

Sometime through the game, Sensei came into the living room and settled onto the sofa behind us at our urging.

"I'll get Dad to help me," Shika threatened.

"What's the matter? Feeling scared?" I taunted.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see mum standing with the family camera. Technology was a little strange in this world. It was only the elite that had access to a high level of technology. Something handheld like Mum was using took extreme connections to get, even if I considered bulky and consistent with like the nineteen seventies. Heck, the camera that administration used for ID photos looked like it was from the eighteen hundreds.

If I thought about it, it was probably more societal than due to any lack of skill. They had fireworks so they clearly had gunpowder. They had radio, they had cameras and TVs. There was at least some people capable of building cameras.

But instead of saying 'how can this help the public' or even 'how can we sell this' like my world, they hid it. Not just the plans and blueprints, but everything. No one shared anything. Added to the fact that these were things that ninja wouldn't like - concealable cameras, radio and video that can be sent across the entire _nation_? No, they wouldn't like that at all. And things that ninja didn't like had a tendency to disappear. Not only that, but everyone that had heard of them mysteriously vanished or forgot they'd ever heard of it. Ninja might be able to adapt, but they'd prefer to shut it down before it got to that stage. The status quo was reasonably good to them.

And yeah, I'm a little glad, because I never want to think the words 'ninja' and 'atomic bomb' in the same sentence ever again.

Kakashi-sensei made his escape after the shogi game, leaving the three of us with ruffled hair.

"Come late and leave early," Naruto muttered. "That's sensei."

I shrugged. "I'm glad he come at all. I didn't think he was going to." I was actually really delighted that he had, to be truthful.

We kept talking until Naruto yawned, loudly. "Oops," he muttered, casting a wide eyed glance at Mum and Dad. He didn't seem to know how to act around them.

"It's okay." I smiled. "It is getting pretty late. I think Shika is sleeping with his eyes open."

"Hey," said brother objected, proving me wrong.

Naruto snickered and said his goodbyes, Sasuke following him. I sighed and leant backwards, contemplating going to bed until I noticed that Mum's eyes were trained seriously on me.

_Crap._

I looked for Shika for support, only to find him halfway up the stairs. He'd already made his escape.

_Double crap._

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><p>.<p>

I sat at the kitchen table, sipping green tea and writing up my mission report.

Mission reports were a bitch to write. The level of detail you had to include was pretty extreme. The thing was, all mission reports got passed through the Intelligence Division and stashed in the Archive and those little details might play an important role in some _other_ mission. We were all the little pieces that contributed to the big picture they looked at.

…_encountered two missing nin; identified as Momochi, Zabuza and 'Unknown', Haku. Momochi Zabuza: Skin tone, shade two; facial structure, type three, partial coverage from bandages - nose to chin -; eye shape, type five; eye colour, brown; eyebrows, light to none. Outfit consisting of: headband, Mist standard, plate at left temple; pants, grey; leg warmers, black and white camouflage; forearm bands, black and white camouflage…_

I yawned. For those of us without drawing skill (that is, most of us) we identified people by a series of standardised facial features. It was rather like an Identikit that the police used to create suspect pictures.

We'd learnt memorisation techniques in the Academy in order to remember this level of detail. At the time they'd been rather fun, involving cut out cards of various facial parts and contests to see who could make the right face. Actually, a large proportion of time at the Academy had focused on memorisation techniques.

"Oh, there you are," Mum said in relief as she bustled into the dining room. "I thought you might have already left."

"Mission report," I explained. "We've got the day off anyway. Did you need something?"

"Well, I just had the thought that if you were going to be going on missions like _that_, and honestly," she frowned. I hoped she wasn't going to start ranting again. "What were they thinking? I told your father that he ought to step up your training, for both of you, but he just mumbled at me!" She huffed. "Said you wouldn't be ready for the next step until you were Chunin anyway."

I made a noncommittal sound. For all Dad had a lackadaisical approach to training, if he said we weren't ready we probably weren't ready.

"But well, I do have a few skills of my own," she continued. I perked up. Sure, there was more to being a ninja than cool jutsu, but they sure helped. "If you have a few hours to spare to train with your Mum."

"Of course I do," I assured her. More training was _always_ worth it. Supervised training was even better. "Actually, I've been meaning to ask, do you know the Earth Walking technique?"

Earth Walking might have sounded like it was the next step after Water Walking, but it wasn't. That might have been Snow Walking or Sand Walking which Konoha didn't exactly have an abundance of. What Earth Walking was was the precursor to Jutsu like Earth Release: Hiding Like A Mole, Double Suicide Decapitation Technique, Underground Fish Projection Technique, Tunnelling Technique… basically anything that required you to move underground.

It was a pretty basic skill in theory. The ground wasn't just one solid substance. It was a mass of fine particles packed together. And between those dirt particles were air spaces.

You projected chakra from the surface of your body, pushing the dirt in front of you around like a breaking wave. It was easier in aerated soil, harder in packed ground and near impossible in stone. If you had the skill, you could take some of that air and hold it to your mouth, increasing the amount of time you could remain underground.

The more advanced levels of techniques involved turning the dirt into substances that were easy to move, such as sand, around the body to enhance your ability to move.

It was also incredibly useful, particularly since I preferred to stay out of sight and then attack.

"I do." Mum nodded slowly. "It's fairly chakra intensive, you know."

"That's okay," I said brightly. "Even if I can only use it for a short period…"

It would also help in reaching _other_ people that were hiding with it. You can't attack what you can't get at.

"Alright. We'll start on it this afternoon," Mum said firmly. "And make sure you bring your brother."

I smirked. Take _that,_ Shika. "Of course."


	17. Chapter 16

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: The Worst Three-Legged Race is from the Shippuden Flashback Arc. Thanks to DreamOfStories who reminded me that it took place between the Wave Arc and the Chunin Exams.

And thanks again to everyone who reviewed!

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 16

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><p>.<p>

_Always remember that the future comes one day at a time. ~ Dean Acheson_

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I swung by the Missions Desk to drop off my report. Iruka-sensei was there, and he brightened considerably and waved me over to his desk.

"Nice and early," he approved. "I'm glad you didn't pick that habit up from your sensei. We probably wont see his mission report for another three weeks." He huffed.

I nearly giggled. There was nothing Iruka-sensei hated more than late homework, and apparently that extended to mission reports. There wasn't actually an official time limit within which mission reports should be delivered, since there was always the chance of hospitalisation and so forth, so it was just understood that it should be as soon as possible.

He flicked through the pages slowly. I could see that he was actually reading what I'd written rather than just making sure I'd filled it out correctly.

"I guess Naruto must have already told you all about it," I said.

"I'm hoping most of that was exaggeration," he said ruefully. "But I see it really did get upgraded to A-rank."

"Yup. It wasn't really that bad," I tried to assure him. "I mean, it was scary at the time, but looking back I don't think we were actually in all that much danger."

He looked at me, a strange expression on his face. "You know, two months ago you were still my student at the Academy. If some one had told me…"

I waited for him to complete his thought but he just shook his head and smiled. "Graduating has been good for you."

"Thanks, Iruka-sensei," I said, not quite sure what he meant. He didn't say anything more, just stamped my mission report with the date and signed it, leaving me to wander away.

Ino was at training with Shika and they wouldn't be finished till later in the afternoon. Chouji was obviously the same. But I should probably visit Sakura.

I knocked on the door to the Haruno household. Sakura answered the door, a half eaten sandwich held halfway to her mouth. Her hair was tied up for practically the first time I've ever seen, a hasty almost lopsided bun. She brightened. "Shikako! You're back! Come in."

I followed her inside. There were books scattered all over the kitchen table.

"Do you want something to eat? Sorry about the mess, I've got my Basic Anatomy class at two and I was revising."

I declined the offer of food. "Basic Anatomy? You did apply for Medic-nin then." I felt a twinge of guilt. "I'm sorry. I know I said that I'd help you with that, but…"

She waved it off. "It's okay. I know that you can't control when you get missions. And you really did help, you know? I talked to Iruka-sensei like you said, and pretty much decided that the Medic Corps sounded best. It was pretty easy from there to get the application forms and stuff and then I just went to your Aunt and introduced myself and asked her to sponsor me. I met her once or twice with you before, I think."

I blinked. "Wow. That's… brave." It was a different kind of bravery to facing Missing-nins head to head, and probably harder for it. Social bravery. Introducing myself to strangers and asking for favours was the kind of thing that had me breaking out into cold sweat. "And she did?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, she looked through my Academy files and made me do some Chakra Control techniques to prove I had good control but she signed it off and the next day I was enrolled in the program." She beamed. "I wanted to go for field medic, but you have to complete the basic training and then do a six month residency before they let you."

"Something for the future then," I said. "Are you liking it?"

"It's great," she said sincerely. "We're only really doing theory at the moment, Basic Anatomy, Basic Chemistry, Cellular Biology, Nutrition and Health, that kind of stuff. Our only practical class at the moment is Chakra Control. We haven't even started learning medical jutsu or anything." She looked a little disappointed about that. "Once we finish Basic Anatomy we're supposed to be allowed to start doing dissections, starting with fish and moving on to small birds and mammals." She looked like she didn't know whether to anticipate it or wrinkle her nose.

That feeling reminded me of doing a science degree at university and making the important discovery that the inside of chickens smells much, much worse than you could ever imagine. Worse than fish, even. "When you start doing practicals, you should take some eucalyptus oil and put a few drops on the collar of your lab coat. That way, when the smell gets to you, you just duck your nose into your shoulder for some relief. You don't want to be known as the girl that had to leave because she couldn't handle it."

Sakura looked like she was making a mental note and underlining it. "Eucalyptus oil, huh?"

"Or anything that smells strongly." I shrugged. "Just a suggestion."

"No, that sounds good." She grimaced faintly. "I'm a lot younger than most of the others, so anything like that helps. There are only one or two Academy graduates. Do you remember Youbirin?"

"Suzu?" I clarified. "I'm not surprised he's there. His clan is pretty heavily into the medic-nin stuff. He was on your team, right?"

"Yeah. That didn't … go well. He's still a jerk, most of the time, but it feels great when I show him up." There was a gleam in her eyes that I recognised.

I snickered. "You do that. You're smart enough to be the top of your class, if you try hard enough. And you can always pester your tutors for extra reading or exercises to make up for not being able to name every bone in the skeleton by the time you were three."

"At the Academy, the clan kids were always the best… it's the same at the hospital, isn't it?" She looked a little dispirited.

I winced. That hadn't been my intention. "We have a bit of an advantage, yeah. But it's not as big as you think, and people with advantages tend to slack off a bit…" I admitted. "Just because he's ahead of you _now_ doesn't mean he'll always be ahead of you. He'd probably make a half decent medic nin as he is… but you're not shooting for _half decent_ are you?" I teased.

"Hmph!" She tossed her chin high. "I'm going to be the best!"

"You tell 'em, sister." I chuckled.

"So, uh, do you have any advice?" She asked awkwardly. "I mean, I know you do some medical stuff…"

Medical ninjutsu was so tricky because it required the user to have an in-depth knowledge of the human body. You couldn't just form the hand seals and let the jutsu do the rest. And the human body is a complex machine. There are thousands of different parts and thousands of different ways in which they can be damaged. A lot of study is simply rote memorisation of facts but there were a lot of facts to be memorised. Added to that was the difficulty of forming and holding Yin natured chakra. All in all, it was no wonder there was a only one in a hundred nin ever even _tried_ to study medical ninjutsu.

"Memorise, memorise, memorise?" I shrugged. "There's not really much to say. Just, don't only study for the tests, you know? That's not why you're learning. Knowing the contractile process of sarcomeres might seem useless, but when you're healing muscle you don't want to align them wrong or your patient might never walk again."

"Right," she nodded seriously. "I wasn't really going to. This stuff really is interesting. More than calculating standard kunai pathways anyway."

"More useful too," I said wryly. "No one thinks about that when they're throwing kunai."

She snickered. We talked for a bit longer, but I didn't want to drag her away from her revising. She looked happier and more sure of herself than she had at the Academy. Maybe that was what Iruka-sensei had been talking about.

I went home, did my chores, checked over the deer and immersed myself in my seal work. It was a frustrating process. I'd mostly finished my comparative analysis of the different styles, and could tell you what seals with certain aspects did at a glance, but I was no closer to actually discovering how to put my own seals together. There just didn't seem to be any kind of underlying process.

_Must be why people learn seals from Masters and not from books_, I mused. There was really no one in the clan that did more than copy medical seals. There was the option of asking Kakashi-sensei and hopefully Naruto would still end up meeting Jiraiya. Then I'd just have to come up with a way to ask him.

At three, I put away my books and wandered around to Team 10's training grounds to find Shikamaru.

"Shikako!" I heard Ino cry before she slammed into me, nearly lifting me off my feet. Ino was actually fairly tall, taller than me at any rate. "You're back! How was it? Lazy-bones over there wouldn't tell us anything."

She set me back down. Shikamaru was slouched opposite a Shogi board to Asuma-sensei and Chouji was sitting nearby eating chips. Team training, huh?

I waved at him.

"Sorry for interrupting your team training, Asuma-sensei," I said, bowing politely to him. I hadn't actually met him, apart from seeing him pick up Team 10 at the Academy.

He waved it off. "We're nearly finished here anyway. It's not like we were particularly busy," he said dryly.

"I was just going to fetch Shikamaru home for some clan training once you were done with him," I explained.

Shikamaru looked semi-interested. "Dad's teaching us?" Dad's teaching methods sat well with Shikamaru because they didn't actually force him to do anything.

"No," I said sweetly, setting up for the wonderful, wonderful realisation. This was going to be good.

"What?" He frowned. I resisted the urge to cackle.

"Mum is."

Shikamaru _froze_. His fingers twitched. His entire posture screamed 'escape and evade'. "Why don't you tell Ino about your mission?" he said weakly. "She's been wanting to hear about it all day." He cast a pleading glance at Asuma.

"Well, I don't want to interfere with _clan training_," Asuma-sensei said, amusement writ all over his bearded face as he cheerfully threw Shikamaru to his fate. There was possibly a hint of 'ahaha, revenge!' in the idea.

Ino looked torn between wanting to hear my mission and gleefully throwing Shikamaru into his worst nightmare - _work_. "We can catch up tomorrow after training," she decided finally.

Shikamaru groaned, sounding like he was in pain already. He was so melodramatic. His next step would be to be completely uncooperative and refuse to move.

"Better yet," I said to Ino. "You can walk with us. I'll tell you on the way. You want to come too, Chouji?"

Game, set, match.

"Ohh, I've heard all kinds of rumours about it," Ino said, before kicking Shika squarely in the thigh. "Up, lazybones, time to get moving. We're not standing around waiting for you forever!" Her voice started to take on her shrill 'dealing with Shikamaru' tone. He _hated_ it.

Chouji wandered over and offered me a chip. "That's kind of mean," he commented. "Setting Ino on him like that."

"I'd never get him home otherwise," I admitted. "We'll not if he knew there was _training_ waiting for him and if I didn't say anything he'd suspect it anyway."

Chouji chuckled. "Why is your Mum training you anyway? I thought your Dad usually handled that."

I shrugged. "It's to do with my mission. Mum got worried, you know? So she wanted to make sure we weren't going to get hurt out there."

"Your mission?" Chouji asked.

"Well, it went downhill pretty badly," I started. Ino practically dragged Shikamaru over by his hair and the four of us headed towards the Nara Clan grounds.

I didn't spin the story nearly as much as I had with my parents. There wasn't really a need to. Chouji listened non-judgementally, while Ino oohed and ahhed over what 'her Sasuke-kun' had done. By the time we reached the house, she had stars in her eyes and was probably going to race off to see him.

I shrugged. _Not my problem_.

Training was harsh. It would surprise exactly no one to learn that Mum was a strict taskmaster. She didn't just teach us the Earth Walking skill I'd asked, she drilled us in Taijutsu, throwing skills - not just stationery but running, jumping, twisting throws - and even our Shadow Possession capture speed.

Even flushing my muscles with chakra to wash away built up lactic acid didn't help that much. Halfway through training I had to switch over to chakra enhancing everything like Shika was doing just to survive.

"Alright," Mum said, finally satisfied as the light started fading. "That'll do for now.

"For now?" Shika croaked, falling backwards to lie on the ground. "Never again."

"If you kept up with your training, you wouldn't be so tired right now," Mum admonished. "Don't think I don't know that you've been skipping your exercises."

Shika looked faintly guilty. "Troublesome."

"We've still got a long way to go." I yawned. I hadn't been slacking, but I think I could have been pushing harder as well.

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><p>.<p>

The next morning dawned bright and clear. It was easy to fall back into the routine of going to the training fields and waiting for Sensei to show up.

"Spar?" Sasuke offered with a smirk.

"You're on!" Naruto said, immediately.

I nodded. "Same rules as usual?"

Sasuke cast a considering gaze at both of us. "Let's have a free for all," he suggested. Teamed up, Naruto and I always beat him, though that was pre-Sharingan.

Naruto froze and then grinned. "I'm totally going to kick your ass," he said, elated. Because Sasuke had just recognised him as a credible threat in his own right.

We spread out across the clearing, triangulated to keep an eye on each other. Then, with no signal any observer would notice, the two boys blurred into action.

Silly, silly them, focusing on each other like that.

_That_ just gave me time to set traps and genjutsu and lure them in.

Naruto flooded the area with thick mist, which might have been a good way to stop Sasuke's Sharingan _if_ he'd been able to move in it himself. He spammed Shadow Clones and Lightning Release: Radiating Shockwave all over the place in an attempt to box Sasuke in.

Sasuke, in turn, could dodge the loud and noisy clones, but had no luck at all in locating the real one. Every time he took out a clone, that only alerted the rest of them to where he was.

I dropped the real Naruto into an genjutsu the second he spread the mist. With no visual cues to alert him, he didn't even notice the change. It was easy, then, to pull him Headhunter style into the ground and put a remote activated knockout tag on his forehead. I needed his clones for now, but when I knocked him out, they'd vanish.

The clones knew I was there now, but they had even less luck finding me than they did Sasuke. I could avoid them much easier.

Sasuke was pushed back to the trees, and it was easy then to snag him in a Shadow Possession and smack a knockout tag on him too.

A single hand seal and I won.

By the time they came around, the mist had long since gone, and I was sitting calmly on a tree branch reading.

"That was mean, Shikako," Naruto whined.

"Hey, I pulled you out of the ground," I pointed out. "And we were sparring. It's not my fault you guys ignored me."

Sasuke 'hn'ed in acknowledgement. "I couldn't find the real Naruto," he admitted, starting our post fight discussion. "I'd have probably been better off setting up trip wires or neck traps so they didn't know where I was."

"Yeah, every time you popped one, I just sent more clones to that place," Naruto said. "We got you a few times, too."

"Yeah," I said. "But you couldn't see through your own mist, could you? That was dumb. You need a way to be able to find people in it if you're going to use it at all. Zabuza used sound and I can sense people in it…" I trailed off. "Can you still feel the chakra you use to make the mist? You could use that to find where people are in the mist."

"Not really." Naruto scrunched his nose up. "I could try though! That'd be cool!"

"It'd be a good idea. Scent is really the only other option… It'd be a good idea if you worked on a way too, Sasuke. Especially if we ever use it on missions."

"Hearing," he voted immediately. "It's more reliable than scent." Scent patterns would change depending on the wind, so wouldn't always be able to point out _exactly_ where a person was. It was better for tracking because it lasted long term but it took more training to learn, as well.

We discussed the fight a bit more, until Sensei showed up.

"You're late!" Naruto hollered. By Kakashi standards, he actually wasn't all that late. Only an hour instead of the usual two or three.

"I was attacked by a raccoon and had to stop by the hospital to make sure it wasn't rabid," Kakashi-sensei said seriously.

Naruto and Sasuke snorted in disbelief. I ignored them and jumped to my feet, pulling three sealing scrolls out of my jacket.

"Here!" I chirped, handing a scroll to each of them.

"What is it?" Naruto asked eagerly, already unrolling it, while Kakashi-sensei looked at his with widened eye.

"It's a present!" I responded, waiting for them to unseal it. I liked giving presents. I liked seeing people's reactions when they unwrapped them.

Kakashi-sensei regarded his like it might be a live explosive note.

Naruto pressed his chakra into the kanji to disgorge a picture frame. It was from our celebratory dinner, of the four of us playing Shogi. It was a good picture. I was gesturing at the board and talking to Sasuke who was almost smiling while leaning on Naruto who was grinning ear to ear, while Kakashi-sensei sat on the sofa, forearms casually braced on his knees looking over our heads. It was much less formal than our team photo.

"Mum had them printed," I said. "I thought you guys would like a copy."

The silence started to stretch. I began to wonder if it really was such a good idea.

"This is really awesome!" Naruto enthused, tackling me with a hug. His eyes were a little misty. "I'll put it on my shelf next to our team photo! Believe it!"

I giggled.

"Thanks," Sasuke said, voice soft. He tucked his scroll away into his pouch.

"You're welcome," I said.

"Well, it's nice to see you all so happy," Kakashi-sensei said after a pause. "Because it's back to doing D-ranks."

Naruto groaned.

We'd done a few more D-rank missions, weeding gardens and walking dogs and shopping for groceries and the utterly infamous catch Tora mission, before the Hokage offered us another C-rank.

"A small band of thieves have stolen a artefact from one of the ladies of the Daimyo's court. It's apparently made of solid gold, so is worth quite a bit," the Hokage explained. "But more than that, it's a traditional heirloom and an important symbol of the family. Your mission is to retrieve the statue with a secondary objective of capturing the thieves. None of the thieves are noted to have ninja training, but you should be on your guard all the same."

"You bet, old man!" Naruto exclaimed. "We'll have that statue back before you know it!" He grinned, folding his hands behind his head.

The Hokage chuckled. "I'm counting on you to do that, Naruto." He threw Kakashi-sensei the mission scroll.

Kakashi-sensei scanned through the details quickly. "Alright kids. Grab your mission packs and meet me at the gate ASAP. Short term mission gear only. This shouldn't take more than a day."

"Yes, Sensei," we chorused, scattering to retrieve our packs.

Mum was a little worried that we were taking another C-rank mission so soon, especially after what happened on the last one, but there was really nothing she could say. She had been a ninja too and for all her worry, she understood missions.

Sensei wasn't even late meeting us at the gate. "This is a 'find and retrieve' or a 'track and capture' mission. It's a little different from our last C-rank which was a standard 'body guarding' mission. We don't really have time to go over the details now, but I'll brief you when we get closer to the location," he said, perfectly business like.

We jumped through the trees, pushing hard but not enough to tire ourselves out. We seemed to be heading north, which made sense as the capital was located to the north-east of Konoha.

We broke for a late lunch, and Sensei spread out a map on the ground. "Now," he started. "We're not exactly a tracking team like Team Eight but that doesn't exactly matter. If you have enough information, you can substitute logical deductions about enemy movement to chase and pursue tactics. In some cases, that's even better, since we can cut them off from ahead instead of trying to run them down."

"Huh?" Naruto asked. "How are we going to find them?"

"According to our Intel the thieves who took the statue are headed towards Ikeda Lake. The palace guards pursued them as far as Toge Pass but were overcome. Therefore, they'll be either travelling on land following this forest path or sailing by boat down the Kanagawa river," Kakashi-sensei said, tracing both routes out on the map with his finger.

"If they were clever, they'd do both," I said, eyeing the map. "One with the real statue, the other with a decoy."

Kakashi-sensei hummed. "The palace guards reported there were only a small number of thieves, five or six, so it's unlikely they'll split up unless they're very confident in their skills… and trust each other."

Unlikely. The thing about thieves was that they stole things. Even from each other.

"We're going to split up into two teams and lie in wait for them. In terms of team balance, I should go alone and you three should stick together."

I nodded. It made sense. Splitting us up would weaken us, and none of us could offer much to Kakashi-sensei anyway.

"What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked, tilting his head in confusion. "Are you saying Sasuke needs all the help he can get?" It was said so innocently that I did a double take.

Sasuke twitched. "You're the one that needs all the help you can get." He turned to Sensei. "I know we're not up to your level yet, but isn't three to one too much? You could take Naruto off our hands. Subtract his skill from yours and we'll be even."

"You've got to be kidding!" Naruto yelped. "Why would you subtract my skills?"

"Because you've got nothing to add," Sasuke retorted smugly.

The words were harsh but their tones were more teasing than insulting.

"Settle down and pay attention," Kakashi-sensei admonished. "I'll watch the pier and you three watch the forest path. If the thieves appear, notify me immediately. Do not take them lightly. Our mission is to retrieve the golden statue."

It was a reminder that we shouldn't just willy-nilly attack the thieves. We had to make sure that we could retrieve the statue or it would all be for naught.

Kakashi-sensei withdrew two hollow bamboo tubes and handed one to me. I regarded it warily. What was this?

"We must proceed with utmost caution. If the thieves appear on my side, I'll send up a signal with this." He tapped the hollow bamboo tube. "When this Lightning Barrel is activated it will release one thunderbolt. Once you verify it, rush to that location."

A Lightning Barrel? They were used to send up signals, but they were rarely used because they were bulky and obvious. If you sent it up _everyone_ would know you were there.

"Now remember," he stressed. "You are not to act alone."

We nodded and agreed that we wouldn't. It wasn't like we had any reason to go against Sensei's wishes. Not like the Zabuza situation.

We scouted out several kilometres of the forest track and after seeing no sign of the thieves, settled in the branches to wait. It was boring, but at least we were prepared for that.

"Incoming," I murmured, an indefinite period of time later. The chakra I was sensing was … strange.

The two boys sharpened to attention.

Below us, tramping slowly at civilian pace, came five men leading a horse. They were all wearing jackets with the same symbol on their backs, like some kind of gang mark. I _think_ it was supposed to be a fish, but that wasn't the first thing that popped to mind.

_Target?_ Sasuke signed.

_Not sure._ I signed back. It was possible, but it wasn't certain. This wasn't a busy path, but that didn't mean there wouldn't be other travellers.

The guy that was leading the procession was tall, with dark red hair tied back into a ponytail and a pointy goatee. His face was set in a smirk, that I disliked on sight, but more than that, his chakra was distorted. Heavy and thick, almost like slime.

The horse stumbled on the loose ground. The poor thing, it was probably overworked. They nearly lost it down the bank and into the river when the leader turned around. I couldn't see what hand seals he used, but a rope of chakra, dense enough to be both visible and solid, shot out from his hand and wrapped around the horse, pulling it back to safety.

"Idiot," he barked. "Careful with the treasure."

"Sorry, boss Jako!" The underling stuttered.

So he was the leader.

I signalled the others to retreat back so we could converse where they couldn't hear us.

"They've got the treasure!" Naruto hissed. "Let's get it."

"It could be a decoy, still," I said. "They might have called it the treasure because they knew we were here."

"There's five guys down there," Sasuke put in. "That's what Sensei said the whole force was. It looks pretty likely that that box is what we're looking for."

I nodded. "It does. But we're not going to just leap down there, okay?" I glanced at Naruto who might have done just that. "We need to set up a proper ambush. One of us going for the box while the others take down the thieves and call Kakashi-sensei. If we set off the thunderbolt too soon, they'll know we're here… too late and Sensei wont get here in time."

"We can take care of it ourselves!" Naruto argued.

"Sensei did say to call him," I reminded him. "Specifically ordered it, in fact."

Sasuke nodded. "Four hundred meters back. There's a bit where the bank is steep on either side of the path." He scratched a approximate map into the ground. "They'll have to keep together to get through there, so…"

"If I wait here…" I gestured. "I can get them all with my Shadow Possession. If Naruto sets off the Lightning Barrel and creates clones to tie the thieves up quickly once I've got them, that leaves you free to grab the horse and check the box to make sure it's our target."

It was a pretty simple plan. Naruto looked a little disappointed that it didn't involve more fighting, but reluctantly nodded.

"And be careful of the guy with the red hair. His chakra is … strange, and you saw that technique he used to catch the horse. It looked like some kind of Chakra String."

"Don't worry! None of these guys are even ninja," Naruto said. "They aren't a match for us."

I wanted to scold him for underestimating them, but didn't bother. He wouldn't listen.

"Fine, fine. You take the Lightning Barrel and we'll get into place. Maybe set some traps to stop them moving forward or backwards once they're in the ambush zone."

"Right," Sasuke said and we all sprung into action.

The pass was long enough for ten men to walk in single file, so the five of them should be in the middle of it before we attacked. It wasn't obvious to an untrained eye that it was a blind corridor either, up until this point the bank to the river had dropped away gently and the forest side had been steep but not impassable. That wasn't the case here. The river bank was a sheer drop and the trees were practically horizontal.

We strung wires up across the exit end of the path and reverse spring traps at the entrance. They'd pass over them easily coming in, but if they tried to turn around and leave they'd be in trouble.

"Okay, everyone ready?" I asked. "Sasuke, you mark when."

I tended to wait too long and be too cautious while Naruto was the exact opposite. Sasuke was the best of us at split second decisions like that.

We waited, tensed and ready. The thieves came into view. They stumbled and staggered and shouted. They passed underneath us.

"Now!" Sasuke yelled.

It all happened at once.

I dropped straight down, landing right in the middle of the group, shadow arching out and snaring them.

Sasuke sprang for the horse, using a kunai to pin it's reins to the ground and stop it moving. He used another kunai to slice the ropes holding the box down and lifted it off.

Naruto slammed the Lightning Barrel into the tree and shot a thunderbolt into the sky.

Jako reacted fast, too. With one hand, he shot a glob of chakra into the air, snaring the lightning bolt out of the sky, even as my shadow latched onto his and froze him in place. I couldn't stop techniques that didn't take hand seals.

The other hand shot a glob at Sasuke.

"Look out!" Naruto shouted, throwing the useless bamboo tube at Jako, and leaping to pull Sasuke out of the way.

I solidified my hold, spinning my hands until my palms were facing my eyes. If Jako tried again, he'd shoot himself in the face.

Sasuke twisted out of the way, trying to keep hold of the box and keep his footing on the steep rock. The boys collided, rolling back from the bank, the box wedged safely between them.

"Hey! What the hell is this?" Naruto shouted as he tried to stand and found the glob of blue chakra sticking his and Sasuke's hands together.

"Like it? I'm a natural born thief who's rotten to the core. So as you can see, even my chakra is foul." Jako chuckled. "Even a ninja is helpless when his hands are tied. When I get free, I'm going to kill you all."

"Whatever. Get off me, Naruto." Sasuke appeared very unimpressed at Jako's threat. He used his one free hand to wedge the box open. "This is the treasure," he confirmed.

"Good," I said, starting to feel the strain of holding so many people in Shadow Possession. "Can you tie these guys up now?"

We exchanged looks. Could they?

_Oh, crap._

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto shouted. Nothing happened.

"Idiot! You can't form hand seals with only one hand," Sasuke shot him down, then looked at me apprehensively.

_Shit._ What were we going to do? I could try restraining them with the chains they were all carrying, but it would be tricky and not all that stable.

"I have knockout tags in my pouch," I realised, in relief. "Just stick one on each of them."

It was a little awkward, but it worked. Once they were out and down, I tied them up securely with ninja wire, taking extra care with Jako, so that he couldn't use his weird chakra again.

Then I tied a flash-bang tag around a kunai and threw it high in the air. It might not have been the pre-arranged signal, but hopefully Sensei would investigate.

"Let me see your hands," I said, hoping it wasn't anything serious. I tentatively touched the solid, almost _gooey_ ball of chakra. It was opaque and I couldn't even see their hands inside it. I probed it with my chakra. "Hmm. It's strongly bonded together like Earth Chakra but almost liquid like Water Chakra… the bonds are already starting to decay…"

"Can you fix it?" Naruto asked hopefully.

I studied it a bit longer. "I think that it'll crumble apart on its own. Maybe two or three days."

"Like I can put up with him for that long!" Naruto snapped, though a bit of tension leaked out of his shoulders.

"That's my line," Sasuke retorted.

"So what's this mysterious treasure that we were sent to retrieve?" I asked, trying to distract them from arguing.

Sasuke grimaced and opened the box again.

It was… a teddy bear eating a fish?

_Right._

"I can't believe they stole something stupid like that," Naruto lamented.

"You know, kids," a voice said from behind us. "When I said 'don't act on your own', funnily enough, I meant 'don't act on your own', as in 'call me _before_ you do anything'"

We turned. Kakashi-sensei was giving us a 'not impressed' stare.

"We tried to signal you!" Naruto objected. "But they stopped the stupid tube thing from working!" He huffed and tried to wave his arms, only to fail as Sasuke didn't budge. "So it's not our fault."

"We achieved both mission objectives," Sasuke added, scowling.

Kakashi-sensei sighed. "So you did. Good job. Alright, I'll set a maker here so the local patrols can come and collect them. We'll take the statue back to Konoha with us… and what is up with your hands?"

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Four days later we were on our way back from another D-rank mission when I noticed one of the messenger birds circling overhead. The type and flight pattern was coded for a Jounin response, so I wasn't surprised when Kakashi-sensei spoke up.

"Well, how about we break here for the day? I have to go and submit a mission report." He smiled, his eye crinkling into a curve.

That was the beauty about being known for having lame excuses, I guess. He didn't even try and come up with anything believable.

"Bye, Sensei," I said, as Naruto grumbled.

Kakashi-sensei vanished with a cheery wave.

We looked at each other awkwardly for a second. "Want to do some training?" I asked. During the time they'd been stuck together, Kakashi-sensei had decided it was a great chance to do teamwork drills. Today, as celebration for finally being free, they'd spent the morning beating the crap out of each other.

I'd stayed out of it.

We were set to head back towards the training fields when Naruto twitched.

"Is that… supposed to be a rock?" He asked disbelievingly.

I glanced over my shoulder. In such a public setting, I didn't automatically catalogue every chakra signature around us. My lips twitched. It was a very _square_ rock. "Friends of yours?"

"Hmph!" Naruto marched forward, taking exaggerated steps.

The box followed.

I looked at Sasuke. He rolled his eyes, but there was amusement in his face. "What an idiot."

"A square rock with two eye holes like that doesn't exist!" Naruto finally shouted, turning around and facing it. "It's so obvious!"

"I should have expected that from my rival!" the box announced before exploding in a cloud of smoke and flying debris. A big cloud of smoke. "Hey! You used too much gunpowder!"

As the smoke cleared it revealed the hunched over forms of three coughing children. They were about eight years old and looked a little familiar.

"We are-" they shouted. "Moegi!" "Udon!" "Konohamaru!" "And together the three of us make: the Konohamaru Corps!"

"Just as I thought, it was the three of you," Naruto said, completely unimpressed. "Why do the three of you have goggles on?"

"We copied the old you," Konohamaru explained laughing.

"Oh?"

"Oh? You've been treating us so cold lately," Konohamaru complained.

"Well, what do you want?" Naruto asked, hands behind his head.

"You said you'd play ninja with us!" The three chorused with various degrees of hurt.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Ninja playing ninja," he scoffed. "I'm going to the training fields. Meet me there if you're coming." He walked on.

I was torn between following him and seeing what Naruto was up to.

"Really? Well…" Naruto stalled. "I have training to do. I don't really have time to play ninja anymore, right Shikako?"

I blinked at suddenly being drawn into the conversation.

"Who's this?" Konohamaru asked, as the three of them eyed me distrustfully. "Your girlfriend?"

Naruto's face was a study in panic.

"No, I'm his team mate," I corrected easily.

"Oh. Okay. Hey, are you going to play ninja with us too?" He perked right back up. "You can, if you're Boss's friend."

I was about to decline when an idea of utter mischievousness sparked alight. "Play ninja, huh?" I smirked. "I think I've got just the idea…"

Oh it was a delightfully wicked idea. I felt giddy just thinking about it. "Here's what we're going to do…"

The training fields were quiet when we got there. Sasuke was practicing his kata, alone in the middle of the clearing.

"See your target?" I asked the three.

They nodded.

"Sasuke is going to kill us," Naruto said, awe in his voice.

"Shush you. Remember the plan?"

They nodded again.

"Okay, Konohamaru. On your mark!"

I crept away, getting myself into position. Hey, even games of ninja had tactics.

"Now!" Konohamaru leapt out of the bushes, deploying another colourful smoke bomb. Sasuke blinked in bafflement as he was pelted with paper shuriken. He dodged automatically, hands going for his kunai before pausing as he registered what was going on.

In Sasuke's ninja manual there really wasn't a standard response when dealing with kids attacking you with fake weaponry.

I leapt and landed lightly behind him, arms going around him like a very poor version of a bear hug. In fact it was more of a, you know, _hug_. "Got you~" I sing songed.

The kids cheered.

"What the-" Sasuke stared, looking at me over his shoulder with wide eyes.

"Play along," I whispered in his ear as the kids dragged Naruto out of the bushes. He looked even more stunned than Sasuke.

I gasped and stepped backwards. "Oh no! He got loose! Run!"

The kids shrieked. Moegi grabbed Naruto's hand. "Oh, no, boss! We've gotta run!" She dragged him along. I winked at Sasuke as I slid around him.

"Faster, faster!" I urged. "He's gaining on us!"

They shrieked louder. I glanced over my shoulder and _grinned _so hard my face hurt. Sasuke was chasing us. And he was chasing us at the same speed we were running, not the speed of a serious ninja trying to catch someone.

We careenered down the streets back into town, the kids laughing and shrieking the whole way. And by _kids_ I included Naruto. It probably wasn't the wisest of destinations. Of course we were going to hit someone.

It was just unlucky that that _someone_ was a foreign ninja.

I skidded to a stop as Konohamaru crashed straight into a black suited ninja with a painted face.

_Kankurou?_

Yes, there was a blonde girl next to him carrying a giant fan. They were both wearing Sand forehead protectors. I expanded my chakra sense and shivered. There was Gaara, in the trees. And there were three more, over there. Genin level, too.

"That hurt, brat," Kankurou objected, grabbing Konohamaru by his scarf and lifting.

"Stop it, we're going to get scolded later," Temari said, casting a nervous look around. She looked mostly bored, but very wired. Like she'd had too much caffeine. Or like she was terrified.

In that vein, Kankurou's aggressiveness reeked of fear.

It reminded me, however young they were, however much they'd become our allies later… right now they were enemy shinobi whose mission was to kill us all.

"Hey! Let him go!" Naruto shouted. I winced. Of course Naruto's first action was to pick a fight.

"I hate impertinent brats like that," Kankurou said in disgust. "It just makes me want to _break_ them."

I intervened. "Shinobi-san, you are from the Village Hidden in the Sand, correct? What is your reason for being in Konoha?"

It was an oddity that I had found amongst the ninja of different villages. We tended to address our home villages in a different manner than foreign ninja did. So to me, the Village Hidden in the Sand was well, that, while they spoke of it as _Suna_. The same went for Konoha.

It was Temari that answered. "We're here for the Chunin Exams," she said, showing her passport as she was required to do. I might have been only a Genin but in matters of village security, I still had the right to ask to see them.

I nodded, not surprised. I hadn't expect the Chunin Exams to be so _soon_, but that was the only reason they would be here now. "I see," I said. "May I remind you that the streets are regarded as civilian areas and that violence is prohibited in these locations? If you are wishing to train, I'm sure there are several designated training sites allocated for you."

Kankurou scowled fiercely, expression highlighted by his Kabuki paint. He looked like he was thinking about attacking anyway.

Behind me, Sasuke shifted into an attack ready position.

"Kankurou," a voice rasped. "You are a disgrace to our village." I'd sensed Gaara before, but he'd moved quickly, and now he was visible standing easily on a tree branch. His chakra felt… mad and it was like he was constantly radiating Killing Intent.

Kankurou froze. And then carefully and gingerly returned Konohamaru to his feet. Konohamaru scuttled back, so he was hiding behind Team Seven. "Gaara," Kankurou said, voice wobbling a little bit.

Temari looked uneasy. More than uneasy. She looked terrified. Oh, she was trying to hide it, but every line of her face, every twitch of her body, every hitch in her breath spoke of terror.

"Have you forgotten the reason we came here?" His voice didn't rise or waver and it _still_ made all the hairs on my arms stand up.

"I… I know. They challenged us," Kankurou tried to explain. "See, here's what happened-"

"Shut up. Or I'll kill you." His eyes narrowed, just a fraction.

Kankurou backed down. Fast.

I could feel the astonishment radiating from my team mates. That was an over reaction, from our point of view.

"R-right. I was out of line. Sorry, Gaara. I was totally out of line," Kankurou babbled. Holding his hands out in a surrender pose. Temari shifted beside him.

"I'm sorry for any trouble he caused," Gaara said, turning to us. There was no interest in his voice or expression.

I bowed anyway. "It was just a misunderstanding. It was nice to meet you," I said. Gaara's attention _focused_ the feeling of Killing Intent, but it wasn't particularly strong at the moment. It just had… potential.

Gaara reappeared on the ground in a swirl of sand, ignoring us once more. "Let's go. We didn't come here to play games."

"Alright, sure," Kankurou agreed.

We watched them go.

"So… what was all that about? Chunin Exams?" Naruto asked, puzzled. I felt like face palming.

"Err, boss? Those are the exams every Genin has to take in order to become a Chunin," Konohamaru explained.

"Oh! I am totally there!" Naruto exclaimed. "Chunin, here I come!"

Sasuke was still watching the direction that the Sand Siblings had gone. "That guy… with the gourd…" he muttered. "His eyes…"

I bit my lip. "Be careful of him, Sasuke. His team mates… they were terrified of him. Not just scared, full out terrified. I don't know if there's anyone that scares me so much." Not _quite_ true. Kyuubi did. But I could hardly say that. "More than Zabuza scared us, even."

"I see," he said, but his eyes stayed focused down the street.

I dreaded the look in his eye, all humour from before gone, leaving nothing but a black void.


	18. Chapter 17

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Over 100 reviews! Wow. Thanks, guys. This chapter is for Moka-girl, even if you might not get to read it for a week. XD

Happy New Years!

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 17

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><p>.<p>

_Keep your wits about you, mage, __**true**__ tests never end. - Pride Demon; Dragon Age Origins_

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After seeing Gaara I wasn't particularly surprised when Kakashi-sensei announced that he'd entered us into the Chunin Examinations.

I hadn't really expected the Chunin Exams to show up so _fast _though. We'd only been Genin for two months. There was a reason that Rookies were usually never entered in the Exams. The minimum qualifications to enter were eight completed missions, with at least one at a rank higher than D, and most rookies didn't manage to get that done so quickly. Added to that, with only two months experience we were at a severe disadvantage.

My initial reaction was to turn it down. Turn it down and get us to take a C-rank that would get us far away from here on the day of the Third Exam.

But that would solve nothing. Orochimaru wouldn't be stopped by the rules of the Exam. He'd find Sasuke no matter what. Leaving when I knew there was an attack coming… that was the height of cowardice.

_To abandon your duty is not courageous. Below the courageous there is nothing._ The words of the First Hokage. Konoha ninja lived by them. Could I really abandon them now?

And, if not Naruto, who would fight Gaara?

What would happen to Shikamaru? To Ino? To Sakura?

Like with Zabuza, there was no avoiding this situation. Unlike with Zabuza, Sensei wouldn't be there to save us.

_I thought there would be more time!_

Unlike my apprehension, my team mates were much more excited.

"This is all voluntary. If you don't feel ready, you can wait till next year," Kakashi-sensei explained. "Whoever wants to take the exams, sign the application forms and come to room 301 at the Academy. It starts at 3pm, five days from now."

"Alright! Kakashi-sensei, you rock!" Naruto launched himself at Sensei, catching him in a tackle hug. Kakashi-sensei flailed, just a little bit.

"Why did I get the team of cuddlers?" Kakashi-sensei muttered, peeling Naruto off himself.

"Team Cuddler," I repeated, voice serious but I couldn't hide the mirth dancing in my eyes. I was distracting myself by latching onto something so ridiculous and I knew it. "I don't know Sensei, that's not exactly a name that will strike fear into the hearts of our enemies."

Sasuke snickered.

"We should totally have an awesome team name!" Naruto agreed, running with the idea as he was dropped back down to the ground. "And then when we introduce ourselves we can go all 'And we are the great Team…' uh." He frowned. "Team…"

"Team Sharingan," Sasuke suggested.

"No way!" Naruto yelped.

"We have more Sharingan than any other team in Konoha," Sasuke pointed out logically.

"We also have more orange and we're not being called Team that," I said dryly. "Besides we have 5 non to 3 Sharingan eyes so it's not really representative."

"You suggest something then, Shikako."

I was useless at naming things. "Team Triple S." They looked confused. I pointed at each of us in turn. "Shadow, Sharingan… Surprise."

Sensei choked on a laugh.

Sasuke snickered again. "Nah," he said. "We'd have to keep explaining it. Wouldn't be funny after the first time."

Naruto harrumphed. "Sounds like a Bingo Book rank," he muttered. Which was kinda the point. Only bingo book ranks didn't go past SS and even those were rare as hens teeth.

_Team Destruction _and _Team Confusion _were thrown out for not being meaningful and _Team Friendship_ was rejected for being too pansy.

"Team World Domination," I suggested offhand, going for the exact opposite of 'pansy'.

There was a pause. "Something you aren't telling us, Shikako?" Sensei asked dryly.

"Nah, that'd be too troublesome," I replied, yawning.

"Team Trouble, more like it," Sensei muttered.

Naruto laughed.

"Anyway," Kakashi-sensei cut in before we could start bouncing more ideas off each other. "These are the application forms." He handed us each a slip of paper. They were fairly straightforward.

I looked at the one in my hand.

_Shikako Nara,_

_I, Kakashi Hatake, recommend the above named student for participation in the Chunin Examinations. _

_Jounin, Kakashi Hatake_

"Do you think we're ready, Sensei?" I asked, being hit by the reality of the situation again.

It wasn't really the Chunin Exams that I was scared of, it was everything that was associated with them.

"I do," Sensei said seriously, eye crinkling with a good humoured smile. "I know we've only been a team for a short time, but I think you three know more about being a ninja than Genin with years more experience. You'll do fine."

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered. "I'll bet we'll go up against a lot of really wicked ninja. Like those Hidden Sand guys!"

"We wont be doing any mission from now until whenever you three finish the Exams." That was a polite way of saying 'fail' I think. "So you wont need to meet up here in the mornings."

I bit my lip. "Will you still train us, Sensei?" I asked hurriedly. "I mean, if we have five days we can still improve, right?"

If only there was some technique that would enable us to win against Orochimaru. I snorted at the very idea. Ninja fights didn't rely on techniques so much as _what you could do with them_.

We were nowhere _near_ his league.

"Well," Sensei said. "It'd probably be best if you improved what you already know."

"Ple_ase_, Sensei?" Naruto begged. "You know tons of awesome jutsu, right?"

Sasuke also saw the benefits of it. "You must have some idea of the skills that they will be examining," he commented.

"The content of the Chunin Exams changes every time," Kakashi-sensei said. "And Jounin with students are very much _not_ included in the planning process." He looked at us and sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Though I suppose it can't hurt to tell you that the Chunin Exams _usually_ have three stages. Some kind of decision making test, a survival exercise, and a one-on-one tournament. Most of the older Genin will have probably done at least one Chunin Exam before, so you'll be at a disadvantage there too."

Sasuke scoffed. "That just means they failed."

"_If_ I were going to teach you, what would you want to learn?" Kakashi-sensei asked blandly.

Naruto shouted 'cool jutsu' almost immediately. That boy had a once track mind.

"Hiding," I said slowly, mind working speedily, examining possibilities, tossing over ideas at warp speed. "And escape."

There was definite surprise on their faces.

"Eh?" Naruto asked. "Why would you want to learn _that?_ We don't need to run away. We'll just kick ass!"

I shook my head. "We don't know the kind of opponents we're going to be facing, or how strong they are or anything. We already have some good attack and defence skills, but if we get totally out classed then …" I shrugged. There wasn't much likelihood that we'd be able to pick up enough to evade _Orochi-freaking-maru_ but … maybe?

If we could get to the Tower fast (assuming that the Second Test was what I remembered)… would Orochimaru have a chance to attack? There would be Jounin at the Tower, probably, and surely he'd have better things to do than hang around Konoha looking for Sasuke?

Okay, that was a bit weak.

But what else could we do?

I'd had half a thought to come up with a way to remove the curse seal or transfer it or stop it from being placed but my studies in the sealing arts had ground to a halt _looong_ before they reached a place where that idea was plausible. There were a few containment seals but they were incredibly complex and without knowing more about the curse seal I wasn't even sure that they would work, _if_ I could manage to draw them up correctly.

We couldn't out fight him. We couldn't out run him. We couldn't call for back up. Unless we managed to uncover something before the Exam, we couldn't alert anyone.

We were trapped.

Kakashi-sensei tapped his chin. "Hmm, well I suppose that is a reasonable request."

Kakashi-sensei started us with a really thorough rundown of escape and evasion tactics. I was a little surprised, though I don't know why. Sensei _is_ good at not being found, and he also has a pack of tracking dogs and tracking is the opposite partner of evasion. It wasn't jutsu, but it was useful skills all the same. How to move through the trees without disturbing them, erasing our tracks behind us, avoiding attracting attention, using chakra to walk over grass without bending it - which I had never even considered before - navigation at speed, hiding our chakra… There was a lot to consider. We'd done _some_ stealth work at the Academy, but not much. And certainly not so thoroughly.

"Alright, I think that's enough for the day," Kakashi-sensei said clapping his hands together as we dropped out of the branches, panting. "I guess we better meet tomorrow if you want to keep working on it…" he trailed off like he would very much like us to change our minds.

All three of us nodded. He sighed. "Fine, fine." He puffed away in a cloud of chakra smoke.

"Hmph. I still think that we'd have been better off learning a cool new jutsu," Naruto muttered.

I shrugged, unremorseful. "You've still got your Hidden in the Mist jutsu to work on, don't you? And I know Sasuke has been practicing with his Sharingan. Besides, we don't know what kind of jutsu we need so if we do learn something it might end up being useless and we'll have wasted our time…"

He didn't argue my logic, but he still clearly didn't like it, crossing his arms and pouting.

"Idiot," Sasuke sighed. "Want to spar again?"

Naruto jumped at the chance, but I shook my head. "I've got to get home; Mum's expecting me."

I waved goodbye as I left, the sounds of a fight starting up behind me almost immediately. It _was_ good practice for them to fight each other and not one of us ever fell for the same trick twice.

"There you are," a lazy voice interrupted me when I was halfway home. "I've been looking for you."

I paused and turned. The voice was right. The face was right. The lazy slouch was right. The agonizingly slow pace of his walk was right.

But the chakra was _wrong_.

"You got recommended for the Chunin Exams?" 'Shikamaru' asked, tilting his eyes towards me.

"Mmm," I confirmed, wondering who was playing what game. "So did Team 10."

He looked surprised. Mistake. "Kakashi-sensei told you?"

"No," I said and didn't elaborate. Shikamaru and I knew each other's thought processes inside out. There was never any _need_ to elaborate.

His expectant expression faded after a few seconds and he yawned. "Troublesome."

It was someone that knew us, at least. They wouldn't be able to do such a close imitation otherwise.

"I'm not going to enter," he said. "You shouldn't either. These ninja are very advanced and they have no mercy. If you try to fight them, you could lose your life."

Bingo.

This was a ninja village. Tests weren't confined to classroom hours. Simply having our names put forward for the Exams looked like it was enough. It made sense. Entering weak shinobi in the Exams could potentially embarrass a village and we _were_ Rookie Genin.

His chakra was a dark olive green, rough to the touch like canvas over thick padding. Like a flack jacket, a Chunin vest. It was a sight that invoked comfort, familiarity, safety in every child in Konoha.

There was only one person it could be.

Now how to pass the test? To show what they wanted to see, or prove I had exceeded their expectations and noticed the test at all? Or both?

"That's mean, Iruka-sensei," I sighed, wrapping my arms around myself. "Targeting my weak spots like that. I might not be the best shinobi but I can handle myself. Besides, how are we ever supposed to know what we can do if we don't _try_?"

His surprise was palatable. The image of my brother faded and Iruka-sensei stood there instead. "Very good, Shikako," he said, chuckling. "When did you work it out?"

I could have given a lot of answers. Instead I tilted my head and gave him an approximation of Sensei's cheerful 'not telling you anything' smile. "It's way too much effort for Shika to come _looking_ for me," I said. It was truth, to a degree, but lacking any factual information.

Okay, maybe I was slightly annoyed at him. It was a _mean_ test. I wondered if he was going to try something different with the others - there wasn't anyone that would shake Naruto's confidence in himself.

"You know," Iruka-sensei said hesitantly. "You don't have to take the Exams now. There's nothing wrong with waiting a few months for the next round."

I smiled at him, properly this time. "It's okay, Iruka-sensei. We'll do fine."

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"So did anything weird happen to you guys last night?" I asked casually at training the next morning.

Naruto looked startled. "How'd you know? I was… uh… talking to the Konohamaru Corps when this jerk kidnapped Moegi!"

Sasuke looked immediately suspicious. "I got attacked too…" he said. "You think?"

"It was a test," I confirmed.

"Wait, what?" Naruto waved his hands. "Back up! What test?"

"To see if we were good enough for the Chunin Exams, I assume," I said. "Someone transformed into Shikamaru and tried to convince me not to participate, but I called them on it."

"Yeah, that was the gist of what I got too," Sasuke said. I eyed him. There was definitely more to the story there. "I fought the guy off." He shrugged.

"Naruto?" I asked expectantly.

"Yeah," he frowned. "This jerk kidnapped Moegi and ran off with her. He tied her up and everything. You're saying that was a test? She was really scared."

"She probably knew you were going to rescue her," I said. I didn't think Iruka-sensei would do anything that would frighten a child long term, but maybe he hadn't been doing all the tests? "It probably gave her an exciting story to tell at the Academy."

"I guess," he muttered.

"So how'd you rescue her?" Sasuke asked, sounding completely indifferent.

Naruto perked back up. "I was really awesome," he said, tucking his hands behind his head and grinning. "He had her tied to a tree, see? And he made a ransom demand - that I get the scroll of sealing… actually, it's weird that he chose _that_ isn't it?"

"That's what Mizuki…" I trailed off.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. I mean, it must be famous if so many people know about it?"

"Or it was someone that knew you knew what it was," I finished. Sasuke looked from one of us to the other.

"Anyway. I distracted him and made a Shadow Clone that snuck up behind them, then I used the Replacement Jutsu to switch Moegi out for a straw doll!" he looked really pleased with himself.

"Wait, what?" I said, sure I'd misheard.

"I switched Moegi out for a straw doll," he repeated. "With the Replacement Jutsu, you know?"

I looked at Sasuke. He looked at me. He shrugged.

"You switched Moegi with a straw doll," I repeated.

"That's what I said. Geeze," he said, annoyed.

"Could you… show me? Like, pretend I'm Moegi… and Sasuke is the bad guy," I said, moving to stand next to Sasuke.

"Okay," Naruto agreed readily enough, but he still looked puzzled. "So here I am distracting the jerk over there," he said. "And that's my clone in the tree…"

He was actually pretty good at creating clones without smoke. It just sort of … wavered into existence. Shimmered, maybe.

"And then it used Replacement…"

There was a tugging pull, like I was using Replacement but wasn't in control. I nearly fought it, but managed to stop myself. I wasn't sure if that would leave me in tiny pieces across the clearing and I didn't want to find out.

"And viola!"

Sasuke stared blankly the straw doll he was holding. I blinked at the clone.

"Huh," I said. "Where did the straw doll come from?"

Naruto shrugged. "Where ever Replacement stuff normally comes from."

Oh. My. God. Words failed me. He didn't… He … Unconsciously my fingertips formed a circle. If I ignored how impossible it was, then it was the most brilliant thing I had ever heard of. How had I not noticed this before?

I sat down. Hard.

"Of course," I said. "If you cant make illusionary clones because you don't have the chakra control for it… why did we assume you could do the other two? They aren't that different." There were a lot of theories about Naruto's _unique_ transformation skill. I'd already seen him transform _clones_ into other objects, but I'd passed that off as them being chakra constructs. They didn't have to keep a human shape.

"What?" Naruto asked baffled and a little worried.

"Pass me the doll?" I asked Sasuke. He handed it over without complaint. "It's a chakra construct. Like a Shadow Clone… I see." I looked at Naruto's blank face and decided to explain. "A normal Replacement Jutsu switches your body with an object nearby that is of similar size and mass. It's like… a rubber band. If you stretch it out and let it go the recoil pulls the two things in opposite directions. What you're doing is _creating_ an object instead of finding an already existing one. Like a Shadow Clone. That means you can swap other people with it because one half is always you… just the opposite half to what people normally use."

"Does it matter?" Naruto asked.

I smiled. "It's a good thing, Naruto. A very good thing. It means that you don't have to look for things to switch with, right? So you can almost teleport. If you need to get behind some guy, you just create something there and bam!"

He brightened. "That does sound pretty awesome!"

I nodded. "Okay. So. Replacement training?" I suggested, looking at Sasuke. He looked as baffled as I felt.

"But we know how to do that…" Naruto whined, scrunching up his nose. "We're doing lame training with Sensei and now you want to do Replacement Jutsu?"

I was losing him. "Replacement Tag," I suggested slyly. "You can take only three steps, everything else has to be Replacement Jutsu." I switched out with a tree branch and dropped down behind him. "Tag!" I said gleefully, before using another Replacement Jutsu to cross the clearing.

"H-hey! Get back here!"

Even now that I knew what he was doing, it took a while to actually see it in action. Now that he was consciously aware of it, it seemed to disrupt his concentration and his Replacement Technique failed more times than not. Still, Sasuke and I had to scout out possible targets to switch with, which didn't happen automatically. Once Naruto got back into the swing of it, he had an advantage over us.

Then again, Sasuke and I had better control and a much faster switching speed. If he didn't take us by surprise, we could usually get away in the time it took him to tag us.

Replacement was a remarkably underused jutsu. Getting the hang of using it in combat took skill which was why Jounin tended to use it more than Genin did. That being said, done right it was _lethally_ effective. There was a reason it was considered one of the three basic skills any ninja must know.

And if I had to turn training into a game of tag so that we could work on it, then so be it. I wasn't exactly complaining.

Kakashi-sensei showed up and started running us through more evasion drills. Some of them had the feeling of being highly practiced, but since Kakashi-sensei had never taken a Genin team before I wasn't sure.

It was tricky and exhausting work and afterwards I'd go home and be run into the dirt by Mum. She hadn't exactly been happy to hear that Shika and I had been nominated for the Exams, but she was determined that we were going to _survive_ it if we entered.

Shikamaru considered the whole thing troublesome beyond words, but there was the understanding that Ino would make things _hell_ for him if he didn't show up.

The days ticked down. We sparred some more. For the first time I looked at those fights and tried to _measure_ our progress. Naruto had improved by leaps and bounds, that much was easy to see. He still threw around chakra draining attacks like nobodies business, though they were much more targeted now; Shadow Clones deployed for specific actions, combination attacks and simple but effective tactics that could utterly blindside you. You had to put Naruto down hard and stop him completely or he'd just. Keep. Going.

Sasuke was faster now. He tended to revert to using Fire Ninjutsu when he could, though fighting wave after wave of Naruto clones forced him to match them with either Taijutsu, or more usually, kunai, shuriken and ninja wire to thin the herd. Two kunai, with a long stretch of ninja wire between them, thrown to opposite edges of the clearing was remarkably effective at clearing large numbers of them. It reminded me, vaguely, of a cheese grater. After that, Naruto and his clones tended to duck when faced with projectiles. When his Sharingan was active, attacking him head on was sheer folly, though it still had limitations - mostly speed and grappling. Eyesight doesn't play a huge role when someone is about three inches away from you.

Myself? Well, I could match the two boys, and they'd never teamed up on me so I didn't know how I'd fair there.

"Three o'clock this afternoon. Academy Room 301," I said, swinging my feet over the edge of the bridge. "Do you think we should bring mission packs?"

Sasuke paused, clearly he hadn't considered that. "It's in the Academy."

I shrugged. "That might just be where we're meeting." And I didn't know what the time period between the First and Second Exams was. Straight away? Next day?

"Short term mission gear?" Sasuke suggested. We were, after all, taught how to survive in the wilderness with nothing more than a sharp stick and those you could find a dime a dozen; mission gear just made things easier.

I hummed. "I'll bring an extra sealing scroll just in case."

"Chunin Exams, Chunin Exams," Naruto chanted. "This is going to be awesome!"


	19. Chapter 18

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Nemesis Jedi - It's funny that you mention Hammerspace… XD And yeah, pretty much everything with Orochimaru is delaying the inevitable. At this point Orochimaru is a Hero Killer; they don't stand a chance against him.

There's a little bit in here at my attempt at explaining some of the reactions in the anime fights, since no one ever seems to get actually hurt. You'll know what I'm talking about. XD

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Chapter 18

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><p>.<p>

_A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles. – Tim Cahill_

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The Academy was bustling with ninja from all nations. We'd shown up early as a tactical decision to scout out the place and competition before the Exam began but it was already busy.

The Academy building was compact and sturdy and highly defensible. It might have been quicker and easier to chakra walk up the walls to the third floor and enter through a window instead of having to push through all the people in the hallways, but that was actually impossible. You couldn't get in through the upper level windows.

Inside, the hallways were maze-like and the staircases staggered by being in different places on each floor. It was annoying and time consuming, but it was also a good way to slow and confuse invaders and attackers. The three of us were able to navigate with ease, having spent years in this building already, though some of the foreign ninja looked annoyed and confused.

Honestly, if they couldn't find _stairs_ they weren't very good ninja at all.

The second floor was even more crowded than the first and it only took the intrusive spike of a genjutsu for me to know why. I grimaced. It was an area-of-effect genjutsu. I did weaken it, shunting it into a corner of my chakra system, so that the illusion wavered and diluted in front of my eyes like I was staring through coloured cellophane, so I could see both what was real and what they wished us to see.

"You're taking the Chunin Exams and you can't even get past _us_?" one of the two 'Genin' guarding the door scoffed as they kicked back a green suited boy. Rock Lee, I suspected, though I had never seen him before. The spandex suit was too distinctive.

"Let's move on," I murmured quietly to my team mates. Sasuke's eyes flickered to me - he saw the genjutsu too. But Sasuke preferred confrontation to secrecy. I didn't mind underestimation, and Naruto liked tricking people, but he _demanded_ to be taken seriously.

"Please let us through, we're supposed to go in there," Tenten pleaded to the two door guards, making her own attempt at getting past them. She was knocked back too, landing heavily beside her team mate. It was a decent tactic, making people think you're weak, but not worth taking injuries before an unknown exam. Well, unknown to them.

"Aww, that's harsh," someone in the crowd muttered in protest. Idly, I wondered how many of the watching Genin believed the scene playing out in front of them, and how many were playing their own 'underestimation' game.

"Did you say harsh?" One of the two door guards scoffed.

"Don't kid yourselves," the other picked up. "We're being nice by comparison. The exams will make this look like a picnic. "

"Some of you will die in the Exams, others will be wrecked for life. Some of you may go crazy. For Chunin it's always life and death," the first said, puffing up and staring at the crowd.

"You think it's a joke?" the second one continued. "Chunin are qualified to _lead_ missions. The lives of your squad members are in your hands. So you better be tough enough to take the heat. "

Give away. Giant give away. They were _way _too proud of what being Chunin meant to be anything but. There was no way that these two were actually Genin.

"Real nice speech," Sasuke interrupted cuttingly. "Now both of you step aside and let me through. And while you're at it, release the genjutsu, we can see through your illusion anyway. We're going to the third floor."

"Well aren't you the smart ones," one of the door guards said. "Big deal. So you noticed an illusion. Let's see you deal with _this_." He lashed out towards us, one leg arching in a wide swing.

Sasuke responded smoothly, shifting his weight backwards and kicking out to precisely block and deflect the incoming attack.

Then, suddenly, Lee was between them.

"He's fast," Naruto said in awe.

_Really fast_, I noted.

Sasuke disengaged easily, sliding backwards and reappraising someone he had just written off as weak.

"Hey," a smooth, but annoyed voice interrupted. His white eyes marked him as a Hyuuga and his covered forehead as a Branch House member. Neji. "What happened to the plan? I thought you were the one who said to keep a low profile and not to let anyone see our skill level."

That was… doubtful, but it was a smooth recovery on Neji's part. If you couldn't make it work for your whole squad, make Lee seem like he's the best of you.

"I know, but-" Lee protested half heartedly.

"Never mind, it's over, forget it," Tenten said, trying to peace keep between her two team mates. I knew how _that_ felt.

"It is just that," Lee said, turning to Sasuke with a strange intensity in his eyes. "I wish to challenge you!"

Tenten sighed. It was an 'I should have expected that' sigh. "But Lee… the Exam…"

"I challenge you," Lee repeated, ignoring her. "Everyone is always talking about the Uchiha Clan and how great they are. I want to see if it is true. I figure you will be a good test for me."

Beside me, Naruto scowled. "Uchiha, Uchiha, Uchiha. It's always Sasuke."

"You've heard of the Uchiha Clan and yet you're challenging me? You must be even more psycho than you look, if that's possible." Sasuke was irritated, yet it didn't seem like he was going to turn the fight down. The Uchiha Clan was a sore spot for him, understandably. Living up to the weight of that name must have been difficult; the dead have no faults.

This was just what we needed, some idiot stirring up problems when we most needed to stick together. "There will probably be chances to fight during the Exam," I mentioned, trying to divert them. "And we really need to get our applications in before three…"

"This will not take long," Lee said.

That _riled_ Sasuke up. It was one thing to be challenged. It was another thing entirely to be dismissed. His eyes narrowed. "You're right, this wont take long. You're going down."

"Excellent. We will take this to the practice hall." The Academy had a number of large empty rooms that could be used for a variety of purposes, assemblies, physical exercise and so forth. It would be better to find one of them to fight in than to do it here, in the corridor.

Neji snorted. "I'm not waiting around while you pick fights. Tenten, let's go."

"R-right, Neji," Tenten said. "Lee, don't take too long, okay?"

I sighed and followed the boys towards the hall. My chances of talking Sasuke down now were pretty much non-existent.

I studied the set of his shoulders quietly. Annoyance, yes, but he was still confident that he could best Lee. And maybe he could, but not here. Being inside would limit Sasuke from using his jutsu, and I was hopeful that he wouldn't exhaust himself before the Exam by using ninjutsu anyway.

Still…

"If you two aren't finished by half-past, I'll stop this fight," I said quietly as we entered the hall. There was a large open floor, and a balcony for observers. "We are _not_ going to be late."

Sasuke nodded curtly as they jumped down to the floor below.

"Why is it always Sasuke?" Naruto muttered as we stood on the balcony looking down. Sasuke and Lee had taken to the floor, staring at each other.

"There'll be plenty of people to fight during the Exams," I said. "Don't worry about that. Now… watch how Lee fights, so that if we come up against him later we'll know how to beat him."

"Heh," Naruto smirked. "Bet he's not expecting that."

Sasuke darted forward, leading with an easy right cross to the head. A testing move. He wasn't moving at his full speed, yet, but it was still fairly fast. Lee made him look like he was moving in slow motion, ducking down easily into a crouch and pivoting, a long leg circling around to knock Sasuke's legs out from beneath him.

"Leaf Whirlwind!"

Judging someone else's speed was hard. I could _almost_ match Sasuke normally and if I chakra boosted like everyone else was always doing I doubled my speed. That was _maybe_ about the speed Lee was moving right now, and he was still wearing his weights. I doubted this was even his maximum encumbered speed.

Sasuke flipped over the leg sweep, hand springing to gain some distance. Lee didn't let him recover, leaping into the air and descending on him with a roundhouse kick.

"Leaf Hurricane!"

Sasuke twisted, not quite able to dodge the blow, but enough to take in on his crossed forearms instead in the face. He skidded backwards.

"You're fast," Sasuke acknowledged. "I think it's time to use _this_." His chakra pulsed and his eyes began to spin, black bleeding into red.

"Your Sharingan will not help you here," Lee declared. "I know your technique. I know that you can see through your opponents Jutsu. That Sharingan gives you the ability to read his chakra and decipher his handsigns and movements. You can guess what he's going to do almost before he knows himself. The problem is… Taijutsu is a little bit different."

"What's your point?" Sasuke said, annoyed.

"I do not try to hide or disguise my moves. I do not have to. Even if you can read them, you still cannot stop them. You are too slow. Your eyes may be quick enough to keep up with me, but if your body cannot follow, what good does it do?"

He blurred forward again, swinging low and kicking upwards, intending to catch Sasuke in the chin. Sasuke tipped sideways, the foot grazing past his cheek. It wasn't much of a dodge, but it worked all the same.

I knew that speed was one of the weaknesses of the Sharingan, and I'd made sure Sasuke knew it too. It had given me a chance to work on my speed in combat and forced Sasuke to work out how to predict and respond to fast movement.

Lee retracted his foot, then lashed out again, catching him square in the stomach, throwing him back across the room.

"Grk!" Sasuke grunted as the air was forced out of his lungs. He forced himself to his hands and knees, then stood, trembling slightly.

Unfortunately, that was the most common conclusion to ninja fights.

They didn't end through broken bones or injuries… but through chakra exhaustion and disruption of the chakra enhancing your muscles. If you hadn't practiced moving, fighting, living without chakra boost, like I had, moving without it seemed impossible. It was almost like paralysis. That was why, after a strong hit, most ninja staggered and stumbled on their feet as their chakra system resorted itself.

Pain disrupted chakra. That was the whole principle of escaping genjutsu. But it could work against you, too.

"You know what I believe?" Lee said, once more taking his opening stance. "There are two kinds of ninja. Those like you who are born with talent and do not have to work at it. And those like me who have to train every day of our lives! The fact is, your Sharingan is the worst match for my extreme Taijutsu."

Sasuke had gone from annoyed to angry. He darted forward again, lashing out with all kind of combinations. Lee blocked everyone and retaliated with moves that Sasuke could only move with or lessen but never avoid completely.

It was interesting though, that Sasuke was sticking completely to Taijutsu too. It wasn't a good idea to use Ninjutsu inside but he hadn't brought out any kunai, or shuriken or used ninja wire to trip or slow his opponent.

He was playing Lee's game.

A strike caught Sasuke in the stomach, throwing him up into the air.

"Here's what I mean!" Lee said, jumping up after him in the pattern of Shadow of the Dancing Leaf. "Now I will prove my point. That hard work beats out natural talent."

The bandages on his hands started unwrapping, coiling and snapping in an invisible breeze. I didn't see how he could do _that_ without chakra.

And then they were slammed into the wall, pinned by an incongruous and fragile looking paper pinwheel.

I blinked, startled.

"Alright! That's enough!" The deep booming voice of a tortoise admonished. It was a summon. I could see the Konoha headband that it wore around it's neck.

"What the hell?" Naruto yelped. "It's a turtle!"

Lee, momentum halted by his trapped bandages, was pulled out of his technique, landing in a crouch on the ground. Sasuke twisted agilely, landing like a cat. The deep set of his mouth betrayed his aggravation.

"That last technique is forbidden! You know that!" The tortoise growled.

"I am sorry. I did not mean to… I was not planning to use a forbidden jutsu. I mean, I was just in the middle of a fight… you understand…" Lee flailed about trying to explain himself.

I ignored him, mostly, jumping down to land lightly beside Sasuke.

"Alright?" I asked, assessing him. It didn't look like anything more than his pride was hurt.

He grunted.

Naruto landed ungracefully beside us, apparently deciding he didn't want to stay up on the balcony alone.

Lee's telling off continued behind us. "You're a disgrace! You think you'll get away with a bunch of lame excuses like that! A shinobi never reveals his techniques unless it's absolutely necessary. It's such a basic rule you should know it by now."

"You saw his hands, didn't you? When he took off the tape? I bet old bushy brow has been training until he drops. Day in and day out," Naruto muttered, voice hushed.

I hummed. "His Taijutsu is very good. But that just means we should avoid matching him in a Taijutsu fight."

Sasuke smirked at the idea. I was relieved to see the anger drain out of his body. He nodded. "This Exam will be interesting…"

There was an explosion of chakra smoke, revealing a man standing on the back of the tortoise. Maito Gai.

Konoha had such an eye-catching history of 'dead lasts' that most people probably assumed that Gai was one of them. Rock Lee's enthusiastic mimicking of his sensei didn't help matters, particularly among our generation.

The truth was, Gai was one of the lauded prodigy children. The genius kids. He had graduated the academy at seven, fought in the war, made Chunin at eleven and Jounin at fifteen, only slightly behind Kakashi's own record. That was, I suspect, where the 'Eternal Rivalry' developed, between the two that were so far advanced from the rest of their peers.

Out of all the sensei for the Konoha Twelve, _Kurenai_ was the one that was most ordinary. She had been born to the extended family of a minor ninja clan, become a Genin at nine (the graduating age due to the war) and Chunin at thirteen. She had reached Jounin at twenty six after a long hard struggle to be taken seriously as both a kunoichi and a genjutsu user.

Regardless, for all his ridiculous posing, Maito Gai _deserved _to be a Jounin.

"Hey, what's shaking? How you doing, everybody? Life treating you good? Hi, Lee."

It was just that everyone's first impression was _shock._ Maybe a little bit of horror. The fact that he was over the top melodramatic… It was sort of something you had to grow used to.

The three of us exchanged glances with each other that conveyed large amounts of 'what the hell?' combined with 'who is this guy?' and 'can we get out of here?' as Lee and Gai-sensei had a Moment behind us.

Don't get me wrong, I like Lee and Gai. It's just… this might not have been the best introduction of them.

"That is…" Sasuke trailed off. "How did I lose to that guy?"

"Well, it's kinda sweet the way they're all huggy and stuff," Naruto said. That comment was Naruto through and through. Yeah, he might have been shocked and weirded out but he could still appreciate people who acknowledged each other.

"Tell me, how is Kakashi-sensei?" Gai-sensei asked, turning to us.

"… Do you know him?" Sasuke asked. He didn't _quite_ sound either surprised or disbelieving but the potential was there.

"Do I know Kakashi?" Gai chuckled then smiled brightly. His teeth gleamed. "Well people say … he and I are arch rivals for all of eternity."

"There's just no way!" Naruto blurted out, shocked.

"How dare you?" Lee asked, outraged. "If Gai-sensei says it is so then-"

"Let it slide, Lee. A ninja's actions always speak louder than words," he said seriously. Then vanished. "My record is 50 wins and 49 losses." He was freaking behind us. It startled me so badly I nearly lashed out even though this was not a combat situation. "Which is one better than his, by the way. You see, I'm stronger than Kakashi… and faster."

"You see?" Lee said, vindicated. "Gai-sensei is the best there is."

Ninja battles weren't just fought on strength and speed, though. And a ninja's prowess didn't always come from fair fights. That didn't make either of them _better_ than the other, just better at different things.

"Now Lee, you should accompany these fine young ninja to the classroom. Remember, give it your best." He gave us all the thumbs up and vanished.

We shook ourselves out of our stupor.

"Right," Sasuke said. "We need to get to room 301."

We turned to leave, but I hesitated, turning back to Lee. This had bothered me. "Oh, Lee? You said there were two kinds of people, genius' and those who worked hard… but just because someone has natural talent doesn't mean they don't have to train hard, you know. All shinobi walk the same path to grow stronger; even if some start out ahead of the others it doesn't matter because, in the end, we're still all headed for the same place…"

_Sasuke works hard too, y'know?_

I hesitated, unsure if what I'd said made sense, then shrugged.

"All shinobi are walking the same path to grow stronger?" Sasuke asked, brow arched as I caught up to him.

I bumped our shoulders together playfully. "Don't you know some journeys are better with friends?"

Naruto clenched his fists. "Yeah! You might have started out ahead of me, but I'm catching up! Believe it!"

"I think you already have," I said.

We grinned at each other. Or well, Naruto grinned, I smiled and Sasuke smirked.

"I'm glad you all came," a low, calm voice intruded on the moment.

"Kakashi-sensei," I chirped and darted forward to hug him. That was a little bolder than I normally was, to be sure, but it was Kakashi-sensei. Safe. Familiar. "I'm glad you're here!"

"Yeah! You're the best sensei ever!" Naruto echoed. "Even if you _are_ late all the time and read those weird books…"

I think all three of us shared a joint vision of what _could have been_. Green spandex. Youth and vigour. We shuddered.

Kakashi-sensei eyed us warily but didn't ask. He probably knew exactly who we'd run into. "Riiight. Now, you can formally register for the Chunin Exams. Only groups of three are allowed to apply for and take the Exam, so it's good you all came together."

That hadn't been what he'd told us when handing out the applications - exactly - but I'd known it anyway. There was a faint twitch of surprise from the boys though, so maybe that was one of those 'unspoken rule' things that they'd missed out on.

"I'm proud of you." He smiled. "Couldn't ask for a better team. Good luck."

"We wont let you down, sensei," Naruto said, beaming at him like a sunrise in the morning. A few words of praise and his confidence was unshakable.

I nodded firmly and we opened the doors and stepped inside.


	20. Chapter 19

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: These chapters aren't short, but they still don't seem to cover much, do they?

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Chapter 19

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_Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory. ~ Sun Tzu_

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Room 301 was one of the larger rooms in the Academy. It was almost an auditorium and could sit almost three hundred people. It looked like it was almost full to capacity, too.

I cast an assessing glance around. There were Konoha headbands, unsurprisingly, which made up the majority of the candidates. There were Sand ninja, some from Rain, some from Grass and a few from Waterfall. And of course, Sound.

Some of the teams stood out. There was obviously Gaara's team, who though sitting quietly, had a large clear space around them. There was a team from Rain carrying heavy combat umbrellas. There was a Konoha team whose mean age seemed to be over thirty; they probably had _experience_ but were either lacking in techniques or had come off long term injuries. It'd be a mixed bag whether they'd be difficult opponents or not.

Of course, most of them would drop out during the First Exam, so it wasn't _really_ worth making a detailed list.

And there was of course, the rookies.

"Sasuke, where've you been?" Ino greeted, practically jumping on him.

Sasuke gave her his annoyed face. I noticed, though, that he didn't throw her off.

"Boy, you have no idea how much I was hoping you'd show up here. I've missed those broody good looks of yours." Sometimes… sometimes I had to wonder if Ino was just playing us all for fools. It was just something in the choice of words, in the tone of voice…

Or not. Maybe I was just being too paranoid.

"Took you guys long enough," Shikamaru drawled, off to the side. "I thought you were going to be late."

"Of all the habits I could pick up from Sensei, that's the one I want the least," I said, snorting. "We got waylaid on the way in."

"The genjutsu?" Shika asked with a modicum of surprise. There was no way I should have fallen for that.

"Nah," I replied. "One of the other teams. Year above us. Rock Lee, Neji Hyuuga and Tenten. Watch out for them."

He nodded, warning received.

"Well, well, whaddaya know? It looks like the whole gang's back together again." Kiba's grinning face was feral under the fur lining of his jacket hood. Akamaru barked happily, perched atop his head.

"You guys too huh? Man, everyone's here for this stupid thing," Shikamaru complained.

"Yup, here we all are. The Nine Rookies," Kiba laughed. That is how stupid names stick. Someone says something like that and years later you _still_ get called the Rookie Nine. "This is going to be fun. At least… for those of us good enough to make the cut. Right, Sasuke?" His tone was teasing but not _really_ challenging. He and Sasuke actually got on surprisingly well.

"Kiba. Careful you don't get overconfident." Sasuke smirked.

"Just you wait," Kiba boasted. "We're going to blow you guys away. We've been training like crazy."

"What do you think we've been doing?" Naruto retorted, pointing at him. "Sitting around picking daisies? You don't know what training means!"

"Uh, don't mind Kiba," Hinata tried to say, poking her fingers together. Poor Hinata, she disliked conflict even more than I did. Added to the fact that she lost what remained of her confidence around Naruto… "I'm sure he didn't really mean anything by it."

"Don't worry about it, Hinata," I smiled at her. "We're all going to do our best."

"Damn right we are," Ino said enthusiastically. She _still_ hadn't let go of Sasuke. "I didn't come here to let some little test beat me."

"Sheesh, you guys sound confident," a voice interrupted us. One of the Genin had left the crowd and come over to talk to us. He was average looking, silver hair wasn't that unusual in Konoha, with glasses and a purple uniform. Something about him niggled the back of my mind. I didn't recognise him and he wasn't distinctive enough to ring any bells.

"I mean, no offence, but you're the nine rookies, right? Fresh out of the Academy. I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves. You might wanna try keeping it down."

People who said 'no offence' generally meant every offence. There was a note of high handed arrogance in his voice too, under the condescension.

"Well who asked you?" Ino snapped. "Who are you?"

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi. But really-"

The rest of his speech faded out in a blur of white as I realised with a jolt of horror just who was standing there in front of me.

Kabuto.

That was Kabuto.

Orochimaru's spy. Madara's ally. The one responsible for the mass Edo Tensei.

Of course he was here.

I wanted to kill him.

_I wanted to kill him._

I shuddered at the sheer vehemence of the emotion.

I'd never met him before, never seen him, never talked to him, but for what he was going to do, I wanted to kill him.

I wanted to kill him so badly it hurt… and I _knew _I wasn't going to get the opportunity.

He might have been playing the failed Genin but he was Jounin level. Able to stand off against Shizune and Tsunade and Jiraiya however weakened they might have been. He had some kind of automatic regeneration ability. Not to mention the level of sheer control that allowed him to use Chakra Scalpels in combat.

I wasn't that good.

Added to the fact that he was currently a Konoha shinobi, if I even attempted to attack him with the necessary force it would certainly cast question on _me_, even under the rules of the exam.

"Do those cards of yours have any info on the other candidates? Individually?" Sasuke asked, eyes narrowed.

I tuned back into the conversation, quickly, slightly disturbed at myself.

"Well, I can't promise my information is complete or perfect," Kabuto answered. "But I've got something on just about everyone. Including you guys, of course. So which one is it? Anything you know about them. A description, where they're from, whatever."

He wanted to ingrate himself with us, likely he had been told to keep an eye on us or at least Sasuke. That was the only reason I could think of that he was showing us this stuff. That and he was arrogant enough to think we wouldn't spot the irregularities. It was possible, possible that he might have got information on Konoha Genin legitimately, but other villages? Unlikely.

But we hadn't even known about the Exam till a week ago. Which meant that if Kabuto had info on us he probably had info on all of Konoha's forces. That was a little more terrifying.

"Rock Lee," Sasuke stated.

I hesitated. I didn't particularly want to ask Kabuto, but it would be a good way to alert the Rookies. "And the team from Sand with … Gaara." They had said his name, hadn't they? Probably.

"Aww, you even know their names, that's no fun," Kabuto complained with an easy going smile. "Let's see, Rock Lee first. Looks like he's about a year older than you guys. Mission experience; eleven C-ranks and twenty D-ranks. His squad leader is Maito Gai and in the last twelve months his Taijutsu had radically improved. But his other skills are pretty shaky. Last year, he got a lot of attention as a Genin but for some reason he chose not to participate in the Chunin Exams. This will be his first time as a candidate, same as you guys. His team mates are Tenten and Neji Hyuuga."

That was actually pretty detailed information. It made me narrow my eyes. Especially the spiel about Lee's skills improving; that implied Kabuto was keeping a close eye on the _abilities_ of Konoha shinobi if he bothered to note that much about a Genin.

Not good.

"Okay, now for Gaara of the Desert. Mission experience, eight C-ranks and … get this, one B-rank as a Genin. But there is this… he's survived every mission without getting a scratch on him. There's not a lot more information on this guy. His team mates are Temari and Kankurou, who are also his siblings. All three of them are the children of the Fourth Kazekage. Temari is skilled with Suna Tessen and wind ninjutsu, while Kankurou is a noted member of the Suna Puppet Corps."

There was a stunned silence.

"From the looks of it, all the villages have sent exceptionally skilled Genin to the Exams this time around."

"Piece of cake," Naruto scoffed. "They'll be begging to know _our_ names by the time this Exam is over."

Kiba laughed. "Damn right they will."

There was a hint of scorn in Kabuto's eyes as he pushed his glasses back up. Just for a second, but I saw it.

Yeah well, we'd show him.

"Well, at least you're confident," he said with a smile. "Maybe that will be enough, yeah? Well, I better get back to my team. The Exam will probably start soon."

"What a jerk," Ino huffed as he walked away.

"Hey. He was tryin' to help us," Naruto protested. "With those info cards and everything."

I shook my head minutely, making sure he was out of hearing range. "She's right, Naruto. Be careful around him," I looked over at the rookie group. "He shouldn't have had that information." There was a name for people that had information they shouldn't. Spies. Traitors.

In a social structure that demanded village loyalty, spies were abhorred.

"Perhaps we should inquire to our sensei later, when the Exam is over," Shino suggested, his voice monotone. "If it is suspicious, then our superior officers should be informed."

"Right," I said. "Who knows? He might be part of the Exam… but he might not." It was only a small thing, and I wasn't sure how much weight the suspicions of a few rookie Genin would have but it was a start.

There was an explosion of chakra, a huge surge in the air, as the Exam Officials all body flickered in. There was nearly twenty of them, all dressed in the grey Intelligence Division uniform.

"Alright you baby-faced degenerates, pipe down and listen up!" A voice bellowed. "It's time to begin. I'm Ibiki Morino, your protector and from this moment … your worst enemy."

There was a sort of stillness in the room for a split moment. Not quite fear but the acknowledgement that there was someone in the room who was far, far more dangerous than you.

Ibiki just radiated that kind of danger.

"Now if we're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the Chunin Exam. Hand over your paper work. In return you'll be given a number. This number determines where you will sit. We'll start the written test once you're all seated." He held up a pad of tear-off numbers to punctuate his statement.

"The what? Did he say… written?" Naruto's eyes were wide with horror.

"You'll do fine," I said reassuringly. "Just stay calm, _stay quiet_ and listen to the instructions. You're a super ninja, remember?" I emphasised 'quiet' in hopes he wouldn't give the game away if I needed to use Shadow Possession on him.

It took almost half an hour to get everyone registered and seated. The Chunin were _good_ at splitting up team mates. Sasuke was several rows behind Naruto but I was all the way across the classroom from them. Not good. The further the distance, the greater chance my shadow would be noticed.

"Everyone, eyes front." Ibiki barked, writing on the blackboard. "There are a few rules you need to be aware of. And I wont answer any questions so you better pay attention the first time around! Rule number one is this: The written part of the Exam is judged on a point reduction system. Contrary to what some of you may be used to, you all begin the Exam with a perfect score of ten points. One point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong. So if you miss three, your final score will be seven."

Ten points, but we were given only nine questions, which meant even if you got all nine wrong, you still had one point. Not that the points mattered, in the end.

"Rule number two. Teams will pass or fail on the total scores of all three members."

That was a pretty common Konoha concept. A few of the foreign shinobi looked put out, but teamwork was our guiding principle.

"Rule number three. The sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating. And for every incident they spot, they will subtract two points from the culprits score. Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp. And if they catch you five times, you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored. Anyone foolish enough to be caught cheating by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here."

And there was the qualifier on the 'to be caught'. His intentions were pretty obvious.

"I've got my eye on you guys," one of the sentinels said mildly, smirking. I recognised him. He was one of the Chunin that were often on guard duty or working at the Hokage's Tower. So the others were probably Chunin or higher. Meaning, actually slipping things past them would be hard, especially in a constrained environment like this, but they probably had an acceptable level that they allowed to succeed.

"One more thing. If any candidate should get a zero and fail the test… then the entire team fails. The final question wont be given out until fifteen minutes before the end of the testing period. You'll have one hour total. Begin!"

I flipped over the test, casting an eye down the questions.

Code, looked like an intermediate level cipher…

Physics based mathematics, _Line B in the diagram shows the trajectory of a shuriken thrown at enemy C by ninja A, seated atop a tree seven meters tall. Formulate and describe the trajectory required if C were positioned at points D, E and F. Also predict the furthers possible range of the shuriken and explain how you arrived at your answer…_

History, _In the Second Great Ninja War the battle of Mount Tokachi Pass had five major objectives, identify and describe the ways in which the combined ninja forces went about achieving these objectives and discuss their successes and failures…_

Economics based mathematics, _The supply train for a minor outpost normally carries twenty five crates of rice and twelve crates of assorted meats for an agreed upon price of 60,000ryo. However, due to a food shortage in nearby towns…_

Politics and rules, _Name and describe the seventh clause of the Convention of Humane Treatment regarding captured prisoners and the six major addendums and how these apply to both active duty shinobi and civilians…_

Physiology_, Name and describe the most likely injuries that would result, and grade them according to their Injury Severity Score, if a shinobi were a) crushed using a Doton Jutsu, b) stabbed with a…_

Another mathematical calculation, a question on the shinobi rules of conduct, and a calculation to find the blast radius of an explosion that used a mix of explosive tags and nitroglycerin.

_Oh, boy_. Nope, there was no way in hell Naruto would be able to answer any of these. Sasuke wouldn't be able to answer any of these.

I glanced sideways surreptitiously. Naruto was tense and stiff but he didn't look like he was freaking out enough to do something stupid yet. Good. It had only been a few minutes.

_Just don't panic_, I pleaded in my head. _Just don't panic, Naruto. _

It didn't really matter if you answered the questions at all, as long as you didn't get caught cheating. So as long as Naruto could sit and wait it out…

I grimaced. He'd probably try something stupid. It was just his way.

Mentally, I crossed my fingers, and turned back to the test. The code was a piece of cake and the mathematical problems made me want to trade my soul for a calculator but they were doable. The history and rules questions were easy and I was pretty sure I got the physiology one.

It took me twenty minutes to do, and I doubled checked the answers and sighed in relief. Now to check up on my team mates.

Sasuke looked like he was writing and I could feel the agitation of his chakra that meant his Sharingan was active. Using his Sharingan to copy the movements of one of the Chunin plants, huh? Clever.

Naruto was still frozen. It was unlikely that he would work out the need to cheat. He was just too _honest_ for that. Although, if he could produce Shadow Clones already transformed into something else, then he could probably do pretty well on his own here.

I tucked my hands in close to my chest and activated my shadow. It slunk across the floor, under the benches. There were two aisles that needed to be crossed, and I couldn't exactly _see_ the floor in between them, but judging from the angle of the shadows I could see, I estimated a safe crossing point hidden in someone else's shadow.

Slowly, but surely, it made it's way to Naruto. It was hard to Possess someone when I couldn't see if my shadow was on them. I was forced to rely on my chakra sense. It was hard with some many people in one place, but Naruto was a burning ball of sunshine. Unmistakable. I just had to make sure I got _only_ him.

_Shadow Possession Complete._

I reached out and picked up my pencil. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Naruto doing the same. There was a tugging-pull on my muscles that made it feel like my pencil weighed twice as much as Naruto instinctually fought me.

_Don't scream._

'Trust me', I wrote at the top of his page. And things became much easier as he stopped fighting the jutsu.

Then, carefully, I wrote overtop of the answers that I had already calculated, making sure my pencil followed the exact same lines and that I didn't miss anything. It didn't take all that long. There were only nine questions, and I had already done all the hard work of answering them.

Test complete, I put down the pencil, released my jutsu, lay my head down on the desk and went to sleep. Not that I actually slept, the atmosphere was too tense, but it was the principle of the thing. I watched the room through the bars of my eyelashes as it slowly emptied with every team caught cheating. Some of them were pretty blatant about it. I mean, five tries was fairly lenient.

I could hear Akamaru barking quietly, which gave me a pretty good idea on how Kiba was doing. This Exam would be a piece of cake for them, with Hinata's Byakugan and Shino's Kikai. They were more a tracking team, but it looked like they could probably double as a covert intelligence gathering team. Actually, the Exam was probably pretty easy for Team 10, too, since they _were_ basically an intelligence gathering team. I could see Ino's slumped body, like she was taking a nap too, and was quietly glad that the angle was all wrong for her to target me. I'd never been on the receiving end of the Yamanaka Mind-Body Switch Jutsu and I didn't really want to. Tenten was using chakra strings to adjust the flaps on the lights and using them as a reflective surface. That was a pretty clever use of the environment. A Genin I didn't know had some kind of periscope poking out of his sleeve and was doing his best to keep it from the sentinels. There was a large amount of chakra imbued in one of the windows, distorting the reflection. Someone else was tapping fingers on the desk in a rhythm too blatant to be anything but a code.

The clock ticked on.

"Listen up! Here's the tenth and final question. But first, there are some things you need to know. These rules are unique to question 10, so listen carefully and try not to let them frighten you."

I didn't bother to lift my head off the desk. Around me, the room was thrumming with tension already. Ibiki really did know how to lay it on thick.

"Rule number one," Ibiki said slowly, making sure he had everyone's attention. "Each of you is free to chose _not_ to be given the final question. It's your decision."

"Whoa, so what's the catch?" Temari nearly shouted. "What's say we decide we don't want to do it, what happens then?"

"If you chose not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers to the other nine, you'll get a zero. In other words, you fail. And that means both your team mates fail as well. But… If you accept the question and get it wrong, not only will you fail, you will be bared from taking the Chunin Exam ever again!" He smirked at the gasps of outrage.

"Hey! That's bull! What kind of bogus rule is that? There's tons of people here who've taken the test before!" Kiba protested, standing up. Given that Kabuto had admitted to taking it _seven_ times, that was a reasonable assumption.

"I guess you're just… unlucky. I wasn't making the rules before. But I am now," Ibiki said.

I could hear the sinking realisation of 'oh, shit. He's serious' all around the room. It wasn't _quite_ there yet. He'd need to push just a little bit more.

"Of course," he added, almost kindly, "if you don't want to take it, you don't have to. If you're not feeling confident, then by all means, skip it. You can come back and try again next year."

He'd given everyone two clear paths to follow. Even if there _had_ been other options, no one would be thinking of them now. By giving the impression that there was no stigma attached with leaving, it seemed the more attractive of the two choices.

"Now if you're ready, the tenth and final question. Those who don't want to take it, raise your hand."

No one wanted to be the first to leave. There was a building silence, almost panic ridden as everyone looked about, thoughts racing, trying to see what their team mates were going to do.

"That's it, I can't take it anymore, I'm out!" One of the Genin, said, slapping his hands down on his desk. His entire team was called out. I noted they were wearing uniforms and idly wondered if they were the Chunin plants. It was a good way to get the ball rolling because after that, it was like the dam had broken.

Teams bailed right and left.

I still didn't lift my head. I was pretty sure Sasuke wouldn't do anything, but Naruto was always a wild card, even to us. I vaguely remembered something about him causing a scene in this test. Of course, Naruto had changed from what he could have been, so even that was no real guide to his actions.

"The tenth question is the kind of thing that challenges you, mentally, emotionally, even spiritually… are you _sure_ you're ready for it?" Ibiki asked, deceptively mild.

More teams bailed.

"This is a decision that could change your life. If you fail, you will never have the chance to become a Chunin."

It was like the entire room had stopped breathing.

"Don't underestimate me!" Naruto hollered, standing and pointing at Ibiki. It looked like the stress _had_ got to him, though he attacked it rather than fleeing. "I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want, you guys aren't going to scare me off! No way. I don't care if I _do_ get stuck as a Genin for the rest of my life. I'll still become Hokage someday!" He was fierce and blazing with conviction.

And just like that, no one would leave.

"Well, I admire your determination, if nothing else," Ibiki said wryly. "For those of you remaining there's just one thing left to do. That's for me to tell you… you've passed the First Exam."

Tension gave way to confusion.

"Hold on, what just happened?" Someone demanded. "What's going on? Where's the tenth question?"

"There never was one. Not a written one at least." Ibiki was grinning. Not a 'I'll eat you' grin, but … happily. It looked disturbing all the same, but it wasn't cruel. "Actually, you could say that your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question."

"Wait a second, so the other nine questions you gave us were just a waste of time? Is that what you're saying?" Temari demanded, sounding pissed off.

"No. Not at all. Quite the opposite," Ibiki explained. "The first nine questions had an important overriding purpose. To test your abilities to surreptitiously gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstances."

That was a long, fancy way to say 'cheat while being watched'.

"Let me explain," he continued. "You see, my objective was to test you not only as individuals but as a team, and as how well you function as a part of that team. That's why the test was scored on a team basis, so that you knew everything you did or failed to do would directly affect your team mates. I wanted to see how well you would handle the pressure."

That was probably why Temari was so pissed, actually. At this point I wouldn't want to be the one responsible for making _Gaara_ fail, either. That would be a one way ticket to a shallow grave, if there was even enough of you left to bury.

Ibiki continued to explain the test. It was difficult in order to encourage cheating. Those who cheated badly failed. It was pretty straightforward.

"Information, it can be the most valuable weapon in battle. How well you gather information can determine whether a mission is a failure or a success. There'll be times you have to risk your life to get it."

He raised his hands and took of his bandanna. I straightened a bit, propping my chin in my hand. His skull was a mess but under the visceral horror it did make me wonder what the _purpose_ of those marks had been. Burn marks, puncture wounds, cuts and slices… they told a horrible story but why the skull? It's not exactly the first thing you think of. Hands, eyes, even feet… they'd be more permanently damaging and therefore more terrifying as well as being incredibly sensitive.

He was wearing full gloves though, not the fingerless ones most shinobi wore. It was possible his scars weren't _just_ limited to his head...

"Of course, you must always consider the source of your information. Intelligence gathered from an enemy is not necessarily accurate. Always bear this in mind. Disinformation can be worse than no information at all. It can lead to the death of comrades or the loss of a village. That's why I put you in the position where you had to gather accurate intelligence. Cheat, in order to survive. Those who weren't good enough at it were weeded out. Leaving the rest of you."

He put his bandanna back on and scanned the room.

"The tenth question was the main point of the whole exam. The final question gave you two choices, both difficult. You could play it safe and chose to skip the question, though it meant that both you and your team mates would be failed. Or you could take the question, knowing if you got it wrong, you would lose your chance of ever being Chunin. It was a no-win situation. But just the sort Chunin have to face everyday. For example, let me give you a hypothetical mission. To steal a document from an enemy stronghold. You have no idea how many ninja the enemy has. Or how heavily armed they are. Further more, you have reason to believe that the enemy expects you. You might very well be walking blindly into a trap. Now do you have an option of taking a pass on this insane mission, of saying 'my comrades would rather live to fight another day'? Can you chose to avoid danger? No. There will be many missions that seem almost suicidal if you think about it. But you do not think about it. You think only of the goal achieving it through courage and discipline. These are the qualities required of a Chunin squad leader."

_There will be many missions that seem almost suicidal if you think about it. But you do not think about it. You think only of the goal …_

Almost suicidal? Like trying to save your team mate from an S-ranked missing nin?

It wasn't a mission, but it might as well have been. There was_ no_ option of avoiding it. It was something that would happen and something that would have to be dealt with. Just like Kabuto. Like Madara. Eventually.

_So don't think about how impossible it is. Only think about _how_ it can be done._

I breathed in. Breathed out.

It wasn't quite an epiphany. I'd already _known_ this. But there was something about having someone else voice it… to have it put into words…

"You have earned the right to continue on to the next step. You have passed through the first gate. I hereby declare this stage of the Chunin Selection Examination completed. There's nothing left but to wish you all good luck."

There was a slow relaxation of tension as it sunk in that we had _passed_. A low mutter started as people shifted and shuffled and celebrated. Of course, Naruto didn't celebrate _quietly_.

My chakra sense pinged, and my hand dropped to my kunai holster even before the window shattered. Canvas fluttered, then unfurled as kunai unerringly pinned the corners to the roof and floor.

"Head's up, boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating! I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi. You ready for the next test? Good! Then lets go, follow me!"

I relaxed, hand dropping away from my weapons as I saw who it was. Anko Mitarashi. Special Jounin. Once apprentice to Orochimaru. And, apparently, proctor for the Second Exam.

"How many are there, Ibiki?" Anko asked. "You let all these guys pass? Your test was too easy; you must be getting soft. Before I'm done with them, more than half will be eliminated," she said confidently before turning back to us.

By the very nature of the second test, only half the teams _could _pass, and even that wasn't guaranteed.

"Alright, you maggots have had it easy, but things will be different starting first thing in the morning. Meet me at Training Ground 44. Dismissed!"


	21. Chapter 20

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: A few people have asked this so I might as well put it here; there probably wont be any romance until much later on. They are twelve, after all.

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Chapter 20

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_Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.~ Denis Waitley_

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The next morning dawned bright and clear as most Konoha mornings do. That was good; taking the test in the rain would have added an unneeded misery bonus that might have just pushed me off the edge.

I was twitchy in a way that was completely clear headed and focused. Because when it came down to it, us surviving Orochimaru was up to him. Him and luck.

There was no way I could stand against him. Hell, the three of us couldn't even touch Kakashi, and when those two had met, Kakashi with chidori already going _hadn't even registered as a threat._ That was how outclassed we were. There was no way I could stop him marking Sasuke if he was determined to do that.

And if there was nothing we could do, then the only thing to do would be to complete the test as fast and painlessly as possible.

"What the hell is this place?" Naruto muttered, as we gathered in the clearing outside the Training Field. There was a little booth to the side where several of yesterdays sentinels were sitting, and a sunlit clearing big enough for us all to gather. The Training Field itself was surrounded by a wire fence, plastered with all kinds of warning notices. Inside, it was like a different world. The very sun we were basking in, simply didn't reach it. The trees were overgrown and twisted and it even _looked_ dank.

"This is the location for the second phase of the exam. It's Training Ground 44, but we call it… the Forest of Death.," Anko said, smiling.

Anko Mitarashi was one of those people who, I suspected, had a reputation that was completely blown out of proportion. She had a … bombastic personality, that much we'd already seen with her entrance yesterday.

Actually, I was surprised she and Naruto didn't get on better, considering that. _And _she was wearing an orange skirt.

Regardless, she had a reputation for 'crazy'.

"Forest of Death. Pff. Do your worst!" Naruto shouted. "You're not going to scare me away! I can handle anything!"

"So… looks like we've got ourselves a tough guy." She twisted, palming a kunai and launching it towards Naruto. It scrapped past his cheek, impaling itself in the ground. She vanished in a burst of Body Flicker speed.

"Are you tough enough to handle this? You're not afraid are you?" her voice was only a whisper, as she reappeared behind him. "Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this forest." She touched the leaking cut on his cheek. It was a thin slice, nothing worse than a cat scratch.

Naruto looked a little freaked out, but mostly just surprised.

One of the Grass ninja moved behind her. I wasn't at the right angle to see, but it looked like she had palmed another kunai to defend with.

"I was… just returning your knife," the Hidden Grass ninja said, extending an obscenely long purple tongue. I narrowed my eyes. Was that…

Had he disguised himself as a Genin? Or was it coincidence? Stretching limbs _had_ been one of his techniques, hadn't it?

Yes. It was listed in the Bingo Book. The Soft Physique Modification Technique. It wasn't an _unknown_ technique. There were probably many people that could use it.

His, her?, chakra was strangely subdued. Hidden. I made a note of it just in case.

"Why, thank you Grass-nin." Anko said tightly, taking the kunai back. "You know, I only recommend you stand this close behind me if you wish to reach a premature end."

She was still smiling, like the threat meant nothing to her, but there was tension in the set of her shoulders. With Naruto in front of her, and the Grass-nin behind, she was almost trapped, if poorly.

But the fact that her first instinct had been to defend, rather than to move and abandon Naruto… that won her points with me.

"My pardon. With the sight of blood on your blade slicing through my hair, I'm afraid I became a little excited. I meant you no harm," the Grass ninja said, voice syrupy. The implication that a _Genin_ could have hurt her was ludicrous.

But Anko was losing the respect of the crowd, and she probably knew it. The whole point of attacking Naruto would have been to gain fear, since he'd been the one expressing confidence.

"Seems like everyone here today is quick tempered. There must be something in the air," she said blandly, moving back to the front of the group where we could all see her. It looked like she was changing tactics.

"Now before we begin this test, I have something to hand out to you all. It's just a standard consent form. Before the test, all of you are going to have to read over this form and then sign it," she said, holding up a thick stack of papers.

"What for?" Naruto asked, puzzled.

"Some of you may not come back from this test. And I have to get your consent for that risk. Otherwise it would be my responsibility." She chuckled like the concept was ridiculous.

It was all mental games. The Chunin Exams was like a mission. Once you accepted it, it was up to you to make sure you survived. There were no such things as 'consent forms'. She was just working us up, reminding us of the dangers, the same way Ibiki had. That, and probably using them to create a list of who was participating.

"Now, I'll explain what you'll be doing on this test. The first thing you need to know is that this test will tax every one of your survival skills. First, I'll give you all a description of the terrain on the practice field."

She unrolled a map. From this distance, I could barely make out the large features of the arena. I nudged Sasuke. "Eyes!" I hissed, hoping he'd get the hint and activate his Sharingan to memorise it. Having a copy of a map could _never_ hurt.

"The 44th Training Ground has 44 locked entrance gates. There are rivers and a forest inside. In the centre is a locked tower, located 10km from each gate."

Shit, It was 20 kilometres across? That meant that the Training Ground covered over 300 square kilometres. That was ridiculously huge. The chances of _randomly_ stumbling across other teams was pretty much nil. I'd known it was a _big_ area, just not how big.

"You'll be fighting to get both a Heaven Scroll and an Earth Scroll," Anko said, holding up both as an example. They weren't large scrolls, about a hands length and about the width of a circled finger and thumb. They'd be easy to hide. "Altogether 26 teams will be taking part in this test, so half of those teams will be going after the Heaven Scroll and the other half will be trying to get the Earth Scroll. I'll hand over one kind of scroll to each team and that's what you'll be fighting for."

"Okay," Sasuke asked. "So how do we pass the test?"

"Your entire squad must bring both a Heaven and Earth Scroll to the central tower within five days."

"Completely surrounded by enemies, we wont have time to rest. We'll have to keep a constant watch," Sasuke said, eyes narrowed as he considered what this was going to be like.

"Right," Anko nodded, looking happy at the observation. "This test also measures endurance behind enemy lines. This is designed to be a gruelling test, and I'm sure some of you wont be up to the challenge."

"So… lets say, mid exam, can we just quit?" Shikamaru asked hopefully. It sounded cowardly, but knowing escape routes or rescue points was one of the first things we were taught to consider before entering unknown territory.

"Of course not. In the middle of a battle you can't just _quit_. Well, I guess you could but it's probably going to get you killed." She shrugged. "There are also some ways you can get disqualified. First, if all three members cant make it to the tower with both scrolls. Second, if a team loses a member or a member become incapacitated and cannot continue. But most importantly, none of you, absolutely _none of you_, may look at the contents of the scroll until you reach the tower."

"What if it just happens to flap open and you read it?" Naruto asked. Already, I could feel him itching to have a look at the scroll. Nothing was more tempting than being forbidden.

Given that the purpose of the last test had been for us to cheat, I half contemplated if this was the same kind of order. Except this was expressive denial where that had just punished you for getting caught.

So no, disobeying orders in this situation would not be a good thing.

"Let me put it this way, young man. You. Don't. Want. To. Know." Anko smiled. "There are times when a ninja will be asked to carry secret documents. The scroll rule is to test your integrity. Okay, we're done. Each team, take your consent forms and exchange them over there for your scrolls." She pointed at the booth. "After that, you'll be taken to a gate and the Exam can start."

The candidates all dispersed out across the clearing so that we could fill out our forms and discuss things with our team mates in peace. For a second, it looked like Naruto was going to wander off on his own, so I grabbed both the boys and dragged them to the side so that we were in the trees around the clearing.

It wasn't thick cover, but it would have to do.

I quickly read over the form and scribbled my name on it before turning to the boys.

"They're putting a curtain up over the booth," I murmured. There was no one close by, but it was best not to take chances.

"I see how it is," Sasuke said. "We wont know which team has which scroll, and we wont know which member is carrying the scroll. It's just like Ibiki said, stealing information is really a matter of life or death…"

He looked down at his form, lost in thought.

"What are you guys talking about?" Naruto asked, looking from one of us to the other.

"We have to come up with a plan," I explained. "We need to find a way to know which team has what scroll and where they are in the Training Field. Otherwise, we could be wandering around for the whole five days and not find anything…" Well, other than whoever found us, and I would really rather be the ambusher than ambushee.

"Well… we could just watch them get the scrolls?" Naruto suggested.

Sasuke shook his head. "The Chunin wont let us. Look at them, the booth is set up so that no one can peek inside it."

"… unless…" I said slowly, my hands forming a circle. "Naruto… can your clones Transform into say… spiders? Little ones?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Uh, sure, I guess. Why?"

I was silent a second longer, plotting it all out. "Okay, here's what you're going to do. You're going to create 26 clones here, without anyone noticing, either as spiders or then have them use the Transformation Jutsu to become spiders, or some other small insect. Then those spiders are going to go and _carefully_ climb on one member of each team without them noticing. They're going to see what scroll each team gets, where they hide it and what gate they go to. Then, once they're at the gates, they are going to _secretly_ create a clone that can dispel to give you that information. Once we've decided what team we're going to go after, we can use the clones to get updated information. You should try your hardest to not get noticed, okay?"

Naruto stared at me for a second, then tucked his hands behind his head grinning like mad. "This is going to be so awesome! They'll never know what hit them!"

Sasuke smirked. "We're going to _ace_ this test."

I half smiled back at them. I could feel Naruto's chakra fluctuating and splitting, but there were no telltale puffs of chakra and I barely caught glimpses of orange from the corners of my eyes before they were gone. It looked like he was putting the plan into action already and that Sensei's stealth training might have more use than I thought.

"Did you see the map she showed us?" I asked Sasuke. "Do you think you could redraw it?" I got a pencil and empty scroll out of my missions bag. It looked like our team was one of the few who had thought to bring them.

He nodded, taking the items. "It was a pretty basic map," he said. "I don't think it will help us much."

I shrugged philosophically. "Anything is better than nothing."

"Alright, everyone, we're going to start handing out scrolls now," the Chunin announced from the booth. They'd given us a suspiciously long time to fill out a basic form, so I figured we were expected to be plotting and otherwise getting ready.

We weren't in a hurry to get our scroll, waiting till almost everyone else had gone. I'd seen a few unknown passengers on people's clothes and hoped that Naruto was getting some decent information.

The Chunin looked pretty bored as they flicked through our paperwork. We were nearly the last team in.

"Okay, here's your scroll," he said, handing us a white wrapped scroll. Heaven, then, and we needed Earth.

Sasuke took it and weighed it in his hand for a second, before handing it to me. I blinked at him in surprise and he nodded.

_Well, then._ I opened my jacket and tucked it into the inside pocket before zipping it back up. I was less likely to lose my jacket than my backpack, so it should be safer there. And it would be pretty much impossible to steal without me noticing.

"Listen up!" Anko shouted once the team behind us was done. "All the teams have received their scrolls, so everybody go to your gate and wait there. When the gates open, the test is on!"

It was half past two by the time the gates were open. That gave us maybe five hours of sunlight left, maybe less, given how dark the forest already seemed.

"What are the nearest Genin teams?" I asked Naruto.

He scratched the back of his head. "Well… there was an older Konoha team right next to us, I don't know them but they have Heaven as well."

"Just focus on the ones with Earth, for now," Sasuke cut in.

Naruto nodded. "Uh, well, there's the Rain team with the, y'know, white jumpsuits. They've got Earth. There's a team from Sound and that team from Grass with the crazy tongue lady as well. They've both got Earth, I think, but it sounded like they were looking for someone already."

What to do, attack or run? Attack or run?

We could take on the Sound team, which would mean they couldn't fight us later when we were weakened… but they'd be tricky opponents and could leave us injured. Now was a bad time to be vulnerable.

We could attack the Grass team…

Everything in me balked at the very idea.

If it was Orochimaru… if it was…

We might not be able to escape, but that didn't mean we had to willingly throw ourselves into the snake pit.

If we went for the Rain team, got ourselves a scroll and hightailed it for the tower…

"The Rain team," I said. "If we stick to the trees and use Sensei's lessons, we could probably set up an ambush. Naruto can get an update from his clone when we're closer, and if we scout out the location a bit…"

Sasuke considered it, then nodded. "Alright. Naruto, lead the way."

"Leave it to me!" Naruto assured, jumping up into the twisted branches of the trees.

We followed. "Don't forget to keep an eye out for traps and natural hazards," I reminded. This place was literally crawling with dangerous wildlife.

The Rain team had been two gates away from us, so it didn't take us long to get there at all. We halted in the trees at their last known location, scanning our surroundings.

"Okay, Naruto," Sasuke said. "Get us an update."

"Right!" Naruto formed a cross seal and a Shadow Clone popped briefly into existence. There was a seconds pause as he waited for his other clone to respond back. "Uh, they've split up at the moment to find other teams. My clone isn't on the one with the scroll, so I don't know where it is…"

He looked disheartened at that.

"Where are they planning on meeting?" I asked. If they'd split up, they had to have a meeting point planned.

"Further up ahead," Naruto answered. "They marked it, so it should be pretty easy to find."

"Good," Sasuke said, satisfied. "We find it, and we ambush them when they come back."

"Did you see or hear any of their plans or attacks?" I asked. "Anything about how they might fight?"

"They _did_ say they were going to head closer to the tower if they couldn't find anyone here…" Naruto said slowly. "I don't know if that helps."

I nodded. "Everyone is going to have to head to the tower at some point. So, if you didn't have a scroll, you could trap a team that had either one or both. But it would require a lot of patience, and most people probably wont start heading that way till day three unless they've already got both scrolls."

"And if you get both scrolls before then," Sasuke finished. "You're probably strong enough to defeat an ambush."

"Right," I confirmed. "But if they're planning on setting traps, they'll probably be able to spot anything we do. Keep it basic?"

"Drop and grab?" Sasuke suggested. "They'll probably stick to the ground, so if we drop out of the trees and take them by surprise… You can grab them with your Shadow Possession and Naruto and I will knock them out."

I nodded. "Sounds good to me. I'll give you guys some knockout tags this time." I really did love knockout tags. They were so handy. The only downside was that you had to physically apply them to the enemy before you could activate them; they didn't have a radius like explosive notes.

Naruto scowled. "That wasn't our fault! Stupid sticky web chakra thing!"

We took up position high in the trees above the designated meeting spot. The three of us triangulated the area, able to see each other and hopefully cover the entire space. It was the same as any other watch duty we'd ever done, but more difficult because there were far more dangers to watch out for. At one point, three tigers prowled beneath us for a while, which was strange since tigers are generally solitary animals. They were huge animals, easily taller at the shoulder than a full grown human.

There were other animals, too, that we had to keep an eye out for. A flock of birds burst through the leaves at one point and I caught a glimpse of vicious looking beaks and talons. There were all manner of giant insects, and I had to move branches at one point because an oversize tarantula decided it wanted my spot. I squashed the desire to kill it as a potential give away but I had no idea if it was poisonous and I wasn't about to find out.

Also, giant spider.

I was a girl. I was allowed to freak out.

At three hours into the Second Exam, the rasping of rebreathers below us alerted us to the return of the Rain Genin. They were all fairly identical looking, with white suits, wild brown hair, rebreathers and bandages around their eyes. The only differentiation was how many eyes they had visible. Zero, One or Two.

_Potential sensor type,_ I signed carefully to my team mates. They nodded in comprehension. A shinobi working blind had to have some sort of powerful offset ability, usually either hearing or chakra sense. _Trap potentially identified._

"No luck," One said. "The rookies are long gone."

"Such a shame," Two said. "They were bound to be the easiest targets. Now we'll have to work for it."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Zero commented, chuckling. "It seems we've got company. Why don't you come down here, kiddies?"

Yeah, they noticed us. We communicated with a quick look, then dropped down to the ground. We didn't regroup, maintaining our triangular formation to surround them.

"Who are you calling 'easy targets'?" Naruto demanded. "We're here to kick your ass and take your scroll!"

Naruto was good at attracting attention, which gave me plenty of opportunity to catch them out in my shadow. Or it would have, normally.

"Mubi! Oboro! Look out!" Zero shouted, darting backwards up a tree trunk as my shadow tried to snare him. Seemed he'd noticed me. Right. Sensor type.

"Shadow Possession Complete!" I said, catching the other two who hadn't been quite as fast. "Pin them, quick!"

Sasuke darted forward, slapping a knockout tag on each of them. They sagged in my jutsu and I released it to let them fall to the floor. It would be best to tie them up as well, but even if the tag was removed they wouldn't wake for ten minutes.

"He's the one with the scroll!" Naruto shouted, darting after the fleeing Zero.

_Typical._

Sasuke darted up a separated tree trunk, trying to cut him off. I hurled a brace of shuriken and a kunai with explosive note attached in order to direct him back towards my team mates.

He was fast, I'd give him that. But so were we.

I cut left, throwing another brace of kunai. Zero dodged away, circling to keep a tree trunk between him and me.

And then Sasuke was there, opening with a flying kick straight to his face. Zero catapulted backwards, Sasuke following him like glue, raining down brutal punches. It was damn easy to see how overpowered Zero was. Taijutsu was obviously not his forte.

He desperately tried to pull back and disengage but didn't get a chance until Sasuke's roundhouse kick sent him flying back down to the ground. His chakra fuzzed, but he recovered, even as we leapt down to the ground after him.

"Haze Clone Jutsu!"

Wispy projections started to rise out of the earth. I barely felt it as Zero slipped underground, but I did feel it. Some variation of the Earth Walking Technique, then. I concentrated on keeping track of him and preparing my jutsu, trusting my team mates to keep watch.

"Clones?" Naruto said. "I got this! Shadow Clone Jutsu."

The clearing was suddenly full of _orange_.

Then a dozen shouts of 'Huh?' and 'What the hell?' and 'I just went straight through him!'

"Illusions," Sasuke said, eyes flicking back and forth.

But I was finally ready.

"Earth Release: Earth Walking Jutsu!" I sank both arms into the ground, grabbed and _pulled._ He fought, twisting and kicking. I had grabbed an ankle, apparently, which wasn't the most secure hold. His jutsu was more advanced then mine, giving him a much greater force and range of motion underground.

Regardless, I stuck my feet to the ground and heaved, and he slid out of the dirt, kunai poised to stab me. I couldn't block unless I let go. He was using double sided Rain issue kunai that had a second blade instead of a ring attached to the handle. The blades were slightly smaller than Konoha standard kunai but still enough to do me some serious damage.

I didn't let go.

Sasuke had his Sharingan active. There were a dozen Naruto's in the clearing. He was disarmed and pinned down before I even fully had him out of the ground.

"Got him," Sasuke said, sticking the knockout tag on him.

I panted. "Scroll?"

"Got _it!_" Naruto sing songed, holding up the item in question.

I smiled in relief.

"Now what do we do with them?" Sasuke asked, staring at the unconscious body in front of him. I could tell he was thinking the same things I was.

"Tie them up. We don't want them coming back after us," I said, absently wiping my now very dirty hands on my pants. "We could even net them, which will at least protect them from most of the animals…"

Because even if they were the enemy, I didn't particularly want to leave them tied up and helpless in such a dangerous place.

"If we were closer to the fence I'd suggest throwing them over it," I said.

Sasuke considered and shook his head. "Too far. Let's get back to the others before they wake." He used ninja wire to tie Zero's hands and feet together, taking care to bind the fingers in a professional manner to prevent hand seals.

The other two hadn't woken yet, which was good, since I didn't really want to go to the effort of fighting them. We tied them up the same, and then bundled them in a net trap and hung if from a tree branch like some weird piñata.

It was the best we could do for them.

"Who's taking the scroll?" Naruto asked, when we were done. He was fidgeting it between his hands.

Sasuke and I looked at each other. It wouldn't be a good idea to give it to me, since I already had one, so the choice was between Naruto and Sasuke.

"Does your jacket have an inside pocket?" I asked.

"Huh? Uh… I think so." He unzipped his jacket to check. Most ninja clothing had an excess of pockets. We liked pockets. They were handy. "Yeah, right here!"

"Okay. Put it in there," Sasuke ordered. "And don't take your jacket off for anything."

Naruto blinked.

"And don't hand the scroll over to anyone. Not even me or Sasuke," I added, aware that people would probably try to impersonate us.

"You… want me to keep it?" he asked slowly. A little disbelieving.

"What? You don't think you can handle it?" Sasuke asked, tauntingly.

"You just watch, Sasuke! This will be the safest scroll in the entire forest! Believe it!" Naruto shouted, pointing his finger at Sasuke.

I rolled my eyes. "Just … try not to announce that you have it, or anything," I suggested. "Or people will target you."

"Oh, right," he said sheepishly.

"Right. Scroll sorted. Now do we head for the tower or find a place to hunker down for the night?" I asked. Personally, I wanted to head for the tower and it's assumed safety, but I wasn't sure we'd make it. Being caught out at night would be much worse.

It'd probably take us two hours to cover the ground between here and the tower, and that was at top speed without running into _anything_. Pushing that fast would leave us weakened if we were attacked and so would be dangerous. On the other hand, moving any slower wouldn't get us there before night fell.

"Find a place to make camp," Sasuke said. "It'd be too dangerous to keep moving once the light fades."

It was the right decision to make.

Yet at the same time…


	22. Chapter 21

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Good luck with your exams, DreamOfStories and Zashire and anyone else who's at that stage!

Also there's links to fanart in my profile if anyone is interested.

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Chapter 21

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_You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. ~Eleanor Roosevelt_

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"The river is to the right of here," Sasuke said, spreading the map out and tracing it with his finger. "We should try and avoid getting too close to it. Everyone is going to go there, both for a landmark and for water."

"Not just every _one_," I murmured. "Animals need water too."

"Right. We should stay clear of it for now. We need to look for something with cover, something we can put our backs too. And preferably something that isn't already inhabited." His lips twisted grimly.

Yeah, I didn't want to fight a bear for a cave either.

"We should -" I froze, cutting off what I was saying, my head up and scanning like a startled deer.

"What? Do you see something?" Sasuke asked, uneasily.

A splinter of flying wood caught Naruto across the cheek. He touched his cheek, startled. "Huh? What was that?" He looked in the direction it came from. There was nothing there.

But there was a huge _surge_ of incoming chakra.

"Move!" I screamed, leaping to the side.

We scattered.

Gale force winds ripped through the trees where we had just been standing. They were fairly tightly controlled, like a cone of wind blasting from a single point.

_Jutsu,_ my mind categorised._ Wind Release, A-rank or above._ The amount of destruction it caused meant it could be ranked no less.

_This is it. This is how it starts_.

When the wind and the dust and the debris cleared, a woman's voice spoke up.

"Alright, you two fan out into the woods and keep your eyes open. I'll handle this alone."

_Blocking our escape routes_. But whoever they were, whatever rank they were, they would be less dangerous than what was waiting for us here.

I swallowed.

We had to regroup.

Sasuke was on the other side of the newly created trench. Naruto was much further away. He must have been caught in the blast as we jumped. I hoped he wasn't hurt. But Naruto could take care of himself. Right now, it was _us_ I was worried about.

I scampered up a tree trunk, twisting around it yet trying to keep an eye on the woman standing unconcerned in the clearing. It was the Grass-nin. The one that I had thought could be Orochimaru.

_She must be._

No true Genin could harness that level of destruction.

I moved, circling round, up over the bare destroyed ground, to meet up with Sasuke.

"Sasuke?" I asked, landing lightly behind him.

"What _was_ that?" he breathed, eyes wide.

"Danger," I said, sombrely, barely keeping the tremors out of my voice. "We need to move."

He stared at me, then nodded. "We need to find Naruto. I think he got caught in it."

"Hey, what's up, are you guys okay?" A familiar voice called as an orange suited body ran up to us, panting. That chakra… that hidden, muted chakra…

"Wait," I said, holding up my hand. "ID check." I could sense chakra and my team mates knew it. So the fact that I was even asking sent warning bells ringing through Sasuke's mind. "Those who abandon the rules are…" I gestured at Sasuke.

He caught on in a flash. "Trash but those who abandon…"

'Naruto' looked at us cluelessly. "Huh? What are you guys talking about? We didn't agree to any passwords or anything."

Sasuke's kunai sailed towards him, just as my shadow lashed across the ground underneath it.

'Naruto' dodged nimbly, in a way the real Naruto couldn't have.

"Come out, whoever you are," Sasuke ordered. "Party's over."

'Naruto's face curled into a smirk that didn't sit right. It looked wrong. Naruto's face was made for grinning not sly, smug smirks. "Aren't we the clever one." The Transformation Jutsu dispelled violently with a huge cloud of chakra smoke. It was that same Grass-nin, who, I was now sure, was also Orochimaru. "This promises to be _very_ entertaining."

"You've made a mistake, attacking us," Sasuke said coolly.

"Oh, I don't think so, Sasuke Uchiha." The name was drawn out, each syllable pronounced separately. "I've heard so much about you that I just _had_ to see it for myself."

"Now you've seen me," Sasuke said impassively. "You can be on your way."

Orochimaru _chuckled_. It wasn't loud but the sound carried in a way that wasn't natural at all. "So tense. Don't you want to get your hands on our Earth Scroll? It would go so nicely with your Heaven Scroll." The darkly covered scroll dangled from his fingers before a long tongue snaked out and he _swallowed_ it.

"We don't require an Earth Scroll," Sasuke said flatly. "So you can just be on your way."

After the massive wind jutsu, I think he knew this was a fight we didn't want to be getting into.

"Ah, you have been busy. Already gaining yourself an Earth Scroll. That is impressive. Well, it doesn't matter. When this is over, one of us will have the scrolls, and the other will be _dead_."

There is no way to describe how that Killing Intent felt. Zabuza had been bad, but we had had Kakashi-sensei with us. And we had _trusted_ him to keep us safe. This was… this was so far beyond that. It was knowing you were outclassed beyond your wildest dreams. It was facing an opponent who regarded you as little more than a bug. It was killing intent you would commit suicide to escape.

It was so thick and potent in the air it felt physical. It was like cement blocks around my feet. Like weights tied to my neck. It choked in my throat like rotting meat every time I tried to breathe. It burned my skin, rough and angry chakra that _hated_ so badly.

It was painful. It was ugly. My heart thudded an erratic beat. I could see my death second by second, painted on the underside of my eyelids, etched into my brain as it approached and I. could. not. escape.

_But,_ a tiny, cynical portion of my brain whispered, _it's not as bad as Kyuubi_.

Sasuke retched. He was shaking, shivering just as badly as I. Maybe worse, maybe better, I couldn't tell, my attention was too focused forward. Tunnel vision.

Orochimaru laughed, mockingly. "You're paralysed with fear. Prey in the gaze of a predator. How amusing."

Sasuke staggered to his feet, clutching a kunai shakily in his hand.

"Very good," Orochimaru said approvingly, voice aggravatingly calm. How could he project such bloodlust and still act so indifferent? "Now what happens?"

The Killing Intent doubled.

The air pulsed, like we were inside a beating heart.

I was drowning… I couldn't _breathe…_

"Don't worry, I'll make it quick. But I don't have to tell you that, do I?" There were footsteps. The sound of kunai scraping against the side of a holster. "You've seen it with your own eyes."

It was impossible… there was nothing I could do…

We were going to die.

… _might seem suicidal…_

…_focus on the goal_…

The goal. To survive.

The barest of dreams, of ambitions. _Survive._

I needed to act. Somehow… anyhow. Right now, anything would be better than nothing.

I glanced at Sasuke. Sometimes I forgot, because my body was young but my mind was older.

Sasuke was a twelve year old boy.

However mature he was, however traumatised, however much a child soldier… underneath it all he was a twelve year old boy.

And he was frightened out of his mind.

"I expected you to be more of a challenge. How disappointing."

_No._

Then. Again.

_No. This is not the way things are going to be._

That thought gave me strength. Twisted, desperate strength. I was a cornered animal. Frightened and feral. And defending my team mate.

I _snarled._

I pumped myself up on chakra, gaining courage from the familiar rush of energy, and flew forward, full speed, full strength.

Not the smartest course of action. Not the best course of action. But it was something and _determination_ helped squash the fear down deep where it belonged.

I threw a pair of kunai, deflecting those that had been aimed at us, and lunged forward underneath them, sweeping around in a roundhouse kick. He bent, _bent_, out of the way and swatted me, casually, like a fly to the side. It wasn't even a proper strike, just a careless backhand wave that caught me square in the ribs.

My chakra spiked, absorbing the force of the blow, but breaking my enhancement. I flipped, as gracefully as I could through the air and landed, panting. The pain, sharp and brief, had cleared my head.

Attacking like this would do nothing.

"Sasuke! Move!" I barked putting as much force into my voice as I could.

No 'it's going to be alright'. No 'please, please, move'. No 'you _have_ to'. Because it wasn't going to be alright. Because we didn't have _time_ to plead and beg and come to terms with it.

There was only time to _move._ And he would only respond to an order.

I hurled shuriken and kunai, trying to distract Orochimaru, to provide respite for the one crucial second that it would take Sasuke to _move_. He flowed around my attacks, like they didn't matter, like I didn't even _exist_.

And still he walked forward. Inexorable.

I saw, out the corner of my eye as Sasuke stabbed his kunai into his leg, breaking the fear with pain. I caught his eye, and as one we flickered away.

"An interesting move," Orochimaru commented. "Run, little mouse. Run all you want… there is no escape."

"We need to get out of here," Sasuke panted, as we crouched in the bend of a tree branch.

I nodded reverently, cold sweat covering all my skin. "We run - Sasuke! Look out!" I shoved him in one direction, leaping in the other as a snake - a giant freaking snake! - crashed a head the size of a car through the place we had been standing.

"Unbelievable. I didn't even notice. I'm losing it," he muttered, eyes wide as he landed awkwardly, swinging around a thin tree limb.

It wound around the branches, limber and at ease for such a large creature. It lunged for Sasuke again, mouth open wide, fangs gleaming. I cursed myself for being out of position - for being unable to _help_.

"No! Stay away!" His voice was rich with panic, even as he threw shuriken; some of them must have hit for it reeled backwards collapsing and bleeding on a branch.

And then it's skin began to ripple and crack. Horrifyingly, sickeningly, a pale body began to climb from the corpse.

"I sense your fear and desperation. It's only natural. The prey must never let down its guard, not even for a moment, in the presence of its predator!" He chuckled and lunged forward, body coiling and stretching like he was a snake himself.

Sasuke screamed.

And a hail of kunai impacted on the wood.

"Looks like I came just in time."

_Naruto!_

Our chances weren't really any better now, but I still felt lighter.

"What took you so long?" I shouted up at him. "You better not have some lame excuse about getting lost on the road of life!"

"I got eaten by a giant snake!" He shouted back. "And let me tell you, the inside smells worse than the outside!"

That was another lesson I'd learnt from Sensei - banter helps calm you down, keep you focused. Or something. Maybe it was just gallows humour.

Orochimaru was just reclining on the branch, for all the world at ease. "So, Naruto, you managed to escape from my friend. Well done."

"Okay, okay, I don't know what's going on here, but you've been picking on my friends and I don't like that. So you just better slither back into your hole before I make a pair of shoes out of you!" Naruto shouted back.

Could he not feel the Killing Intent in the air? I wondered hazily. Or did he just not care either way?

"Clones!" I shouted suddenly. "As many as you can!"

"On it!" Chorused back to me a dozen, a hundred, maybe even a thousand times over, more shimmering into existence wherever there was space.

I grabbed the one nearest me. "Transform into Sasuke and me. Then use Replacement to get us out of here. We're running." My voice was terse and concise.

It nodded and dispelled. The reaction was immediate. I felt the tugging pull of a Replacement Jutsu even as orange faded to blue and green in front of me.

There was a Sasuke and Naruto in front of me. I assumed they were the real ones. "Quickly!" I hissed, darting forwards.

"What's going on?" Naruto hissed back. "Why are we running?"

"You don't know what you're up against," Sasuke shot back, fear making his voice hoarse. "If we stay here, we'll die…"

"There's no way that person is a Genin," I finished.

Almost immediately, as if to punctuate my words, a tornado _ripped_ through the air. This was ten times as violent as the first one he had thrown at us, shooting straight up into the air. The tree _creaked_ and groaned, wobbling violently as it was uprooted.

"Shit," Naruto hissed. "My clones are all dispelled."

Sasuke trembled. "We have to… we have to…"

"We'll fight, if we have to fight!" Naruto barked. "Stop cowering like a frightened rabbit! This isn't you, Sasuke!" He looked like he wanted to shake him.

"We could give her the scroll," Sasuke muttered, wildly.

"I don't think he wants the scrolls, Sasuke," I said, shakily.

"Very true," a smooth voice said. "A sensible offering though. Sometimes, the helpless prey, if they are to save their own skins, must distract the predator with something even more precious." He slid around the tree, already ahead of us. "But it doesn't matter. As far as the scroll goes, I could simply kill you and take it."

He sounded like he liked that idea best, biting his thumb and smearing blood over the strange tattoos wrapped around his wrist. "Summoning Jutsu."

A huge snake, as big as the one before, if not bigger, burst into existence.

"What a tasty little meal you'll make for him. Careful, he likes to play with his food." He chuckled again, as the snake lunged forward.

Again, we scattered, helplessly caught in his game. We had no choice but to play.

I twisted, bouncing horizontally off a tree trunk, back towards the snake. I slammed an explosive tag onto it's side, adhering it with chakra and rolled off the branch, letting gravity take me down out of the explosion zone.

That was my biggest, most dangerous, tag.

I felt the heat licking my back, heard the muffled 'whump' as it went up and rolled to my feet, to see the smoke clearing.

It wasn't damaged at all.

Sick fear pooled in my stomach.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto called out, leaping down onto the snake, a dozen of him, all at once.

Orochimaru lashed out, a single kick that took him skywards, slamming through several branches before stopping.

Naruto _growled_.

_Oh, god, not now,_ I pleaded, feeling the Kyuubi's chakra rising. Torn between two fears I was stretched and going to _break_…

It wasn't much, not even as much as he'd used on the bridge, and I could still taste it on the back of my tongue, acid burning and always _reminding me-_

_Not now. Notnownotnownot…_

_Small and _helpless_ and ohgodI'mgoingtodie…_

"I see." I heard, as though from a great distance. I blinked, muzzily, trying to bring the world back into focus. "When your anger is roused, some of the Nine Tailed Fox's chakra is released. What an interesting childhood you must have had."

His fingertips lit up with burning purple chakra and he slammed it into Naruto's stomach. Right overtop of the seal. Not good.

Naruto's chakra went haywire, the lingering taint of Kyuubi vanishing, and he collapsed. His body draped over the branch, limp and lifeless. Was he-?

Still alive, at least. He still had chakra. But for how long?

"Who are you?" I demanded shakily. I knew, oh I knew, but he had to say it. "What do you want?"

He half turned, as though I wasn't worthy of his full attention. "My name is Orochimaru. But as for what I want…" his lips curved into a cruel smirk and his attention refocused on Sasuke. "That is for later." He chuckled.

Sasuke was still staring at him in abject terror.

"Now then, lets see how well _you_ do, Sasuke."

Casually, like it took no effort at all, he blew across his fingers. Fire gusted out, racing towards Sasuke. It was four, five, maybe ten times as big as any Sasuke had ever created.

_Shit. Fire Jutsu. No seals._

And Sasuke wasn't moving.

I took a page out of Naruto's book and used the Replacement Jutsu on Sasuke. It took a huge chunk of chakra, more than I expected, and I stumbled on landing, barely having time to leap high into the air. I could feel the heat of the fireball beneath me, as I twisted to throw kunai at it's creator.

"Lightning Release: Striking Bolt!" The Jutsu tore from me, lighting up the air between us. It was the strongest attack Jutsu I had ever created.

And he deflected it aside with his naked hand.

"You… are beginning to become annoying," he spoke, for once looking at me and not Sasuke. "You're coming at me with the intent to kill. I can feel it in your chakra, little girl. That focus… is surprising. But you have a long way to go before you can land a hit on me."

And then, between one blink and the next he was gone.

Something slammed into the back of my neck, sending me toppling forward. I had enough time to come to the panicked, horrified realisation, _Shit, the ground is too far awa-_


	23. Chapter 22

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: General consensus is that last chapters cliffhanger makes me an evil, evil person. XD So I thought I'd better get this out quick so you don't all lynch me. :P

Everyone seems to be looking forward to the rest of the fight… maybe I should do a side story of it from Sasuke's point of view?

Anyway, thanks for all the reviews, and sorry for not replying to them this time. I usually try to because if you guys take the time to review I should at least say thanks. XD

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Chapter 22

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_The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll _

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I woke in pain. Throbbing, aching, blinding pain. I was still lying where I'd fallen, facedown spread eagled on the dirt.

_Naruto! Sasuke! _

Their chakra was high above me, fluctuating in the treetops but alone. They were alive, then, but in what state?

I staggered to my feet, the entire forest blurring before my eyes. My face was on fire, my breath coming in painful whistles. Tenderly, I touched my nose, sending waves of pain radiating out. Broken, badly.

I needed to fix it. I needed to be able to breathe. Anything that impeded that…

I aligned my chakra grimly, used my good hand to grasp it and snapped it back into place.

And nearly ended up back in the dirt.

"… fuck," I hissed, as I worked on it with my chakra. I couldn't heal the cartilage, but I could fix the torn tissue that held it in place. "Fuckity fuck."

I took stock of my injuries. My thought process was broken, trailing off oddly and leaving me feeling like I was grasping at straws. Concussion, then. Not the best state of mind to be making decisions in. My left forearm ached, and I knew that one of my bones was fractured or broken. The pain of a broken bone was unmistakable to anyone who had felt it before, deep and throbbing. My hand was still usable though, as long as I didn't put weight on it, or twist too harshly. My ribs twinged; sprained, strained, fractured or broken, I didn't know. There was what felt like a gravel rash up the entire right side of my face, caked with a thick mix of dried mud and blood. Either I'd scraped it against the trees falling, or done it on the landing.

But I was alive.

_Up, I need to go up_, I thought. Even tilting my head back to stare at the tree caused the world to swim, and I barely caught sight of a dark sky beyond the canopy. _Night-time?_

Of course it was. It had already been late when Orochimaru attacked us. I didn't know how long I'd been out. My internal body clock had given up the ghost, curled away under the concussion. There wasn't enough sky to see the patterns of the stars but it was fairly bright still, implying that the moon was out. I could only hope it hadn't been too long.

I wobbled towards the tree trunk, nausea rising with every step. Thankfully, thankfully, my chakra responded even though it was advised not to use it with a concussion. I didn't have many options here.

I crawled more than walked up to where the boys were, having to break to press myself flat against the trunk and pant through the nausea and pain more than once. It took too long to get up there, and I knew that I damn well couldn't climb it again.

_Right_, I thought, closing my eyes for a second. Just a second…

_No!_ My head jerked back up, eyes snapping open. _Focus. You can't sleep yet._

It took a while for my brain to compute what my eyes were telling it. The lingering chakra from battle was apparent to my senses, but muddled by the time it reached my brain.

I felt like a clockwork toy that needed rewinding, slowly fizzling out of energy before juddering to a halt.

_It looks like someone took a chainsaw and a flamethrower to the trees_…

Smeared scorch marks, broken branches, and something had punched a hole right through the middle of a trunk. There were kunai and shuriken littered everywhere. There were snapped strands of ninja wire dangling in the breeze… This was no small amount of destruction.

I shook off my musing and crawled forwards, carefully placing every hand and knee, distrusting my own innate sense of balance.

"Sasuke?" my voice wobbled as I shook his shoulder. He was remarkably uninjured, only minor scratches and bruises. But he was pale and sweating and _gasping_ for air like a dying man.

And his neck…

I closed my eyes in despair.

_The curse mark…_

This close, I could feel it. The dank, dark, vile chakra intruding on his system.

"Damn it. Goddamn it," I swore with feeling.

I wished there was something I could do. I wished I wasn't so small and helpless and _stupid_. If I was smarter we could have avoided this. If I was better, I could help him…

Tears pricked my eyes.

"Okay," I said shakily, talking out loud like they could hear me. "Okay. We can't stay up here. One of us is going to fall… I can't… I can't carry you down." I'd barely made it up. There was no way I'd make it down and then be able to repeat the trip with the other. "I … I have rope? Yes…"

I fumbled with my backpack, careful, careful not to drop it. If I lost it now, I'd never be able to get it back. Inside was my sealing scroll, and I unfurled it, looking for the mark I needed. In the dark it was hard, and the kanji all blurred in front of my concussed, watery eyes. Finally, I located the seal and with a press of chakra, had a long coil of rope at hand. I rolled the scroll and secured it back in my bag, swinging it back up on my back trying not to jar either my arm or ribs.

Tying a loop of rope around the tree branch was a slow, agonising process. I had to get the end of the rope around the tree branch larger than the reach of my arms. In the end, I tied it to the end of a kunai, and used the weight of it to swing around. I nearly sliced my hand off when I fumbled the catch.

Then, I didn't trust the kunai wedged into the wood to hold the weight of a person, so I had to untie the knot and go through the complicated process of retying it mostly one handed, with limited coordination, but securely enough that it wouldn't come undone.

"Right." I exhaled. "Now to tie the other end to Sasuke."

I grimaced and wiggled forwards, clumsily working the rope around him in a crude harness. I tied it off, and tested the knot, making as sure as I could that it wouldn't come undone.

"Okay. Here goes nothing," I said, looping the rope around a sideways branch and using my chakra help gain purchase on both the tree and rope. Slowly, ever so slowly, I began to lower him down to the ground. He flopped in the harness, hanging awkwardly limp in a way that made it clear he wasn't well.

Even through my gloves, I could feel the heat of friction as I let the rope out. My left arm throbbed and ached, even as I tried to take most of the weight with my other arm. Then suddenly, the tension of the rope relaxed. I peered over the side of the branch, sagging with relief to see Sasuke lying on the ground, not caught on something on the way. I wasn't sure how I'd fix something like that.

"Now to do it all over again," I said, sighing. Then I paused, and eyed Naruto in trepidation. He was limp, lying on a branch exactly where Orochimaru had left him, yes, but it was a branch on a whole 'nother tree entirely.

In normal conditions, the gap would have meant nothing to me. I could have covered it just as easily as crossing open ground.

Now, I looked at the distance and didn't know if I'd make it.

_Can't stay here_, I repeated, and jumped.

The wood smacked into my feet harshly, sooner than I expected. I stumbled, and would have gone straight on over without the judicious use of chakra to keep me steady.

I breathed out, shakily, feeling my ribs complain at the sudden landing.

Naruto, like Sasuke, didn't look all that injured on the outside. But his chakra was strangely disrupted, almost as if something had shut it down and rebooted it. I couldn't wake him, not verbally, not physically, not even with a chakra spike.

"Damn," I muttered, having half had the hope that Naruto would wake and help.

_I was on my own_. I felt the yawning chasm of fear and squashed it. I needed to get us away from here and somewhere safe. Everything else could wait.

I got out more rope, glad that my sealing scroll contained almost ridiculous amounts of everything. I was almost numb with cold and exhaustion and pain by the time Naruto hit the ground, his landing less than gentle. I grabbed the rope, and slid down it, barely able to control my own descent. My ribs screamed, by arm ached, my face throbbed.

I didn't bother to untie the rope, just slashed through it with my kunai, leaving the harness still tied to Naruto.

"Sorry, Naruto," I said, attaching my shadow to him, forcing him to mimic my movements like a sleepwalker. "There's no way I can carry Sasuke like this."

Walking was bad enough. Crouching so I could get Naruto to pick Sasuke up… no, I couldn't have carried him.

I wanted to get distance from the scene of the fight, but I knew we couldn't go far. I was running low on chakra and couldn't hold my Shadow Possession for long, even if Naruto wasn't fighting it.

I cast my mind back through the hazy, hastily catalogued glances at the forest that I'd taken before and during the fight.

_Back this way,_ I decided, remembering a glimpse out of the corner of my eye. A small clearing. A large tree whose roots poked out of the ground to reveal a small cavern beneath. At the time I'd noticed it more for the clearing - larger distance between safe footholds in the canopy - but for now it would have to do. It was too close for my liking, anyone attracted to the fight would find us, but it was out of the immediate area of destruction.

It would have to do.

I shoved the boys in the cavern and set to work guarding it. It was an adequate hiding place with only one side open which made it easier to set traps. I dropped a False Surroundings genjutsu over the camp. It wasn't a particularly high level genjutsu, nor difficult to break - in fact it was the same one they'd used at the First Exam on the second floor - but it was very adaptable. I used it to cover our presence, leaving only an empty clearing behind.

Then I set up a few basic tripwires, kunai launchers and explosive note traps. There had to be a balance between setting up traps and taking care of my team mates.

I shoved an antibiotic pill and a generalised antivenom into them both and took some for myself. With the generally unclean nature of the forest, and the giant snakes that had been flying around everywhere we probably needed them. Even if they didn't help they were designed to be used in situations where you could only guess at afflictions and wouldn't make things worse.

And if they helped Sasuke then that was only a bonus.

Then I set to tending to _myself_. There wasn't much I could do for my ribs, but I covered the ends of two senbon and wrapped them to my forearm as a basic split. I folded some bandages into a sling for when I wasn't using it. Then, gingerly, with much cringing and flinching, I got to work cleaning up my face. It took me two and a half flasks of water and several cloths to even remotely remove most of the dirt, and even then I was sure that it wasn't as clean as it could be. Given that my last life was pretty paranoid about infections and the hazards that came from dirty cuts I didn't feel right leaving it, even though it wasn't impeding my combat performance.

I smeared antiseptic cream liberally over my face and every scratch I could see on both myself and the boys. Sasuke was running a fever, and his breathing was harsh. His heartbeat was erratic, but this wasn't an injury I could heal. I dampened a cloth for him, to try and reduce the fever, but eventually left to return to fortifying our hideout.

I yawned, feeling achingly tired and half asleep already. Sleep was one of the easiest and most important ways to recoup chakra. So naturally, the opposite could also be true - chakra could be used to substitute for sleep. Not for long, and it wasn't healthy, but most ninja used it when on missions. Like now, when you were deep in enemy territory, sleep could equal death.

I coaxed my chakra intro running sluggishly through my system. There wasn't much of it left, not if I had to keep holding onto my genjutsu. But dropping it wasn't really an option. I ate, even though I felt nauseous, because I knew I'd need the energy especially if I wasn't going to be sleeping, and went back to rigging the clearing into a field of death.

If we were going to be attacked, then we needed a hell of a defence.

By the time I was done, it was maybe three, maybe four o'clock in the morning. I didn't have Naruto's instinctive flair for traps, but we'd learnt enough at the Academy, and anything that saved me from potential danger was something I had paid great attention to.

I sat back in the cavern, propping myself up against the side and settled into watch, slowly sipping water and nibbling on ration bars. I watched the clearing through half lidded eyes and focused desperately on not falling asleep.

It would be so easy, too, despite the aches and pains, the nausea, the way the world spun and swum if I moved my head too fast… it would just be so _easy_ to slip off to sleep…

The birdsong started long before I saw any change in the light levels, but it heralded dawn all the same.

The light was just beginning to bathe the clearing when I felt the three incoming chakra signals. I didn't move, breathing softly and quietly, hoping they'd be fooled by the genjutsu and keep going.

They didn't.

"Some lookout," a voice drawled. It was the Sound Team, as I'd half expected. "You're half asleep. At least you wont have to keep watch anymore. What's the point? We've already found you. Now, wake Sasuke up, we want to fight him." I didn't protest the accusation. If they thought I was half asleep, maybe they'd be less on guard.

"Sasuke?" I asked mildly, standing up. "I don't know who you're talking about."

The hunchbacked one snorted. Dosu? Was that his name. "Don't play us for fools, girl. We were told exactly who your team is."

"Told?" my heart started beating faster, even as I kept my voice level. "By who?… Orochimaru?"

"That doesn't matter to you," Zaku said, shaking his head and smirking. "What matters to you is that I'm going to kill you, then I'm going to kill Sasuke."

"So, you intend to kill us?" I asked, voice starting to tremble. This was real. This was real.

The Sound three grinned. "That's right."

I nodded. I had expected this. My memories were fuzzy, but Orochimaru had wanted Sasuke tested and he had sent these three to do it. I hoped that the fight wasn't integral to his survival, because I had no intention of letting him use the power of the cursed seal.

"I can't let you do that," I said. I hoped that the traps I had set were enough. Naruto and Sasuke were out of it. I was on my own.

And I was heavily injured.

"Get out of the way, girl," Kin said, pulling out her senbon with bells. "You're nothing to us."

I didn't wait for her to throw them, hands clumsily forming the Rat seal.

"Shadow Possession Jutsu!"

I whirled, forcing her to turn with me and threw half the senbon into Zaku. He was caught off guard, taking two in the shoulder. Senbon weren't good for causing a lot of damage, though, so I didn't expect them to slow him down much. The second handful, I reversed grip on, and punched towards my own temple.

Zaku and Dosu watched in surprise as Kin stabbed her own senbon through her brain.

I panted, the sudden expenditure of effort making me sway.

"You bitch!" Zaku yelled.

I was vaguely surprised that my Shadow Possession hadn't cut with her death. It was a question I had never asked - could it be used on inanimate or dead objects? I didn't have time to ponder. I drew a kunai from my pouch and Kin mirrored the movement. She was facing towards me, so every action I took had to be in reverse.

Additionally, I couldn't let myself be drawn too far from my position. Some of the traps had trip wires, but most of them had manual release with the handles close to where I was standing.

I slashed at them both. They chose to jump backwards out of range. I released the Shadow Possession on Kin, allowing her to slump to the ground. She wasn't any use to me anymore.

The kunai in my hand, I threw towards them. It missed, thunking harmlessly into a tree trunk.

Or not so harmlessly.

It had cut a trip wire that unleashed a barrage of kunai towards them. Then the exploding tags went off.

That wouldn't have been enough to do more than inconvenience them, if they had been paying attention to the ground they had been standing on. Or perhaps it just didn't strike them as odd that that one patch was so muddy. This was the Forest of Death, and it was fairly wet and damp. Only, that single patch of mud wasn't caused by water, but by kerosene. It went up with a 'whump'. The clearing was large enough that I felt reasonably safe setting a fire here. There wasn't that much fuel, and unless it got blown into a tree, it should gutter soon. Of course, one of my opponents had a technique that utilised pressurized air blasts, so perhaps it wasn't the smartest idea.

"Crazy bitch!" Dosu cursed. "Vibrating Sound Drill!" His Melody Arm wailed, and the world spun. The distance should have weakened the attack, but I was already concussed. It didn't take much to affect me.

I crashed to my knees, wretching, using one arm to hold my body up while the other groped about on the ground for my triggers. I didn't care which one I pulled, as long as it kept them occupied for a moment. It seemed to work, because I managed to stagger back to my feet alive.

I ran through several hand seals, finishing and holding the Rat seal. It wasn't part of the technique, but it was the one I used for Shadow Possession, so it was familiar to my enemies.

"Nara Art; The Shadow Devours!"

It was a genjutsu. It had no substance, no shadow. But my opponents had seen me use shadows, knew what I could do with them, so the towering mass of darkness emerging from the forest seeking to envelop them worried them. A lot.

They jumped back from it, dodged the second rain of kunai I released on them. Zaku sent a Decapitating Airwaves attack directly into the shadows. I made them swirl and then reform around the attack, hoping he wouldn't think to turn it onto the fire.

I kept up the projectile attacks, releasing wave after wave of kunai and shuriken forcing them to duck and dive out of the way. The only path left for them to take was a narrow gap between the forest and the fire. They leapt for it.

Only to crash straight into the ninja wire that I had strung up at neck height. In the early morning light, with the fire, with the genjutsu, they couldn't have seen it.

There was a series of muffled thumps, two heavy, two light as their bodies and heads fell separately to the ground.

I let the genjutsu fade and collapsed to my knees.

It seemed… almost too easy.

Nothing like the heart stopping fear of the fight with Orochimaru. Not even the desperation of facing off against Zabuza. Or the quiet terror that Haku had managed to instil.

I laughed breathlessly and bitterly. The difference a day makes. A day ago, we were worried about leaving Rain Genin tied up and helpless because they'd be easy prey in this place. Today, I killed three _teenagers_ because it was the easiest option.

It's easy to be merciful when you're winning.

I had just _killed_ three teenagers, because it was the _easiest option_.

Not because I had to. Not because I had no other choice.

But because it was easiest.

There were other options I could have taken. I still had plenty of knockout tags. But incapacitating them without killing them was harder, would have taken longer and left a much greater chance for them to hurt my team mates.

I've never felt so old before.

I didn't stay that way long, even though I wanted to… wanted to just curl up and wait for this to be over.

I couldn't, because there was someone in the trees.

"I know you're there," I said. "Come down." I trembled, hoping like hell it wasn't some one else to fight. Most of my traps were used up. My chakra was heavily depleted.

_Please not Kabuto…_

Green blurred. Lee landed in front of me, face solemn.

_Shit._

I wasn't Sakura. There was no reason for Lee to be anything other than my enemy here and now.

He was half a clearing away, in one of the few spots clear of traps. I re-evaluated his threat level upwards. He'd avoid the traps. It might have been luck but I couldn't count on it. He was too fast for them, anyway, too fast for Taijutsu and too fast for my shadow. Genjutsu then. It would be my only option. I put my kunai away.

"Are you here for the scroll?" I asked. At this point… I would trade all our scrolls for safety. Lee I might be able to take if I was at full strength. Might. But Neji and Tenten couldn't be far away and I was far from being at full strength.

"I…" He swallowed, then nodded, looking as though he regretted it. I understood, I truly did. It was underhanded but he couldn't pass it up.

I jerked my head towards the bodies, not breaking eye contact. "Then take it and go," I rasped.

For a second… he looked awkward, like a thirteen year old confronted with three dead bodies, then with a twitch, a shiver, it was gone leaving behind a primed killing machine, who frisked the bodies expertly.

"Heaven," he said, pulling it from the second body. "We already have this one." I watched him passively as he held it loosely. He considered it with a furrowed brown then tossed it so it landed halfway between us, and turned to go. He paused and opened his mouth but said nothing.

I was too tired to think about what he might have said.

He leapt into the trees, vanishing from my sight. There were two other chakra signals in that direction, probably Neji and Tenten.

There were three more incoming at speed from my right, but these three were as familiar to me as my own.

Team 10 burst into the clearing, then stopped in shock.

"Holy hell!" Ino exclaimed. "What happened to your face?"

I grimaced and touched the heavy white paste I'd smeared over the gravel rash. "We got our asses kicked."

Shikamaru was looking around the clearing with an odd expression. "We saw you fighting these guys. Thought you might need a hand. Guess I was wrong."

I closed my eyes. I didn't want to see their disapproval. "I would have… if I hadn't aimed to kill."

"Where…" Ino's voice faltered. "Where's your team? Sasuke?"

"They're… in there," I motioned at the cavern. "They're in bad shape."

My shoulders slumped.

"Ino… take 'Kako in there. See what you can do for Sasuke and Naruto," Shikamaru ordered. My brother, giving orders?

I blinked.

"We'll take care of this," he finished, turning away.

I looked wearily at the bodies, suspecting I knew what he meant. "No, no. I've got to show you where the traps are," I protested weakly, staggering to my feet with a wince. My eyes fell on the scroll lying innocently in the middle of the clearing. "What scroll do you guys need?"

"We aren't taking your scroll!" Ino said, sounding horrified. "Don't even think that! Just because we're in this stupid Exam-"

I shook my head and then swayed. Right. Don't do that. "No. See. The thing is… the thing is, we have an extra Heaven Scroll." I patted my jacket, checking that I actually still had my one before giving the other one away. "You can have it, if you help us."

"So you need an Earth Scroll? Man that sucks," Chouji said. He wasn't eating, which was strange.

"Noooo. We got one of them too," I mumbled. Hopefully Naruto hadn't lost it.

I could feel them exchanging meaningful glances.

"Okay," Shika said. "Here's what we're going to do. You're going to show me where the traps are, then you're going to get some rest. We'll take it from here."

Shikamaru didn't argue, he just worked around your objections to get to his desired outcome.

I nodded, head bobbling back and forwards on a neck that didn't want to support it. The sheer relief at having them here… it made me want to cry.

_Things will be okay, now._

Of course, it couldn't be that easy.

I was pointing out the traps to Shika and Chouji, my thoughts slip-sliding out of my grasp. I was missing things, I knew it, but Shikamaru was smart enough to spot the ones I was missing. He was mostly just humouring me, anyway.

Then the black chakra surged inside the cavern.

My head snapped around.

"Sasuke!" Even to myself, I sounded frightened.

I headed back towards the tree hollow, stumbling slightly as the ground seemed to tilt. Concussion, exhaustion and inner ear disruption combining to make me incredibly unstable.

I paused at the tree roots, eyes adjusting to the darker interior of the cavern.

Sasuke was giving off waves of corrupted chakra. His body was wreathed in black, the marking burning a livid red, like molten lava. That rancid chakra was spinning about his body, orbiting it like a double helix. It made me nauseous and terrified at the same time.

Ino was looking at him in worry, not quite able to understand what was going on. "Sasuke, you're awake! Are you hurt? Do you need-"

"Get out of my way," Sasuke growled at her. His voice was distorted but his face was _blank_. The markings were creeping their way across his skin.

"Maybe you should sit down; you were hurt, weren't you?" Ino chattered, ignoring his gruff demand. There was some unease in her expression, though, because she knew this wasn't right.

His face contorted into anger and his hand raised, curled into a fist, more to shove her out of the way than hit, I think.

"Ne, Sasuke, are you okay?" Ino asked, leaning forward.

I saw him twitch.

I _moved_.

My ribs audibly cracked under his fist. I couldn't stop the surprised wail of pain that escaped my mouth, or the little gasping sobs that followed it.

Sasuke stiffened, the anger on his face fading into a non comprehending puzzlement.

"Shikako? Who hurt… I hit you?" He stared at his hand, flexing it as though he couldn't believe it had done such a thing.

I sank to my knees, choking and gasping.

_Gods, that hurt…_

"Sasuke," I choked out. "You… your chakra was poisoned… you need to stop using chakra…"

Ino fluttered to my side, her eyes impossibly wide. I ignored her, focusing on Sasuke. I didn't know what would happen if he kept using that. I had to convince him to stop…

"I feel… I've never felt better…" Sasuke muttered, clenching and unclenching his fist. "I feel so powerful…"

"It's poison," I wheezed again. "…in your chakra… please stop…"

His face was conflicted but the marks started to fade away.


	24. Chapter 23

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Nemesis Jedi - now those are some interesting ideas. XD Unfortunately I'm pretty sure Orochimaru (or Oreo, as you call him XD) has countless expendable mooks to use if he really wants.

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Chapter 23

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_When autumn winds blow _

_not one leaf remains _

_the way it was. _

_~Togyu_

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After the curse mark induced anger faded Sasuke looked the most disturbed of all of us at his actions. I had no idea what had happened in the fight after I'd been knocked out, but knowing Orochimaru… it couldn't have been kind.

He'd wandered away from the group, sitting at the edges of the clearing, alone.

"What kind of monster am I?" Sasuke muttered, staring at his hand. He looked so _lost_. Young and old and tired at the same time.

I was tired too. I didn't want to have to play therapist right now. I just wanted to sleep. But it looked like I'd have to.

"You're not a monster, Sasuke," I said, sitting down next to him. I covered his hand with my own. "Orochimaru poisoned you. Some kind of snake venom, I guess… I'm not an expert on poisons, but they can have all kinds of effects. Hallucinations, emotional imbalance, paranoia, panic, fear, anger…"

It was a lie, but a reasonable one. I could recognise the curse mark as a seal, but no one would expect me to know more than that.

I pulled the small pill bottle out of my med kit and handed it to him. "Antivenom," I explained. "I gave one to you before… but until we see a medic I think you should take one each day."

They might not affect the curse mark, but they would remind him that he was _sick. _That Orochimaru had done something to him. There might be a placebo effect, as well, and those couldn't be discounted.

He took the bottle numbly. "I didn't feel weak. I felt strong. So powerful… He said it was a gift. I thought… That I'm an Avenger. To follow my path, I must have power, at any price even if it means being consumed by evil…" he glanced up at me through the veil of his hair. "If I was stronger… If I was more powerful… this wouldn't have happened."

_Shit. This needs to be nipped in the bud. Now._

"It isn't power that's your problem, Sasuke. Power comes easy… it's knowing _when_ and _how_ to use it. You've already seen that, haven't you?" I squeezed his hand reassuringly. "If you don't use it, it's useless. But if _it_ uses you… that's even worse."

I hoped I got through to him. I wasn't at my best. I couldn't dream up compelling arguments. I wished Naruto was awake…

"I'm sorry," he blurted out.

"It's okay."

"No, its not. It's really not. I hurt you. I would have hurt Ino. And… and… before… You fought and I did nothing…" His hands clenched in shame. "I was weak. I was _scared. _I… All I could think about was _that man_ and how, if I died there I'd never get to fight him…"

"I was scared too," I admitted, my voice sounding distant even to me. "I knew we didn't stand a chance, right from the moment he attacked us… from the moment I felt his chakra…"

"Then how could you do it?" Sasuke asked, voice sounding anguished. "How could you just _attack_?"

"I couldn't, at first. I was scared stiff. Then … he was going to kill us. If it had just been me, by myself…" Well. He probably wouldn't have attacked me. But that wasn't what Sasuke needed to hear. "I probably couldn't have done it. But he was going to hurt you, and then Naruto… and there wasn't even a _choice_ anymore." I smirked, half heartedly. "It's like Haku said, 'when you're protecting something precious-'"

"That's when you become truly strong," Sasuke finished. "There wasn't even a choice," he repeated. "Like… your body just moves on its own."

That was how he had explained saving Naruto, way back there on the bridge. _My body just moved on it's own._

"We're a team," I said. "That's what it means. You fight when I can't and I fight when you can't. And when we can… when all three of us can fight together… no one will stand a chance."

He smirked half heartedly back at me, recognising my attempt to … lighten the mood? cheer him up? motivate him? …Whatever I was trying to do.

I sighed, leaning into him. "If the poison is in your chakra system, you should probably avoid using chakra," I mumbled, eyelids sliding shut against my will. They were just so _heavy_…"Stop it spreading…"

There was more I wanted to say…

"Is she asleep?" I heard Shika ask distantly. I tried to fight my eyelids, to see what he wanted, but they were too heavy, and the sunlight was so warm… he could wait, couldn't he?

"Yeah, I think so," Sasuke replied, sounding just as far away. I struggled to come back to awareness.

"Good, because I have some things to say to you." Shikamaru's voice sounded funny, more like Dad when he was truly serious. Flat and a little grim… It was a tone of voice that always made me remember that he was a shinobi, a good one, and not just my lazy, slightly goofy father.

For a second, just a second, I had a flash of an older Shikamaru, cigarette dangling from his fingers and world weary eyes.

I gave up the fight and drifted off to sleep.

When I blinked awake, I felt even worse than before. I felt stiff and gummy to add to all my other aches and pains. My mouth was dry and tasted of ash and my eyes ached at the brightness of the light.

It was about noon, so I hadn't been sleeping long, but it looked like Team 10 had been busy. The giant bonfire had been put out and my field of death had been mostly dismantled. The bodies were stacked off to the side, and probably stripped of all useful equipment.

Looking at them made me feel strange, weirdly empty, like I should be feeling guilty but wasn't, so I glanced away.

"'Bout time you woke up," Ino said playfully, hands on hips. "Leaving us to do all the hard work. Hmph!" Her cheerfulness sounded a little forced, and she was so pointedly ignoring the bodies that it was obvious.

I cracked a smile, then winced as it pulled at my raw cheek. "Well, I figured you guys didn't have anything else to do…"

She examined me critically. "You are such a mess right now. I don't even know where to start."

"Help me bind my ribs?" I asked. Every time I bent or twisted, they complained, so if we were going to be moving they needed to be dealt with.

Ino's eyes flickered over my shoulder, just briefly. "Sure! You've got bandages?"

I nodded. "In my backpack."

"I'll grab it," she said decisively. "You just stay here."

I watched her go, then turned slightly to see what she had looked at. Shikamaru and Sasuke were in the process of dismantling another trap, winding ninja wire and sorting through a ridiculously large pile of kunai. Hmm, I might have overdone it a bit, there.

Shika must have sensed I was looking, because he looked up and casually waved his hand in a lazy greeting. Sasuke peered around, caught my eye and then… flinched?

_Interesting._

There was relief in his body language, but the set of his shoulders spoke of wariness. Not quite fear but certainly apprehension. And he didn't turn away from Shikamaru.

_What, exactly, did you say to him, brother dear?_ I wondered. I was sure I remembered the beginning of a conversation, though it was blurred enough that it could have been a dream. It took a lot to get Shikamaru to _initiate_ a conversation.

"I've got your stuff," Ino announced brightly, flouncing back across the clearing, backpack in hand. "Come on!"

She dragged me off into the trees, far enough away that we had some privacy, but still within shouting distance. With her help, I managed to get bandages wrapped tightly around my torso, the pressure counteracting the weird shifting, unstable feeling. I had delightful purple bruises practically _everywhere_ it seemed.

"I feel like a grape," I muttered in disgust.

Ino snorted. "Well, you look more like a panda," she joked. "You've got such a lovely pair of black eyes."

"Broke my nose," I explained. Which had probably burst the blood vessels around the bridge of my nose, explaining the bruising.

"Seriously, what the hell _happened_ to you guys? You're a mess and Sasuke and Naruto were both out of it…" She trailed off at the mention of just how 'out of it' Sasuke had been.

"I'll explain later," I brushed her off. "I don't want to have to go over it more than once…"

"You better," she said meanly, dabbing a wet cloth at my face. I hissed as it stung. "We haven't been able to wake Naruto up at all and Sasuke hasn't said two words since you fell asleep on him. Lucky girl," she added enviously. That was forced, too. Ino, I realised, was really scared.

_That makes two of us._

"You won't believe it," I muttered, then forced my mind away from the issue. "So you never said what scroll you guys started with."

Ino hesitated for a second. "Earth. We haven't had any luck finding a second scroll, but it's only the second day!"

I blinked. "I'm pretty sure that Sound team had a Heaven Scroll. And we've already got our two."

"You said that before." Ino shrugged. "We just weren't sure if you were, y'know, with it. You seemed pretty dazed."

I couldn't help but smirk. "I probably wasn't," I acknowledged. "But our chances of getting to the tower like this …"

"I for one, totally can't wait to get out of this forest," Ino agreed. "But you best make a team decision on that one, yeah?"

I shrugged. I couldn't really foresee any arguing on this one.

"Okay, that's as best as I can clean you up." She winced in sympathy. "That's probably going to scar really badly."

Without a mirror, I couldn't tell how bad it was but it _was_ pretty painful. My fingers flowed through the hand seals.

"Mystical Palm Jutsu." Green light gathered in my hands and I held it to my face, coaxing the tissue to heal. I didn't manage to completely heal it before the jutsu started fading and I pulled it away to quickly flush the worst of my other injuries. Okay, so focusing on my face first was kinda vain.

Ino nodded approvingly. "You look less like an extra from a horror movie now," she commented.

I snorted. "Come on. Let's get back to the boys before they burn the forest down, or something."

"Who was the one that started the bonfire?" Ino shot back at me, helping pack up the stuff we'd used.

"Pshaw. I had that perfectly under control."

"Uhuh. Right. I believe you." The tone of her voice said she clearly didn't.

I couldn't help but smile at the easy banter. Ino was Ino, scared, horrified or whatever. I was really, truly grateful.

"So what's the plan?" I asked, coming back into the clearing.

"That depends," Shikamaru drawled. His eyes were assessing, nothing like his normal blank, indifferent gaze. "On whether you're capable of moving."

"Not fast," I admitted. "And if Naruto doesn't wake…"

"Yeah." Shika sighed, hands clasping together. "This is such a drag."

"I think we should call a truce and stick together," I volunteered. "If we move soon, we should be able to get to the tower before nightfall. Then we'd be safe to recover instead of wasting time here."

Sasuke frowned, but didn't object. I was injured, he was potentially chakra deprived and Naruto was unconscious still.

"Sasuke! Shikako!" A voice yelped, and Naruto came tumbling out of the cavern, then stood blinking stupidly in the sunlight. "Ehehehe, whoops?"

Or maybe not so unconscious. I grinned.

"Oh, man! What happened here? Did that crazy snake lady do this?" Naruto blinked at the clearing.

_Something like that_, I bit back my automatic response. In the spirit of team trust and unity, I'd probably have to tell them. I just wasn't looking forward to it.

"Eh, these guys attacked us while you and Sasuke were having your beauty sleep," I teased.

"It's lucky your brother's team was here then," Sasuke observed quietly. "Otherwise we could have been in trouble."

I blinked. Oh. Team Ten had been here when he had woken up, hadn't they? So, Sasuke thought…

"They didn't get here till after," I said casually, glancing away from him.

Sasuke's eyes widened. That was the only hint of shock that he allowed to show on his face.

"Huh? Then what happened here?" Naruto asked cluelessly. "If we were out of it and they weren't here…" he trailed off.

I nodded. "I killed them," I admitted. We'd fought on the bridge, even possibly killed people, but it had been too rushed to know which hits were fatal and which weren't. I suspected Sensei and Zabuza had done most of the actual killing then. That meant that this was the first time we had been faced with bodies we _knew_ one of us had killed.

"They said they were sent by Orochimaru," I continued as the silence stretched out. I didn't look at either of them. I didn't want to see their expressions. It was hard enough to know that they _knew._ "To kill Sasuke."

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"Whoa, wait. Hold up," Ino cut in, waving her arms. "Orochimaru? Where does he come in?"

It was clear that she recognised the name. That was to be expected. Ino _was_ the daughter of the previous head of the Intelligence Division.

"That was the name of the guy who attacked us," Sasuke said. I wasn't sure whether _he _recognised the name or not.

Shikamaru was staring at us in horror. "Was it? Really?"

I nodded. "Yeah. He was throwing A-rank jutsu around like candy. _Without_ seals." I couldn't even do the Replacement Technique without seals.

"Why would he be here in the Chunin Exams?" Ino demanded. "This isn't… he…"

"I don't get it," Naruto complained. "Who's Orochimaru?"

"An S-ranked missing nin from Konoha," Shika replied quietly. "A really dangerous enemy of the village. You three…are lucky to be alive."

"I think he was after Sasuke. The fact that we _survived_ seems to say that he has some kind of plan," I said. "Sasuke? Did he say anything to you?"

"Just… about my Sharingan," Sasuke said slowly. "I wasn't… I wasn't really _listening_ to him."

Apparently Sasuke's will to fight had come back with a vengeance after the two of us had been knocked out. I'd sort of seen the results of that, when I'd been trying to get the two of them to safety but I'd had more pressing things to worry about at the time.

Team Ten listened to the story in a kind of disbelieving horror, as the three of us filled in our own parts of the story. Apparently Naruto really _had_ been eaten by a giant snake. Go figure.

"Oh, man," Shika groaned. "And I thought the hardest part of this Exam was supposed to be the other _Genin_."

Chouji was frozen, a handful of chips halfway to his mouth. "He's gone, though, right? He's not coming back or anything?"

I felt a flash of sheer terror at the idea, and I'm sure that Sasuke wasn't any better off.

I swallowed. "Probably?" I offered weakly. We had no proof either way, and no reason to believe we were safe.

"Lets get to the tower," Naruto said, looking nervous. He hadn't been around for much of the fight, but enough to know we didn't want to go through that again.

Ino smiled weakly. "I never thought I'd agree with Naruto but… that sounds like a plan to me."

"Okay." Sasuke nodded. "Let's pack up and move out."

We burst into a flurry of activity, gathering scattered items and shoving them hastily in our bags. We all double checked that we had our scrolls and exchanged nervous glances. All of a sudden it felt like we had a much greater reason to get to the tower as fast as possible.

"Here, I'll help you," Sasuke said quietly, sliding up beside me. His eyes were dark and shadowed.

It probably wouldn't make us move any faster, and my ribs twinged at the movement but I slung an arm over his shoulder. It wasn't about that.

"We'll help each other hobble there," I said.

_I'm sorry._

_I forgive you._

The path to the tower was pretty long. We had to stick to the ground; tree jumping was out of the question for Sasuke and I. Ino and I were on sensory duty, keeping lookout for traps and ambushes. Chakra sensing was one of the skills of the Yamanaka clan, though I'd never tested myself against Ino to see how we compared. Added to that, she was naturally sharp and good at picking out details that didn't belong.

We had to detour several times to avoid running into other teams, but the increased travel time was regarded as being worth not fighting. Granted, there were twice as many of us as them, but two of us wouldn't be much help and Team Ten wasn't exactly the strongest team combat wise.

At one point, we came across the body of a girl, laid out in a small clearing, that looked like she had been mauled by a wild animal.

"Trap?" Sasuke suggested quietly.

I shook my head. "I can't sense any chakra. If it's a trap, it's a good one."

"Stay alert," Shikamaru said.

We crept forward, an ungainly procession.

She didn't look any older than us, with red hair and dirt encrusted clothing. "Grass," I said, spotting her headband. After Orochimaru that symbol left a foul taste in my mouth. Were they working with him, or merely more victims?

Chouji sighed. "This Exam is really…"

"Yeah," Ino said sombrely.

"Nothing we can do," Shikamaru said, running a hand over his hair. "Let's keep going."

There were other bodies too. A team of Konoha Genin peppered with kunai near some abandoned - but still loaded - spring launcher traps. The remains of an arm that looked like it had been _torn_ off its body. A team floating face down in the river.

"Glad we didn't drink from that," I muttered. Sure, it was a bit of a tasteless comment, but the grim atmosphere was grating on my nerves.

"Blech," Naruto replied, screwing his face up. "That's so gross."

"Ugk, you're right," Ino said. "Please tell me we don't have to swim through that." She glanced at Shikamaru like she was _daring_ him to say otherwise.

He shrugged. "There isn't really much of an option. We've been circling around to find a spot we can pass through for the last kilometre. I had hoped we could go straight up the river but it looks like someone has already thought of that. Still… the other side of the river might not be any better."

I considered too. "Hey Naruto. Do you think you have enough chakra for a Hidden in the Mist Jutsu? A really big one?"

"Sure! No problem. How big do you want it?" He asked eagerly.

"Do you remember where those two trees that formed that kind of archway were? Think you can make it all the way to there?" If we could block sight for that distance, then sneaking through the gaps between two of the ambushes would be much easier.

"Yeah, I think so. But … I never managed to get that sensing thing done…" He shuffled.

"That's okay. If we all stick close together, I can guide us through," I reassured him.

"Hidden in the Mist Jutsu?" Shikamaru asked, shoving his hands in his pockets and slouching.

"Just watch," I said.

Naruto's chakra spiked and grew. And grew and grew. The water started rising off the river, almost like it was steaming. It condensed and then started spreading out, engulfing us, then the trees and then further and further. I could feel the wave of his chakra carrying the mist away.

He stopped, panting and opened his eyes. "Oh," he said, disappointed. "I was trying to make it thicker than that." He flexed his fingers, uncertainly. "My chakra is all weird."

I cursed myself for an idiot and exchanged alarmed glances with Sasuke. "Damn. Orochimaru did something to your chakra system. That's what knocked you out. It must have done other things, too…"

_How could I have overlooked that?_

Naruto smiled widely, but it looked a bit forced. "Hey, don't worry! I'm an awesome ninja, I can handle it!"

"We'll get someone to look at you when we get to the tower, too," I promised.

"We better move quickly," Sasuke said. "Before the mist fades."

"Right," I said, nodding. "Everyone, stick close."

I moved forwards, trusting my memory and sensory abilities to help navigate a safe path. If we'd been moving faster, it would have been more difficult, but circumstances were forcing us to move slowly, anyway.

I gave one spot a particularly wide berth, because I felt the sharp metallic tang of chakra - like the glint of a knife, like the iron in blood - that I was positive was Kabuto. No need for more trouble.

The mist was plenty thick, even this far out from the river, that we had no trouble. Given the nature of the Forest of Death, no one could be quite sure it _wasn't_ natural, but everyone was primed for an attack as it covered them, letting us slip past uncontested.

There were a few close calls, and Naruto once sent a pair of Shadow Clones off to create a diversion, but we got through.

"Almost exactly twenty four hours," Shikamaru said, cracking his neck. "Not bad."

"Hardly breaking any records," I replied. "But considering the circumstances…"

Hesitantly, Naruto and Chouji taking point, we entered one of the rooms. They were huge… and empty.

"Alright, now what?" Naruto asked expectantly.

The only thing that really stood out in the room was the huge scroll on the back wall.

"If qualities of Heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind higher," I read out. "If qualities of Earth are what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack. When Heaven and Earth are open together, the peerless path will be righteous forever. This…. Is the secret way that guides us from this place today."

"What on earth does that even _mean?_" Naruto asked, flailing his arms around.

"The scrolls," Shika answered with a yawn. "Heaven and Earth representing mental and physical energy. Together they make chakra, so, if we put the scrolls together, we get something."

"Didn't they tell us not to open them?" Ino asked hesitantly.

I closed my eyes and recited from memory. "But most importantly, none of you, absolutely none of you, may look at the contents of the scroll until you reach the tower."

"Which implies that once we're _at_ the tower, they're fair game," Shikamaru finished.

"If Shikamaru says so," Chouji said, shrugging and opening a new bag of potato chips. Chouji's faith was simple and absolute. If Shikamaru said it was true, it must be true.

Ino sighed. "Alright, alright. You better not be getting us disqualified," she threatened.

I squirmed an arm around to retrieve the scroll from my inner jacket pocket. "Open them at the same time?" I suggested.

Sasuke took it from me, since I didn't have two hands to open it with, but without actually letting me go. I wondered if he realised that it wasn't my _legs_ that were injured. I could stand perfectly fine on my own.

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked, grasping the edges of the scroll.

Naruto nodded firmly. "Ready!"

They pulled them open. The contents were simple. The Kanji for person - 'hito' - was scrawled in the middle of a sealing circle.

_Interesting._

"This is a summoning jutsu," Sasuke shouted. "Quick, get rid of the scrolls!" Unerringly, he threw the scroll away, Naruto's following in it's path a second later. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Chouji and Ino doing the same.

Summoning people wasn't done very often. The person being summoned would need to have a complimentary seal that would activate and drag them to the scrolls. Added to that, they were complicated, took a fair amount of chakra and didn't have that much of a range. It was flashy, but not very practical.

Chakra smoke exploded from the two sets of scrolls, nearly simultaneously. I felt the surge in chakra as two new signals appeared in the room.

"Hey. Long time, no see," Iruka-sensei said.

"Two at once, huh?" The other Chunin said. Kotetsu, I think his name was. "Well, it's not against the rules, but you aren't making things easy for yourselves, you know."

Iruka-sensei's gaze drifted over all of us, lingering the longest on me. I guess that was fair, since I was the most beat up looking. "Looks like you've gone through a lot in this test," he said.

"Hey, wait!" Naruto exclaimed. "What's the deal with the surprise entrance? Why did you appear with the summoning?"

"Well, at the end of the second test, we Chunin are given the important task of welcoming the test takers back. My being here? That's just luck."

"Luck," the other Chunin coughed. "Not like you've been greeting _every_ incoming team on the off chance…"

Iruka-sensei glared at him, rubbing the scar across his nose. "You didn't _have_ to say that, you know," he complained.

"Every team?" Shikamaru drawled. "So others have completed the test already."

"That's right," Kotetsu confirmed. "There are two teams already here." He flicked a glance at Iruka. "Do you wanna give the speech to both of them? There's not really any point in me repeating it all."

"Sure," Iruka-sensei agreed. "You can go back to slacking off and doing nothing." There was a twist of annoyance to his words.

Kotetsu vanished with a jaunty wave and a burst of Body Flicker speed.

"That's my kinda job," I heard Shika mumble under his breath.

"Congratulations," Iruka-sensei said, smiling at us all. "You've passed the Second Exam."

"We passed?" Naruto asked, disbelief colouring his voice. "We passed! That's so cool!" He leapt forward, glomping onto Iruka-sensei.

"Hey, wait! I'm not done!" Iruka-sensei protested, trying to get him off.

I snickered. Sasuke smirked.

"Idiot!" Ino scolded. "Get off him! What if there's something important we need to hear?"

Naruto dropped back to the ground, and rubbed the back of his head. "Hehe, sorry Ino. I'm just so excited, you know?"

Iruka-sensei smiled. "Well, I can see you're just as hyperactive as ever, Naruto."

"Hmph! No weird test or crazy snake guys are going to keep me down!" Naruto said, thumb pointing to himself.

"Ahem. Right, where was I?" Iruka-sensei said. "Just like the First Exam, the second stage of the Chunin Exams was supposed to test many different factors - your survival skills, your combat skills, your ability to find and retrieve specific items, but also to see if you could stick it out to complete a difficult mission. That's where the scrolls come in. Simply put, you knew that opening the scrolls was against the rules, and if you'd tried to open one… if a scroll was opened, we were ordered to knock out whoever opened it. Some ninja found that out the hard way." There was a flash of grim amusement in his tone.

Actually, I'd been much happier believing there was a paralysing seal written on the scrolls, considering who some of the _Genin_ in this test were. Then again, those capable of defeating an unexpected attack from a Chunin probably wouldn't have opened the scrolls in the first place.

"So if we'd opened the scroll in the forest, you would have knocked us out?" Naruto clarified.

"You'd have had to be pretty stupid to try that," Ino said with a huff. "After all the fuss Anko made about it." She paused. "You didn't try, did you?"

"What?" Naruto yelped. "No way! That was the safest scroll in the whole forest, even from people peeking at it! Believe it!"

"We believe you," I assured him. With Naruto, a little trust went a long way.

Iruka-sensei was really smiling now. "So did you six read the scroll on the wall there? These are instructions that the First Hokage recorded as principles that Chunin should follow."

"Yeah, but did he have to do it in rhyme?" Shika complained. "That just makes it even more troublesome."

"Heaven and Earth representing mental and physical energy, like in chakra," Naruto paraphrased, nodding his head sagely.

Iruka-sensei blinked in surprise. "That's… exactly right, Naruto. I'm surprised. Heaven stands for your mind, and Earth for your body. I'll explain. If your weakness lies in your intellect, _Naruto_, you need to make doubly sure you work hard to remember all the important information and skills that you need to prepare for your missions."

"Ugh. Okay, I get your point." Naruto crossed his arms and pouted.

"So if your weakness lies in your physical strength_, Shikamaru_, then you have to make sure you work on your physical conditioning every single day so it improves all the time."

"You sound like my mother," Shika complained, tucking his hands behind his head and staring at the ceiling.

Iruka-sensei sighed theatrically. "Well, I tried. So if your mind and body are working together as one then even a very dangerous mission can become an easy one. The missing character is the one on the scrolls. It stands for person. It's meant to represent you Genin. This Exam was supposed to test your abilities as Chunin and to see if you'd be any good at it. And, I have to say, you guys really did magnificently. A Chunin is a leader, a guide. It's a Chunin's responsibility to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of those serving under them and to know what skills and training those ninja are going to need to succeed on a mission. You did an excellent job on your mission and I want you to remember these instructions on your next one. Well, that's it. That's everything I was supposed to say to you."

He paused, and looked at us all for a long moment, indecision crossing his face. "One more thing… for the third exam… don't push it too far. Especially you, Naruto. I worry-"

Naruto cut him off. "Iruka-sensei. When I got this headband, I stopped being a student. So you don't need to worry about me anymore. I mean, this headband is proof that I'm a full fledged ninja, right? You gave it to me. I may still be hyper, but I'm not a kid. Like you said, I got through the Second Exam and you just watch… I'm going to pass the Third one for sure! I'm a ninja too!"

It seemed like everyone was standing a little straight, looking a little more focused. Ino had an odd, indecipherable look on her face as she watched him. Even Shika seemed a little more awake.

"Naruto. You're right. I'm sorry about that. I'm sure you'll do brilliantly," Iruka-sensei said. "Now. The Exam doesn't officially end until the five days are up, so you'll be staying in the tower until then. Unfortunately…" his eyes flickered over me, and, interestingly, Sasuke. "Until the test is officially over, you can't be seen to by a medic. If you do chose to, it may affect your ability to participate in the Third Exam, depending on what happens between now and the end of the Exam."

So they did know about Sasuke's curse mark.

"Shikako?" Sasuke asked, hesitance in his voice.

I knew what he was asking. "My injuries are all superficial," I said. Well. To a certain extent. Maybe 'non-life threatening' would be a better way of putting it. "How are _you_ feeling?" Sasuke was the one 'poisoned' after all. That was more serious.

He blinked. "Fine for now. Naruto?"

"Don't worry about me!" Naruto exclaimed. "I didn't even notice until I tried to use that jutsu." He grinned foxily.

"Alright. I'll show you the way to where the rest of the Genin are staying," Iruka-sensei said. "Follow me."


	25. Chapter 24

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Everyone sounds like they _really_ want to know what Shikamaru said to Sasuke. XD I actually deliberately left it out; it's much more behind-the-scenes scary that way. Which, frankly, I think suits Shikamaru more. You know he said something, but the details are fuzzy. Sasuke knows, and it freaks him out. What does it take to freak out Sasuke, huh?

Also, 200 reviews! W00t!

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Chapter 24

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_Letting go doesn't mean giving up, but rather accepting that there are things that cannot be. - Anon_

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><p>"Well, well, well, look who's here," Kiba greeted as Iruka-sensei let us loose in the tower with the admonishment that the top three levels were out of bounds. "All nine rookies made it through. That has to be a record. Man, you guys look beat." His gaze lingered over me.<p>

"We ran into some trouble," I said lightly.

"So Team 8 is already here," Sasuke commented.

"We were the second team here," Kiba boasted.

This kind of set up was pretty much the perfect mission for Team 8, track and retrieve. The real eyebrow raiser was that someone had beaten them here.

"Yeah?" Shika asked lazily. "When'd you guys get in?"

"Late last night. It's just been us and that creepy Sand team all day." He looked nervous. "Stay away from them. That guy is bad news. You don't _want_ to know what we saw him do in the forest."

"Gaara?" Naruto asked, frowning. "Yeah. We ran into him before the Exams even started." He shivered.

"So what's the deal with this place?" Ino cut in. "Please tell me there's a shower."

"And food!" Chouji chimed in.

Kiba snorted. "Yeah, yeah. What am I, a tour guide? Come on, I'll show you where we're staying." He turned and started walking, expecting us to follow. We didn't really have any better options.

"I get the feeling this place doesn't get used a lot," he continued. "It's pretty empty, y'know? Most of it is barracks and storage rooms and things like that. I'm pretty sure the upper levels are where the Chunin are working since we're not allowed up there. We haven't seen them since we got in either, except the guy that brings the food down."

He knocked on one of the doors before opening it. "Hey guys. You'll never guess what I found."

'Barracks' was the right description for the place. Bunk room, as well. There were bunk beds covering three of the walls, at least sixteen beds total, with a second door to the side that I suspected led to the bathroom. Three of the lower bunks - more easily defendable - looked in use so I suspected that was where Team 8 was sleeping.

"N-Naruto!" Hinata said, surprised. "A-and everyone else, of course!" She bowed politely.

"Hey Hinata. Shino." I waved. "You guys don't mind if we crash in your room, do you?"

Shino adjusted his glasses. "Is that wise? We are still rival competitors for this Examination."

"Second Exam is over," Shika pointed out, still looking like he didn't care one way or the other. "For us, anyway. And the Third Exam doesn't start till later anyway."

"Y-yes!" Hinata shrunk back as her voice came out slightly too loud. "I mean, i-if you want to stay here… there's plenty of space, isn't there? We don't mind."

"Thanks, Hinata!" Naruto exclaimed, hands tucking behind his head. "You're alright, you know that?"

Her cheeks went pink so fast.

Ino gave her a knowing look. "Sounds good to me. It'll give us a chance to catch up. Everyone's been so busy since graduation!"

"Yeah, tell me about it," Kiba grumbled good naturedly. "If it isn't my mum, it's Kurenai-sensei and if it isn't her it's Hana. All 'do some training, Kiba', 'you're a real ninja now, Kiba, you can't just slack off anymore'." He rolled his eyes. "Hopefully this'll show them, right?"

Shikamaru flopped down on one of the bunks. "It's just so troublesome," he complained.

I snickered. "Just think," I teased. "If you don't make Chunin this time… you'll have to do it all over again."

Ino snickered too. "Hey! You'll probably end up like that Kabuto guy. How many was it? Eight times?"

"Don't even joke about that," Shika muttered. "I'll have nightmares about it."

"Same old Shikamaru," Naruto said. "You're as lazy as ever."

Sasuke, on the other hand, said nothing. He was _still_ giving my brother a wary look.

We settled in, joking and laughing, sharing anecdotes about what had happened since graduation. Team 8 hadn't heard about our C turned A-rank, so Naruto got to retell the story, complete with arm gestures, much to Hinata's delight.

It was loud and companionable and _nice_.

"Man, I'm getting hungry," Chouji said. "You said they had food here, right?"

Kiba rolled his eyes. "Yeah. There's a kitchen upstairs that the Chunin keep stocked with food. Bring some down for us, would you? Since we're playing gracious hosts and all."

Chouji was practically out the door already.

Ino scampered after him. "Oh no you don't. I know you, Chouji, you'll just get fattening food! I'm coming too!"

"Yes! Food! No more ration bars!" Naruto exclaimed. "Oooh, maybe they have _ramen_!"

"I hope that's not all he brings back," I said to Sasuke.

He winced. "Wait up, idiot!" he barked. Sasuke was still moving stiffly, fist clenching every now and then as spasms of pain radiated from the curse mark. I watched him go in worry.

I waited for my team to be out of earshot before I turned and pinned Shikamaru with a serious look.

"Shikamaru," I asked lightly. "What exactly did you say to Sasuke?"

He rolled his head to look at me out of the corner of his eyes and sighed. "It'd be troublesome… but you are my little sister. So… there are some things that aren't allowed to happen."

I studied him for a while. It took a lot to rouse Shikamaru to action… but you _never_ wanted to be his enemy when it did.

"You threatened him, didn't you?"

He shrugged and wouldn't answer any more questions.

"Shikamaru? He's about as threatening as Hinata!" Kiba scoffed.

"Kiba," Hinata protested quietly, tapping her fingers together. "I-I'm sure Shikamaru…" she trailed off indecisively.

"Haven't you heard the saying?" I grinned. "The three things any Konoha nin fears: An angry Aburame, a focused Inuzuka… and a motivated Nara."

Kiba barked a laugh. "Yeah, I've heard that. But you're a Nara and you seem plenty motivated to me."

…_muffled thumps, two heavy, two light as the bodies and heads fell separately to the ground…_

If my grin was a tad sharper, wilder, I couldn't help it. "Best be scared, then, ne?"

"As if," Kiba dismissed, but Shino was watching me closely. Shino, I knew, was very observant. _What_ he was observing was up for debate. "Why would he be threatening Sasuke anyway? I mean, I know the guys a bit of a jerk but it's not like that ever bothered you before."

Shikamaru looked up. "He broke her ribs," he said, clearly and carefully.

Akamaru yipped. Kiba looked horrified. Inuzuka were loyal. Attacking a team mate was seriously against their beliefs.

I winced. "I'm pretty sure they were already broken before that," I said weakly. Yeah, it didn't sound like much of a defence to me either.

There was a pause, and I was damn sure the Team 8 was reassessing my injuries.

I sighed. "Okay. Here's what happened." I wasn't sure whether telling them was the right thing to do, but on the other hand, there wasn't really a good reason to _not_ tell them. Particularly if it would help warn them about what was to come. I told them about the Orochimaru fight, but skimmed very quickly over the Sound team except for mentioning that he's sent them. Then I told them about the curse mark though I didn't use those words.

"You're serious?" Kiba asked, breaking the silence when I'd finished. "You're not just …pulling our legs or something?"

I shook my head. "Completely serious. I wouldn't joke about something like this."

Shino adjusted his glasses again, the only sign of discomfort he allowed himself. "That is… disturbing news. One would think that the ANBU would move to prevent such a thing happening, or cease the Chunin Exams while he was here."

"How can they?" I replied. "Doing something like that would just make Konoha seem weak to the other villages that are here… if we can't even defend ourselves from missing nin…" I trailed off leaving the thought open. "I don't exactly agree with it, especially since he seems to be targeting my team mate, but stopping the Chunin Exams would cause more problems than it would solve."

_Besides, we're only Genin. They haven't invested _that_ much into us._

"Damn," Kiba whistled. "I know we're enemies for this Exam and all… but if he pops up again just say the word and we have your back."

"I - Thanks, Kiba," I said, caught off guard. Hinata nodded, as firm as I've ever seen her.

"Well, we can't let you hog all the good fights," he said. "Me and Akamaru will show you how it's done, right boy?"

Akamaru barked.

"Tada!" Naruto hollered, door banging open. "We come bearing food!"

A lot of it, by the looks of things. Of course, with nine people including Naruto, Kiba and Chouji we needed _a lot _of food.

"What's with the atmosphere?" Sasuke asked, picking up on the heavy silence in the room. His dark eyes glanced over us all.

"I just told them about Orochimaru," I said as we set the food up to have a picnic in the middle of the floor.

"Is it true, Naruto?" Hinata asked timidly. "Did you really get attacked by him?"

"Ah, well, I wasn't there for most of it," he admitted. "But that's who they say he was." He waved his chopsticks vaguely in our direction. "But I ain't scared of no weird snake guy, that's for sure! Next time he shows his ugly face, I'll kick his ass!"

She pinked again and looked down. I could practically hear her thinking 'he's so brave'. Hinata really was a cute kid.

"Ne, Hinata," I asked carefully. "Do you think you could look at Sasuke's chakra for me later? I don't really know what Orochimaru did to poison him… but…"

She twisted her fingers in the hem of her jacket. "O-of course, but I don't know how much help I could be," she agreed quietly. "May-maybe Shino could help too?"

The Aburame _did_ work closely with chakra, though most people didn't expect it, since they fed their own to their kikai instead of using it. But the mere fact that kikai ate chakra forced them to know more about it than the average ninja, particularly how things could affect chakra, and how that could affect their bugs.

"If you don't mind, Shino," I agreed.

Shino didn't have any objections, and after dinner had been cleared away we gathered around Sasuke to look at the curse mark.

"This is where he was bitten," I said, tracing my finger over the two puncture wounds in the curve of his neck. "And this mark must have formed shortly afterwards. I think it might be some sort of seal."

Hinata folded her hands into a seal and activated her Byakugan. She stared intently at his neck for a moment before speaking. "I… I can see it," she said softly. "There's a large mass underneath the mark itself and it's spreading further. Like… vines, or tendrils…" She trembled slightly. "The chakra is very … dark. Almost corrupted."

I blew out a sigh. "Okay. Can you tell how far it's gone?"

"Umm… It's definitely in the primary superficial subclavian chakra coil… maybe even the secondary subclavian coil. T-there are bits branching up the cervical coils… and towards the shoulder…"

So it was spreading pretty far, even without using it.

I bit my lip. "Maybe I can try and push it back, with my own chakra? Then we can see if we can block it off, stop it from spreading…"

Sasuke shifted. "Why do I get the feeling I'm about to be used as an experiment?" he asked.

"Hey, don't you trust us?" I asked weakly. "It's your choice, but… I really don't like this stuff… it can't be good for you."

"I know," he admitted quietly. "I don't like it either."

I straightened my shoulders and gathered my chakra, sliding it into his coils like I was doing medical jutsu.

Then jerked back and clamped a hand over my mouth and nose. "Grk!" I swallowed, convulsively, as my stomach tried to escape, an instinctive reaction to something so repulsive.

"Shikako?" Shikamaru asked warily, propping himself up on his shoulder from where he was lying on his bunk.

I waved my hand at him. "'m okay," I mumbled, breathing in deeply. "It just feels… really, really nasty."

"A rather extreme reaction," Shino noted.

"Hey, I'm a sensitive soul," I said, gathering myself to try again. This time, I resisted the instinctive urge to flinch away, battling through the nausea. It was easy, though, to tell which chakra was Sasuke's and which wasn't.

"It's moving back," Hinata confirmed quietly. Her hand reached out to trace a path against Sasuke's chest. "There's a branch of it down this way, towards the heart…"

The heart was pretty important in chakra production, containing the eighth chakra gate. Sasori had, after all, been able to function as a puppet with only his heart remaining.

"Ah, sorry! Sasuke-san!" Hinata jerked her hand back, flushing red and using an overly formal honorific to apologise.

"Don't worry about it," Sasuke said, uncomfortably.

I mostly ignored them as I focused on shunting the corrupted chakra back to one spot. It didn't _want_ to be returned, and it kept trying to escape my grasp. It's purpose was to try and spread through the body, and that was what it kept trying to do. It wasn't _alive_ exactly, but all chakra has a mental component to it.

"Shino?" I asked absently. "Do you think your kikai could target one kind of chakra and not another?"

Shino considered. I could hear his hive buzzing. "If the difference is as great as you implied, then yes, I suspect so," he said at length. "Do you wish for me to attempt to remove the … poisoned chakra?"

"I don't know," I confessed, frowning as I tried to contain it. "In a normal wound you would definitely attempt to draw out the poison before doing anything, so removing the excess chakra might make it weaker… but it might also stimulate it to produce more… I don't know enough to say."

"If there's a chance," Sasuke said. "You should try it."

Shino nodded. "A few at first, then. Hinata, if you will watch to see how it responds…"

"O-of course." She nodded.

A few kikai buzzed around the curse seal on Sasuke's neck. He flinched a little, but didn't react. Slowly, I felt the corrupted chakra drain, and I hastily tightened the net of my chakra holding it back.

"It seems to be weakening," I said. Hinata nodded in agreement. "It also seems that Sasuke's chakra is pushing it back a bit, too… it's just that after fighting so much…"

"My own chakra is depleted," he finished. "So if I keep using chakra… it will grow stronger." He didn't look happy with the thought. Well, if it was a permanent state, that was akin to being crippled or worse.

"Once the Exam is over we can get the medics to look at it or something," I said. "They'll probably know what to do better than we do…"

"Sorry," Hinata said timidly. "I wish I could do more…"

"It's… not your fault," Sasuke said. "I shouldn't have let myself get bitten in the first place."

I winced. There wasn't really much Sasuke could have done to stop _that_ either.

"Ah, Hinata? Do you think it would be possible to put Jyuuken blocks in? The second I let go my chakra is just going to disperse."

She considered the question seriously. "Yes…. I can put chakra blocks in here and here… the chakra going to your arm will be weaker, but not completely stopped."

The chakra system was highly complex, with a lot of redundancies and double layers. There were about three or four different branches that lead into the arm, so blocking one wasn't going to immediately shut it down.

"Do it," Sasuke ordered firmly.

Hinata fingers stabbed into his shoulder sharply. I memorised the _solidity_ of her chakra as it blocked off the pathways. The only other times I'd felt Jyuuken strikes, there had been too much _pain_ associated with it to care about how it was done.

Sasuke hissed.

I copied the feel of her chakra as much I could, disengaging and drawing back. Most of it dissolved almost immediately. The Hyuuga probably underwent _a lot_ of training to form their chakra like that in order to create plugs that wouldn't dissolve when contact was lost. Of course, even then they would be broken down naturally by the body in a matter of days.

I sighed. "That wont last forever," I said, flopping backwards. "How do you feel?"

Sasuke frowned and rotated his shoulder around. "Weird. Like there's something heavy attached to my neck." He paused. "Cleaner. I didn't realise… until it was gone…"

"It is unusual," Shino offered. "I have never heard of anything like this before." He was really disquieted by all of this. I guess they all were. It was hard to consider that while I had been terrified of it happening, they had all been blindsided by it. While I was just feeling relief that it was over, they were all still trying to come to terms with it happening at all.

"You guys are really kind of amazing," Naruto said. He'd been watching us all crowd around Sasuke with an odd look in his eyes. Naruto hadn't even seen Sasuke under the influence of the mark. Like Team 8, he only had second hand stories to go on.

"Thanks, Naruto," I said lethargically. Hinata practically _glowed_ at the compliment. Even Shino looked pleased, if you looked closely enough. "How are you feeling? I think we should leave yours until we can get someone to look at it. Unless it gets worse," I amended.

He nodded vigorously. "No, I'm fine! Believe it!" He grinned a little too widely. Considering Orochimaru had hit him right over the Kyuubi seal, he probably didn't want anyone looking too closely.

Which coincidentally, was why I wasn't demanding to investigate it.

"Man, what a day," Shikamaru drawled.

I couldn't bring myself to disagree.

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The end of the Exam took it's time in arriving. At first we were glad for the chance to rest after the hectic rush of the Forest, but boredom started to creep in. There wasn't much to do around the tower, and we tried to stay out of the way of the Sand team as much as possible.

Team Gai arrived late on the third day, but chose to bunk in one of the many other empty rooms. I was quietly glad about it, because every time he saw me Lee got twitchy and Neji was giving me considering looks that made me vaguely uncomfortable.

Team Kabuto squeaked in just before the test ended and there was a flash of surprise and anger across his face when he caught sight of us already at the tower.

_Were you looking for us?_ I wondered silently.

They called us to assemble on the afternoon of the fifth day. The room we assembled in was very large, with a small stage and a statue to one side of two hands in a seal, and two balconies running along the walls. The Hokage stood front and centre while the Exam proctors were arrayed beside him and our sensei aligned behind him.

Kakashi-sensei was there, with Gai and Kurenai and Asuma. Baki, the Sand Jounin, was there. And another. The Jounin was unfamiliar to me, a tall man with light brown hair, blue spandex drawn up around the sides of his face and square glasses. But his chakra… oh, his chakra…

_Seems like someone wanted a front row seat…_

Just having him there made me break out into a cold sweat. Not giving away that I knew… Not letting on … it took all my control.

"First of all," Anko said boldly. "Congratulations on finishing the Second Exam. Now pay attention. Hokage-sama is going to explain the Third Exam to you. You better listen carefully, maggots." She added the last bit as almost an afterthought, like she couldn't bear to let us go without insulting us one more time.

"First, before I tell you what the Third Exam entails, I want to explain about the test itself. Why do you suppose our country holds these exams in conjunction with our allies?" The Hokage asked rhetorically, puffing on his pipe.

_Because our enemies wouldn't show up? _My snarky side wanted to interject. I squashed it. Firmly.

"To raise the ability levels of the shinobi and increase friendship between allied nations to be sure, but it's important that you understand it's true meaning. The exams are, so to speak, a representation of the battle between allied nations. If we look at our history, all the countries that we're currently allied with were once neighbouring nations that continuously fought with each other for power. In order to avoid destroying each others military strength meaninglessly those nations picked champions to do battle on behalf of their countries at a mutually selected location. That was how the Chunin Selection Examinations originally began. There is no doubt that part of these Exams is to select shinobi worthy of becoming Chunin, that's just not the whole story. These Exams also allow for a place where shinobi can carry the pride of their nation on their and fight against other ninja for their very lives."

He made it sound so…elegant. I resisted the urge to curl my lip in disgust. Like we were thinking about national _pride_ when we were trying not to die.

_Line up all your little soldiers, just to knock them down…_

"Many leaders and people of prominence are invited from various countries to attend this exam as guests and also possibly to seek shinobi to work for them. This exam could determine the course of your ninja work from here on out. And more importantly, those rulers will watch your battles and take note of the skills that each ninja and each nation is developing. If there is a gap in power between countries, the strong nations are inundated with job requests for their ninja and conversely, requests to those deemed weak decline. Therefore, the stronger our nation is, the better our position when negotiating with neighbouring countries. So it's important to show how much military strength our village has."

That at least, I understood. We were advertising. We were promoting our nation as better than our competitors. It was a cruel heartless way of doing it, and I wondered if the benefit was worth the loss of life that resulted from it. I knew at least one Konoha team had died in the forest, probably more.

"This Exam is a chance for each nation to display the strength of its shinobi and thus the strength of the nation itself and it's because its an Exam where your life is on the line that it has meaning. And it's for this very reason and for the strength of the nation that your forerunners fought in this Exam. It's truly a dream worth striving for."

Ah, the 'it's traditional' excuse. It was better than outright war, yes, but 'better' didn't mean 'the best option'. And I didn't consider _that_ a 'dream worth striving for'.

"Why did you say it was about 'international friendship' before, then?" Tenten demanded.

"This is a custom where balance is preserved by fighting and dying," the Hokage replied. "In the world of the shinobi, that _is_ friendship."

Sometimes it was easy to forget that the Third Hokage was a war leader. This wasn't one of them. For all the complaints about Konoha being soft and the Third Hokage being peace-loving, this was still a brutal, militaristic, war torn place.

"The Third Exam is a fight for life, with the pride of your village and your own dreams at stake."

"The test is fine. Just tell me what the details of the Exam are, already. I can handle anything you throw at me," Gaara said, voice barely louder than a whisper. He was clearly getting impatient with all the speeches. I was and I had a fairly high tolerance for bullshit.

A ninja landed, kneeling, in front of the Hokage with a burst of Body Flicker speed. "Hokage-sama, before you do please allow me, Hayate Gekko, proctor of the Third Exam to speak first."

"So be it," the Hokage granted.

"It's nice to meet you all." Hayate coughed. "There's something I would like all of you to do before the Third Exam."

He looked _tired_, with dark bags etched deeply beneath his eyes.I wondered if his cough was a temporary condition or a pre-existing one. It was short and light, not the deep, phlegmmy cough of pneumonia or bronchitis. I couldn't see anyone being on active duty if they had that kind of illness, anyway.

"We have to have a preliminary exam before we can move on to the real one. This is the first time in five years that there have been enough candidates finishing the Second Exam to require one." He coughed again. That was going to get annoying.

"Preliminaries?" Shikamaru asked, sounding annoyed. "Just what do you mean by that?"

"The First and Second Exams might have been too easy," the proctor explained. "The fact is, we never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the rules of the Chunin Exams, a preliminary exam can be held at any stage in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining. It's just that, as Hokage-sama said, a lot of important guests will be watching; we can't afford to waste their time. They've come to see only the best. So if there are any of you that feel you are not in top physical condition, now's your chance to bow out. The preliminaries will be determined by one-on-one combat and they will be starting immediately."

Sasuke twitched. I could feel the sudden pulse of chakra radiating from his curse mark, trying to break down the blocks Hinata and I had installed. His hand clenched shut against the pain.

Against my will, my eyes darted towards the row of Jounin.

_Orochimaru._

I reached forward, wrapping my fingers around Sasuke's wrist and channelling chakra up his arm, helping him fight the curse seal back down. Screw conserving energy for the Exam. This was more important. There would be no luck in convincing Sasuke to quit, so all I could do was help him on forwards.

"Okay, you got me. I'm out," Kabuto said, raising his hand, sheepishly. I didn't buy it for a second.

"Kabuto?" Naruto exclaimed. "What are you doing? You can't quit now!"

"I'm sorry, but my body is just too beat up," Kabuto said apologetically. "I just can't hack it."

Yeah, I didn't buy _that_ either.

The proctor waited to see if anyone else was going to quit, then shrugged.

"Alright then. We will now begin the preliminary round. There are 17 of you remaining, so we will need eight matches and one of you will gain a pass. The surviving candidates from these matches will move on to the Third Exam. As for the rules, there are none. You will fight until one of you dies or concedes defeat or is rendered physically incapable of continuing. Naturally, those who are losing are encouraged to concede defeat to avoid a fatal outcome. Furthermore, as proctor, I'm given a certain amount of leeway in judging the matches. I might occasionally intervene if a match seems hopeless to save as many lives as possible."

Everyone was starting to look eager now that the Exam had been explained. Whether they _liked_ it or not, we were about to fight, so everyone was slowly switching over into fight mode.

"The names of each pair of opponents are chosen completely at random," Hayate continued his spiel. "Before each match, these names will appear on the display behind me. In a moment, the names of the first two opponents will appear."

I didn't buy the 'random matchups' explanation. If I was in charge, I'd want only the strongest competitors to get through. That would mean making a list of presumed strength and pairing people off strongest to weakest. That way, the strongest half would win and the weakest half would be removed from the Exam.

It wasn't exactly fair, but what was?

The strongest - apparent - Genin in the room would be Gaara, based on basic information. He was the son of the 4th Kazekage and holder of the Ichibi. And, crucially, able to use it's power.

The weakest, again at first glance, would be Lee. A non-clan shinobi. Malformed chakra coils and unable to use ninjutsu or genjutsu? On paper he made the weakest shinobi in the group.

That he wasn't was a tribute to his hard work.

And since that was one of the matchups that I remembered clearly…

The board flashed and blinked before settling onto two names.

_Sasuke Uchiha vs. Yoroi Akado_

"They didn't waste any time," Sasuke muttered.

I drew in a deep breath and leaned closer. "Be careful. Stick to Taijutsu and weaponry. And, watch out… his chakra feels… hungry." I gave him a troubled look.

"I got it," he assured me, jaw clenching. "This is my fight now."

"Everyone other than the two opposing candidates will now clear the area and move to the upper level," the proctor ordered.

I pulsed my chakra one last time, helping Sasuke fight off the curse mark, before disengaging. Almost immediately, he clenched his fist shut in pain. He nodded at me, and I stepped away, heading for the stairs.

There was no more that I could do.

Kakashi-sensei meandered over to us, stopping briefly behind Sasuke. I enhanced my hearing so I could listen in on what he was saying.

"Sasuke," he greeted. "Don't use your Sharingan."

"So you know about it?" Sasuke said, not sounding at all surprised. Whether because he thought they _had_ to have noticed Orochimaru, or because of the slightly irrational belief that Sensei would _always_ know, I couldn't tell.

"If that mark on your neck gets out of control, your life could be in danger," Sensei warned.

"I'm aware of that."

"Just to let you know, if it gets to that point, I'll have to step in and stop the fight. Good luck." Kakashi-sensei's parting comment was slightly sardonic.

It was interesting how the groups had divided. Neither of the two platforms were any better than the other, running an equal distance along the walls on opposite sides of the room. And yet, one side held the Rookie Nine as well as Team Gai and the other held the Sand Team and the other member of Kabuto's team. It was like the battle lines were already drawn.

"Kakashi-sensei," I greeted as he leant on the railings beside me.

"You wont believe what the Forest was like," Naruto said, folding his arms.

Sensei chuckled. "I've heard a few stories," he said. "And it looks like you've had it rough."

I grimaced. "Yeah. We got a little banged up." I couldn't help but touch fingertips to the still roughed up surface of my cheek.

"It looks like it's healing fine," Kakashi-sensei assured me.

"That's good," I agreed, leaning forward and resting my forehead against his bicep. My hand curled around his wrist, fingers touching the inside pulse point, out of sight. "Otherwise I'd have to wear a mask like you, and then everyone will laugh at me."

_Jounin. 30 degrees, 20 meters. Chakra is O-R-O-C-H-I-M-A-R-U. _I tapped out, my fingers moving the barest minimum distance to convey the message.

Kakashi-sensei gave a huffing laugh, even as his arm muscles tightened beneath my grip like steel cable. "Hey! I'm cool." He disengaged from me, hand going to my back to guide me away. "Asuma, tell her I'm cool."

Asuma-sensei was almost choking on his cigarette with laughter, and just casually glanced at Kakashi. I caught the fractional widening of his eyes when they fell on us. Whatever sign Sensei's hand was making on my back meant something.

"Well, I don't know," he stalled. "What do you think Kurenai?"

Kurenai chuckled. "I think Gai is the expert there, don't you?"

It was very neat, how they were managing to pass the signal along, hidden behind mockery, bringing everyone's attention to Kakashi-sensei without alerting the others. Very neat indeed.

"My Eternal Rival is indeed most hip and cool!" Gai enthused, even as he appeared behind us without a sound. "Though perhaps it would not be quite so appropriate for you to emulate him in such a fashion."

Naruto snickered. "Yeah that would just be too _weird._"

I hummed in agreement, turning my attention back to the floor as Hayate called for the fight to begin. It opened with a few traditional volleys of kunai and shuriken with Sasuke definitely acting more wary than he normally would.

I could feel the pulsing of cursed chakra and knew that he was fighting a battle on two fronts. My hands clenched, white knuckled around the railing. Orochimaru was just _toying_ with him.

But it wasn't until Yoroi started his chakra draining that I realised, with cold clarity, just how badly this fight could go.

_He's draining your chakra… weakening your resistance against the curse seal… forcing you to draw on its power…_

"Err…maybe you should let that go," Naruto said nervously, eyeing my hands as the torturous groan of metal filled the air.

I blinked and looked down. Then, finger by finger, forced my hands to let go of the railing. It was a little warped.

"Oops," I said sheepishly, calming my agitated chakra. It had snuck into my hands without me realising it, working off an unconscious desire to pummel someone.

"Sasuke will be fine," Naruto said. "He's too strong to let a guy like _that_ beat him."

I think Kakashi-sensei was more surprised than I was. Naruto, admitting Sasuke was strong?

"Of course he will be," I agreed, just as, down below, Sasuke imitated the move that had led to Lee handing him his ass.

After that, it was game over.

"Winner; Sasuke Uchiha," Hayate announced.

"I'll be right back, kids. Asuma, could you…?" Sensei murmured.

"Yeah, I'll watch out for them," Asuma-sensei agreed. "You best get down there."

Kakashi-sensei hummed before Body Flickering down to stand behind Sasuke. They had a short conversation, as the medics came to take Yoroi away.

Sasuke glanced up at us. I smiled.

"Man, I hope Sensei knows how to get rid of that thing," Naruto said, as the two of them left. Yoroi's Jounin Sensei, the one I _knew_ was Orochimaru in disguise, followed them out, presumably to check on his student but…

"Me too," I agreed.

"Let's move on to the second match," the proctor said quietly. The board flickered and eventually chose two more names.

_Kankurou vs. Misumi Tsurugi_

That was the other member of Kabuto's team. There was no Tsurugi clan in Konoha, nor an Akado one. They were both either orphans or from civilian families. That put their strength definitely at the bottom of the list.

Kankurou was definitely at the top. It was easy to see who would win this match. My brow furrowed as I tried to construct a list of who would be fighting who. It wasn't quite as straightforward as it seemed. There had been exceptions to the strongest vs. weakest rule, hadn't there?

The kunoichi had been mostly paired off against each other. Sakura vs. Ino and… Temari vs. Tenten? Yes. Because she had lost terribly.

Who had Hinata fought then?

My eyes cast around the room.

_Neji._

That was right. Because she had lost terribly too.

After that it was easy to see who would be fighting who. Naruto was the trickiest. I didn't know where he should fall on the list. By rights, he should be at the top with Gaara, for much the same reasons, but those reasons were secret, and Naruto didn't have nearly the 'control' over his prisoner that Gaara did. If 'control' was the right word.

"Naruto," I said, voice low, so as not to let everyone overhear, "you'll probably be up against either Chouji or Kiba. Start planning."

He looked at me, wide eyed. He didn't question how I knew which was both good and bad. Good because it meant he trusted me, bad because it meant he wasn't trying to work it out himself.

"What should I do?" He asked voice hushed.

"How's your chakra?"

"It's a little weird," he confessed.

I bit my lip. "In normal circumstances I'd say 'turn it into a battle of attrition. A match of stamina. Just have them fighting clones until you exhaust them'. But if your chakra isn't working right… you might not be able to do that. Their fighting styles both rely on being able to move - momentum and spinning. Bog them down, tie them up… how's your supply of ninja wire?" Naruto didn't use ninja wire as much as Sasuke or I did, but being on our team meant he got a crash course in how great it could be.

Naruto started grinning madly. Life was about to get very unpleasant for somebody. "I know exactly what to do," he said.

"Because his opponent is unable to continue, the winner is Kankurou," Hayate said, calling the second match over.

I nodded thoughtfully. It hadn't taken long at all. A simple replacement technique to switch with his puppet, and Misumi had been trapped before he'd even noticed. It _was_ impressive that Kankurou could control his puppet without being able to see what was going on. That was something to watch out for.

"The third match: Temari vs. Tenten!"

Tenten walked down the balcony behind us. I paused a second, considering. She hadn't been at the impromptu information gathering session before the first exam. And well… Konoha ninja should stick together.

"Be careful," I muttered loud enough for her to hear. "She's a wind type."

It was a bad, bad match up for her. But if she knew ahead of time… well, she might not lose so badly.

Her footsteps faltered briefly, and I knew she had heard me. I could only hope it helped.

The match started badly. Tenten opened with a frankly uninspired barrage of shuriken and was shaken when they missed. That was her first mistake, letting her opponent get to her. It was easy to see that Tenten didn't have the ability to analyse an opponents skills and then change her tactics on the fly. There was probably a reason she stuck to long range and let her team mates dictate strategy. But with prior warning, she did notice that her thrown weapons weren't getting through the shifting wind currents that Temari controlled and switched to Taijutsu, proving that Maito Gai trained no slackers.

Her Taijutsu skills were actually pretty good but Temari wasn't lacking there, either. She could use her fan as a bludgeon and easily use a wind blast to push her opponent back and escape. Temari wasn't exactly _pushed_ but it wasn't the complete walkover it might have been.

"Winner; Temari!" Hayate called out, then coughed. Temari was smirking, leaning on her fan.

Chakra surged behind us, but a familiar pattern. He was back quickly.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Where's Sasuke?" I asked, tilting my head back to look at him. It was hard to tell, but Sensei looked a little disturbed.

"Oh, he's fine. Sleeping soundly in the infirmary. But he's been put under guard by the ANBU." That was actually a good thing, in my books. As long as the ANBU were there to keep Orochimaru away and not to make him a prisoner or anything. "Although…" Sensei hesitated. "When you were in the Forest… did Sasuke… did he… you were attacked by a team of Sound ninja, weren't you?"

How did he know about that? Sasuke could have told him, but if Sensei wanted to _ask_ something about him, it was unlikely. The only other person would have been the one who sent them…

Orochimaru…

… who had left the examination room shortly after Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke.

"Yeah, we were," I confirmed.

Sensei looked at me directly. "Did Sasuke kill them?"

"No," I said honestly, flatly. Some of the tension drained out of his frame and I turned away. "I did."

Orochimaru, who had sent them. Who had apparently discovered that they had been killed. Had he made the assumption that Sasuke had done it? That the curse mark was doing its job? Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

There was a careful silence on the balcony. I didn't kid myself into thinking that the other Jounin hadn't heard our conversation.

"Man, this test is such a drag," Shikamaru droned. Whether he'd done it on purpose or not, I was grateful all the same.

"Next match," Hayate called. "Inuzuka Kiba verses Naruto Uzumaki!"

"Finally! A chance to show what I've got!" Naruto shouted excitedly.

"Yeah! Hey Akamaru, I think you and I won the lottery! This is going to be cake." Kiba grinned, making his way towards the stairs.

Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Heh. He's going to be surprised," Naruto boasted, before holding up a familiar canteen. "Mind if I borrow this?" he asked.

I blinked, and glanced towards my backpack where it was leaning against the wall. "Sure," I agreed readily enough, not _quite_ sure what he wanted with it. He already had his own attached to belt. "Help yourself."

"Sorry Kiba," Naruto said as they squared off on the floor. "Don't take it personally if I blow you away."

"That's just what I was going to say! Only not so politely," Kiba growled back. "Right Akamaru?"

"When you're ready," Hayate said, moving back out of the way. "Begin!"

"Beast Mimicry: Four Legs Jutsu." Kiba's chakra _spiked_ and he crouched down onto hands and feet. It was hard to see from such a distance, but he looked far more feral than before. "Here I come!"

His speed was now comparable to Sasuke's or maybe mine when enhanced, I suspected, though it was hard to measure for sure. This was the Inuzuka Taijutsu. Feral and wild and very different from how humans normally fought. It was difficult to predict simply for that reason.

It also used chakra to a large degree, meaning that it was pretty draining and I suspected Kiba would only be able to use it for short bursts. Though, if he got some good hits in, that might be all he needed.

"Who do you think will be victorious?" Shino asked, glancing side on at me. Hinata clutched the railings and peered down anxiously at the two fighters.

I hmmed. "How likely is Kiba to take Naruto seriously?" It looked like he wasn't really messing around that much, going straight into his family techniques.

"More so than before the Forest, that's for sure," Shika said, leaning on the railings. "Man, I wouldn't even want to face him now."

"The more seriously Kiba takes him, the better chance he has," I said. "But…" I shrugged. "I'd be a poor team mate if I didn't back Naruto, ne?"

"As would I," Shino acknowledged quietly. "Kiba is not a push over."

"Neither is Naruto. Not anymore." I shivered, just a little. "But neither of them will be using life or death techniques. It isn't that sort of fight."

Naruto wouldn't be pushed to using Kyuubi chakra. If he could even use it now… Of course, he could still do plenty of damage without it.

I watched idly as Kiba threw down some smoke bombs and attacked while sight was screened. I followed the fight with my chakra sense as Naruto started moving to try avoid Kiba's attacks. It wasn't completely successful, but it was a good effort, and he nearly cleared the smoke before Akamaru tackled him back into it.

There was silence, then Kiba leapt clear of the smoke, eyeing it warily. It started to clear, slowly, revealing an orange body huddled on the ground.

'Akamaru' sprinted out of the smoke cloud, back towards his partner.

"Yeah! Way to go Akamaru," Kiba cheered, crouching down to pick him up. "This fight is over!"

Then 'Akamaru' bit him.

It was hard to say who was more shocked, the crowd, or Kiba.

"Idiot," I mumbled. "If you were going to bite him, you should have bitten him somewhere it would matter." It was only on the arm, and his thick jacket pretty much negated the whole effect of it.

"Surprise!" Naruto said, releasing the Transformation Jutsu with a cloud of smoke. Kiba shook him off and he backed up spitting.

"What? Where's Akamaru?" Kiba asked. There was real worry in his voice.

The Naruto that had been lying on the ground, stood, holding Akamaru by his front paws. Akamaru whined in shame.

"Wow," Ino said. "Is that really Naruto? Who would have thought that Naruto would be a match for Kiba?"

"To balance a Transformation Jutsu and a Clone Jutsu at the same time?" Shika commented. "That's kinda impressive. There's no way he should be able to do that."

I blinked. Actually, it was. Now that I thought about it… I was still working on being able to do two jutsu at the same time. But Naruto played Shadow Clone Shogi with me… huh. I'd never even recognised that …

"Whaddaya know?" Kiba said, grinning in feral relief. "Got a little stronger, I see. But not nearly strong enough because now I'm going to get serious."

"Good, I was hoping you would because I want to _seriously_ knock you out," Naruto shot back.

I really wanted to tell him to stop playing around.

"Naruto, if I were you, I'd let Akamaru go." Kiba reached into his kunai pouch and pulled out something tiny. He flicked it towards Akamaru who swallowed it.

Akamaru's chakra blossomed and he began to grow. Larger and heavier, fur turning a dark red as he started to _growl. _He broke free of Naruto's grasp easily, dispersing the clone.

"What the heck happened? What was that thing you just fed him? Why did all his fur just turn red?" Naruto asked, puzzled.

"Are you sure you want to stick around to find out?" Kiba taunted, swallowing something himself. His chakra almost doubled. Soldier pills. No doubt about it.

"Beast Mimicry: Beast Human Clone!"

The two of them changed, Kiba becoming even more feral than before. Akamaru was his matching double.

"We'll take you down in one hit!" Kiba said. The two of them leapt forward and then began to spin. "Fang Over Fang!"

The two of them rotated until it was like they were inside a drill - or a tornado.

_Interesting. They really are taking Naruto seriously to be using that already._

Naruto seemed to recognise that he didn't want to hit by that. I felt the surge in chakra of a Replacement Technique just before Kiba hit, leaving behind a chakra construct shaped like a scarecrow (complete with X's for eyes and a sticking out tongue) behind.

"Okay, so is it my turn now?" Naruto asked, mockingly, from the other side of the room. Kiba and Akamaru spun around in shock to face him.

Naruto was weighing the two water canteens in his hands, and with a casual flick he popped off the lids and threw them halfway across the room.

"Hidden in the Mist Jutsu!" He called, hands flying through the seals. His chakra spiked and _poured _out. That was much, much more chakra than he normally used for that jutsu, but the mist came out thick. It covered almost the whole room, with only the barest amount of clear space around the walls. I remembered that he had had problems in the Forest…

"Kakashi-sensei," I muttered. "Orochimaru did something to Naruto's chakra system." I described the jutsu that he had used, as much as I had seen of it, and exactly _where_ he had been hit. "It's been causing problems with his chakra control since…"

Sensei's eye was slightly wider than normal. "I'll get someone to look at it, after the preliminaries."

"Urg!" Naruto's voice came echoing from inside the mist. "Smells like wet dog."

"Why you-!" There was an incoherent sound of pure rage. "You think this is going to stop me? I can still smell you, you know!"

A Naruto landed on the wall, then another, and another. There were dozens of them, up the walls, over the ceiling, crouched on the balcony and rails. And all of them appeared to be holding … wire.

Inside the mist it must have been like a cats cradle.

"Fang Over Fang!" Kiba shouted again.

Several of the Naruto's were yanked forwards, then a few more, then others grunted and pulled backwards. Rather like they were fishermen reeling in a large one.

"Hey! What the-!"

One Naruto jumped backwards out of the mist, standing in the tiny space clear of the mist. His face was very focused as he worked though a set of hand seals. "Alright! Eat this, Kiba! Lightning Release: Radiating Shockwave!"

It blasted out of him, scorching his hands from jutsu overload, but dancing through the mist. There were points where it sparked up impossibly bright - probably from the metal of ninja wire - and the clones all began to explode as the lightning was channelled down the wire into them.

Radiating Shockwave wasn't a huge jutsu, or a particularly long range one. As the name suggested, it produced a wide wave of lightning that arced around the user. Using the mist and ninja wire to increase it's range into an area of effect jutsu was a pretty clever combination.

"Kiba is down," I said, feeling his chakra stutter. Lightning jutsu often had the 'side effect' of paralysing the victim, and Kiba and Akamaru had basically taken that one full force.

Naruto was panting, but didn't look particularly wounded or tired. The mist started to fade, creating puddles of water on the floor. That would be something to watch out for in later fights. Wet floors were often slippery.

Kiba was tangled in lengths of ninja wire, twitching sporadically. Akamaru had dropped out of the clone jutsu and was back to being a small white puppy. But he was out of it too.

"Kiba Inuzuka is unable to continue. Winner is Naruto Uzumaki."

I cheered.

"That was surprising," Chouji said. "It's hard to think that that's the same Naruto…"

"Not that surprising," I said. "It's been a hard couple of months."

I bumped shoulders with Naruto as he rejoined us. "Did you see that?" he exclaimed. "Was I awesome or what?"

"Way to go," I congratulated. "Kiba was a tough opponent, you know."

"We're all really surprised," Ino said. "You're not the same kid from the Academy, anymore."

"No way! And you better believe it!" He grinned at her.

"Next match," Hayate called, catching our attention again. "Shino Aburame vs. Chouji Akimichi."

"Good luck, Chouji, Shino," I said as they both made their way downstairs. They both nodded at each other, perfectly polite.

Without name calling to enrage him, Chouji wasn't an aggressive soul - even though Asuma-sensei had bribed him with barbeque. And while Shino was perfectly willing to indulge in battle based trash talk, commenting on someone's appearance was beneath him. He much preferred to state why his opponents skill set was below his and why that meant they were going to lose.

It was actually an interesting match up. Akimichi naturally had large chakra reserves, quite apart from their stored 'excess', in order to use their Expansion Techniques. That meant that Shino's kikai had a long way to go in order to drain Chouji's chakra. Added to that, the spin of the Human Bullet Tank prevented them from gaining much of a foothold. But Shino wasn't ruffled at all and was easily able to dodge the not-very-accurate rolling sphere. Without someone to slow his target for him, Chouji simply couldn't hit it.

In the end, Shino's slow and persistent method of increasing the number of kikai on Chouji depleted his chakra until he could no longer use jutsu.

It was an almost anticlimactic fight, even though both of them gave it their best efforts.

"Winner; Shino Aburame," the proctor announced.

"Well, it was a good effort, Chouji," Asuma-sensei said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe next time."

"The next match will be," Hayate announced. "Shikamaru Nara vs. Shikako Nara."

I'd almost expected that, but it was still a punch in the gut.

If the Finals were to promote the village, they would want to show variety. Having two members from the same family would just be boring, particularly when Nara weren't known for our exciting combat styles.

I glanced at Shikamaru.

His grip was white knuckled on the railing.

_Are you… afraid of me, Shikamaru?_

The thought made me unbearably sad. It sat in the pit of my stomach like a heavy stone, closed my throat off, ached behind my eyes.

"Troublesome," he muttered.

My thoughts raced. We could fight. Given how unmotivated Shikamaru was, I might even win. Of course, given how good Shika was at out manoeuvring people, the match might go in his favour. It was tough to say.

"I forfeit," I said, voice barely loud enough to be heard by the proctor.

Shikamaru looked over at me and sighed. "You really want to do that?" he asked.

I nodded. "I forfeit," I repeated louder, voice surer.

"What's the point in that?" Temari scoffed from across the room, leaning on the rail, all casual arrogance. "Hanging in here to forfeit now?"

I shrugged. "There are two people in this room that I would forfeit rather than fight. My brother just happens to be one of them."

_Your brother is the other,_ went unsaid.

Naruto looked scandalised. "You cant do that!" he protested. "Why are you just giving up? You used to kick his ass all the time at the academy!"

"Think about it," I said lowly to him, as the Proctor announced Shikamaru as the winner. It wasn't quiet enough to prevent those around me from hearing, but since it was only my team and team ten, I didn't think that was an issue. "Everyone here is watching. When it comes to the finals, they're going to have no idea how Shikamaru fights. That'll give him the advantage."

"You still could have won," Naruto argued stubbornly.

"Maybe," I said. "Maybe not. But he's my brother. A promotion… that's not a good enough reason to fight him." There might have been something approving about the glint in Kakashi's eye, but I could have been imagining it.

That made him pause. Naruto didn't have family, but he regarded his friends highly. Of course, to him, not fighting them would have been more insulting, but he did understand in a way. "I guess."

"Besides," I continued. "If I forfeited, that just means the Shika _has_ to become Chunin."

"Troublesome," my brother muttered. "You had a better chance of getting through the Finals than me."

"If you're really torn up about it, you can do my chores for me," I suggested.

"Not a chance," Shikamaru snorted.

The next fight was where things started to get miserable. I wasn't pleased with having to forfeit, but it wasn't the end of the world. Not for me.

_Hinata Hyuuga vs. Neji Hyuuga_

Watching Hinata and Neji fight was painful. Not just with the explosive discharges of chakra as their Jyuuken strikes clashed, but emotionally as well. I wanted to tell Hinata to forfeit, but at the same time I wanted to encourage her to stand up for herself. I wanted to tell her she was strong and didn't have to listen to him discourage her.

I wanted to stop him hurting her.

But…

But Hinata kept standing up.

"You're wrong, Neji-nii-san," she said, her voice carrying quiet conviction. "Because these eyes… can see that the one suffering here is you."

Because _Hinata_ thought it was worth it.

It wasn't about the match. It wasn't about the Exam anymore. It was about standing up to prove she could.

I swallowed, my throat thick and bitter.

"Hinata," Naruto said, when she had to be carried off the floor on a stretcher, a growl in his voice. "I promise, I will _prove_ that people can change. I will _beat _Neji in your name."

"Hmph." Neji snorted, unimpressed. "A failure will always be a failure."

But if watching Neji and Hinata was hard then watching Lee and Gaara was worse. Because, like Sasuke, Lee would never quit. And Gaara would never be pacified.

I didn't want to watch. But I had to. If Gaara gave away anything that could help beat him… I had to see it.

Lee was _impressive_ once the weights came off. But it wasn't enough. Then he started opening the gates.

The explosion of chakra as the limiters released made my breath catch in my throat. There was so much chakra it was visible. And yet, watching what it was doing to him made me glad that I had never pushed myself that far.

And it _still_ wasn't enough. He gave too much, too fast and his body couldn't handle the strain.

Like Hinata, Lee had to be carried out on a stretcher too. But Gaara walked off the floor under his own power.

"And with that match, the Third Exam preliminaries are now finished." The proctor coughed once more before calling all the winners - and Ino, who hadn't fought - down to the floor.

The Hokage stepped forward. "In the Third Exam you will all put your battle skills on display. You will demonstrate the power and control you have achieved in your respective disciplines. Accordingly, the Third Exam will be held one month from now in order to provide a suitable period of preparation. So now, all that remains to be done is to find out who your opponents will be."

"Everyone," Anko said, holding up a box and moving down the line. "Take one piece of paper and tell us the number written on it. Ibiki will draw up a sheet of matches."

_Naruto vs. Neji_

_Sasuke vs. Gaara_

_Ino vs. Temari_

_Shino vs. Shikamaru_

_Kankurou _

I stared at the matchups. That was … familiar.

Well. If they rigged the prelims, why wouldn't they rig the actual matches? There were bound to be ways to ensure Genin picked the right numbers. Naruto had already declared a grudge match against Neji - which was bound to provide interesting motivation - and everyone wanted to see Sasuke fight Gaara. Ino and Temari fought it off as the two Kunoichi to make it through. Shino, Shikamaru and Kankurou were all the more long distance, strategic fighters. Pitting them all against each other made sense.

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><p>.<p>

Urgh. This just kept getting longer and longer. Not really that happy with this chapter.


	26. Chapter 25

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: So we begin the training month. This is probably going to take a few chapters, so don't get all upset now. XD

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 25

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><p>.<p>

_Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster. ~ Sun Tzu_

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The hospital was dark and mostly silent, but I awoke easily, sliding into wakefulness between one breath and the next. There was a dark shadow looming over me.

"Been working overtime?" I asked, levering myself to sit up. The medics had knit my bones back together, but they were still soft and would easily rebreak. It would be at least a week before I'd be combat ready, though admittedly that was much sooner than the _normal_ time frame for a broken bone to heal.

Dad jerked. In the low light, I could barely see him, but he looked tired. "Sorry, pet. Didn't mean to wake you." There was something in his hands and I squinted, making out the shape of a clipboard.

"It's just a broken arm and fractured ribs," I said, guessing what he was looking at. My medical report was missing from the slot on the foot of the bed.

"And this?" he asked, tapping the bandages taped to the side of my face.

"Just a scrape," I said. "The medics feel like they have to bandage _everything_. I wont even end up with cool scars like yours."

He snorted. "You're far too young and pretty for that."

Mum had fussed much more when she had been here earlier but Shika had told me about the look on her face when he'd shown up at home alone, so I hadn't protested.

"Do you know what happened?" I asked. "In the Forest?"

He hummed. "I've been working on it," he acknowledged. Which was probably as much information I was going to get about how much they knew about Orochimaru and what they were doing about it. "I was going to get you to give a report tomorrow."

"I can give it to you now," I offered. "Verbally, anyway. I haven't got anything written up yet."

"That's fine," he said, dragging a chair over to the side of the bed. "When you're ready."

I took a moment to organise my thoughts. Then I began to speak. I recounted our movements in the Forest of Death and gave our approximate position when we had been confronted by Orochimaru posing as a Grass ninja. I listed the attacks that had been made, what I could remember of what he said to us, and how we had responded. I mentioned that Naruto and I had been knocked out and continued with the second hand information we had been given by Sasuke. I wanted to skim over the fight with the Sound team, but didn't because they had _admitted_ to being sent by Orochimaru and anything that tied him to the Village Hidden in the Sound was important. I told him about the power of the curse mark and what we'd done at the tower to try and mitigate it. That got a raised eyebrow. I even mentioned sensing Orochimaru posing as one of the Jounin at the preliminaries, how he had left after Sasuke had fought and what Kakashi-sensei had asked and my theory about how he had known to ask.

"I have Jounin that can't give reports that detailed," Dad said with a wry quirk to his lips when I'd finished.

I shrugged. "Can you tell me anything?"

"Not really," he replied. "We don't really _have_ much information. We know he was here, and that he was after the Uchiha but the ANBU sent after him haven't returned."

Dead, hovered unsaid. ANBU didn't _skip_ reporting in.

"Does mum know? That we got attacked, I mean," I asked, picking at my blankets. It hadn't seemed like she had and I hadn't wanted to bring it up…

"No, she doesn't," Dad said levelly. "We've been keeping his presence here quiet. It's the kind of thing that causes panic… or sets people out looking for revenge. The fewer people who know…"

There would be quite a few people in Konoha that had something against Orochimaru. More who despised traitors on principle.

"I see," I said. "Team 10 and Team 8 know. We told them." I shrugged. "I don't know who they've told."

Dad sighed. "It can't be helped. But for now… try not to bring it up, alright?"

I nodded. Well, if Mum asked I could always just say Dad told me not to tell. Then he could deal with her.

"Wicked imp," he muttered, a knowing glint in his eye.

I gave him my best innocent face.

He snorted, clearly not buying it. Then his face shifted into seriousness again. "How have you been holding up?"

"I don't know," I said quietly, looking away. A lifetimes worth of 'thou shalt not kill' warring with a decade of life as the daughter of a ninja clan… logical 'they threatened to kill us' against 'did I really _have_ to?'… "Everyone keeps _looking _at me…"

"You're probably the first of your friends to take this step," Dad said. "They don't understand yet and they're looking to you to see how you handle it."

"I know. It's just…" I struggled to put words to it. "How am I supposed to feel about it? With everything else that happened… its such a small thing…"

"You feel about it however you feel about it," he said gently. "No one can tell you that you're right or wrong to feel that way. But you can't change what happened either; its too late for that now."

I nodded. "Was it the right choice?" I asked.

He considered it. "I can't tell you that. The life of a ninja is a hard one, with hard decisions that have to be made. We might not always make the right choices, but we learn from them regardless. And sometimes, the choice we _must_ make isn't one we like, or sometimes none of the options are happy ones. Only you can tell if the decision you made was the right one."

I fidgeted with the sheets, my fingers twisting around and around. "I wish they hadn't attacked us," I confessed. "But… I don't feel guilty. I don't… _regret_ it."

They were going to kill us. I _couldn't_ regret it. And if that made me a bad person then so be it. It frightened me, just a little, that I could be so callous.

"It's something that every ninja has to face at one point or another," Dad said, and there was no _judgement_ in his voice.

I leant backwards and sighed. It might not have been the most conventionally reassuring conversation but… it helped. The silence reigned for a moment before I spoke again. "You better go home or Mum will start to worry about you too."

He quirked a smile and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "We can't be having that," he agreed. "Sleep tight."

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><p>.<p>

Kakashi-sensei showed up the next morning while I was gathering my things to sign out. He didn't even say anything, just lounged about reading his book, like it was a perfect coincidence we were even in the same place. I might have even bought it too, if, y'know, we hadn't been in my hospital room.

"Sensei?" I asked uncertainly.

"Hmm?" He looked at me over the top of his book. "Did you want something?"

I rolled my eyes. "Did you come here for a reason?"

"Ma, two of my cute little students are in the hospital. I had to come and see how they were doing." He smiled, eye crinkling happily.

"You've been to see Sasuke? How is he?" I asked eagerly, picking up on the implication.

"Ah, well. They're not letting visitors in to see him," he explained. That didn't, necessarily, mean he hadn't been there. There wasn't _that_ much hospital security could do to keep a Jounin out as evidenced by Dad seeing me outside of normal visiting hours.

I looked at him expectantly.

"He's fine," Sensei said, caving. "We were just planning a little training trip for the next month."

"Trip?" I repeated, suddenly feeling a lot less enthusiastic. Wait, wasn't this when Sasuke had been taught Chidori? "To where?"

"Oh, not far. Just past the outskirts, probably. This isn't really training you want to be doing in the middle of the village."

And it'd keep Sasuke isolated. Just in case.

I bit my lip. Somehow, removing Sasuke from all social contact except Kakashi-sensei for a whole month _didn't_ seem like a good idea to me. "Where abouts?"

His one eye narrowed. "Why all the questions?"

"So I can find you," I admitted. It looked like he was about to deny me, so I rushed onwards. "I can bring food. Supplies. And if Sasuke needs a sparring partner I'm plenty fast when I want to be!"

He blinked. "Fast…? How did you-" He cut himself off.

"Err," I stammered. "Since Lee exposed the weakness of Gaara's Sand Defence in regards to speed then I figured you were going to train Sasuke to take advantage of that… or ways to slow it down more, I guess. Was I wrong?"

"No. No, you weren't wrong." He sighed. "I'll let you know before we leave."

I nodded, satisfied. Even if he didn't there were only so many places they could go; I'd find them eventually. Close to Konoha, large enough to camp and train, away from the main routes of travel… I was already crossing out large sections of the map in my head.

"Cool," I said, picking up the vase of flowers from the table beside the bed. Honeysuckle, baby's breath and gladiolus, probably picked from our front garden as Mum ran out the door. Sweetness, happiness and strength of character. And there was a sprig of snapdragon nestled snugly in the middle because it was my favourite flower even though - or maybe because - it meant deception.

Come on, it was called _snapdragon. _How cool was that?

Sensei followed me out to the reception desk, looking for all the world like we just _happened_ to be walking in the same direction.

We heard Naruto before we saw him.

"Sorry, no visitors."

"Ah! Are you kidding me?" Naruto shouted. I cringed. Jeeze, he was loud.

"Those are the rules," the receptionist chirped, not sounding very sorry at all.

Kakashi-sensei sighed. "Naruto, this is a hospital, keep it down."

Naruto spun around to face us. "Kakashi-sensei! Shikako! You're okay!"

The exclamation marks practically bounced off the tiled floor.

"Yup," I said, slipping past him to hand my release forms to the receptionist. Good thing I'd already filled them out. "As of now, I'm officially out of hospital."

"That's great! I was coming to visit you guys but they wouldn't let me in." He scowled at the receptionist who just smiled pleasantly back.

"Sasuke's in the part of the hospital where they don't let visitors," I explained, bumping shoulders with him lightly. "Can you just imagine how many of his fan girls would have shown up?"

Naruto sniggered, probably thinking about how annoyed Sasuke would be at being unable to escape them. "Anyway, Kakashi-sensei, I have a favour to ask you."

"Stop right there," Sensei said holding up his hands. "I already know what you're going to ask. So I've been looking for someone that can oversee your training for the final rounds."

"Hold on!" Naruto protested immediately. "Why can't you train me, Sensei?"

"I have other matters to handle. I don't have time to deal with you Naruto." I felt like slapping my face. Seriously, Sensei? Did you _really_ think that was a good thing to say?

"Hey! You're going to train Sasuke, aren't you Kakashi-sensei?" There wasn't just annoyance in his voice now, there was the barest traces of hurt.

"Now, now, don't complain. Listen, I found you an even better teacher than me." Sensei smiled cheerfully.

"Well, who is it?" Naruto pouted, crossing his arms.

"It is I."

Ebisu. A clanless ninja who made Special Jounin at twenty two years of age solely on his mastery of basic and generalised ninja skills. Without a defining and powerful technique or jutsu set he'd probably never make the jump to full Jounin, but he was a crafty and tricky ninja who used high levels of strategy to employ his abilities to their fullest level.

I wondered why he and Kakashi-sensei had chosen to meet at the hospital, then I realised that by the time you made Special Jounin you probably realised that letting Sensei set a meeting place was a bad idea. Because a meeting place implied a meeting _time_ and Sensei wasn't very good at those. Easier just to hunt him down.

"You!" Naruto shouted, pointing at him.

They knew each other? Wait. Ebisu was currently teaching Konohamaru. Naruto and Konohamaru _did_ know each other, so it was likely that the two of them had run into each other before. And Naruto didn't always make great first impressions.

"Such insolence." Ebisu sniffed.

"You're kidding me! Of all the guys you could have picked you picked this guy to train me! He's weaker than I am!"

Okay, I think I needed to step in. I'd never really considered myself much of a peacemaker, but around Naruto I sometimes felt the urge. Just to stop him from _yelling_ so much.

"Ne, Naruto," I began. "Ebisu-sensei was promoted to Special Jounin on the merits of his teaching skills and strategising ability alone."

"That's right," Kakashi-sensei echoed. "He's a private tutor who only trains the elite. Frankly, he's a better teacher than I am."

"So he's pretty smart," I continued, sort of ignoring Sensei's interjection. "He'd be able to help you come up with a plan for fighting Neji."

Naruto's surly look faded, just a little. "Why can't you help me?" he argued.

"I can, of course," I said, soothingly. "But if one plan is good, then two plans are better, right? And I'm going to be helping Shikamaru and Ino and Sasuke, too. So you want some one who can help you more often, right?"

He nodded, barely.

"Right." So he was almost convinced. Now to set him a task to do so he'd forget he wanted to argue more. "Maybe you should talk to Hinata about how Neji fights, if you're going to be trying to avenge her. I'm sure she'd be willing to talk to you. Even if she lost, they have the same fighting style, the Hyuuga Jyuuken. She might have some advice and I'm sure Ebisu-sensei can help you decide what questions you need to ask her."

Ebisu pushed his glasses up his nose. "A very intelligent plan, young Nara," he said. "Knowing one's enemy is paramount for success."

Naruto mostly ignored him. "Yeah," he said quietly. "I should talk to her." His fist clenched. "She didn't deserve that."

I plucked the snapdragon from my bouquet and held them out to him. "Here. You should give her these. She's probably going to be in the hospital for a while, so it'd be nice if she had some flowers."

He took them gingerly, very much a pre-teen boy faced with flowers. "Umm, right. Lets go!" He marched off into the corridors, flowers held out at arms length in front of him.

I stared after him, bemused. "Do you even know what room she's in?"

Ebisu groaned. Naruto froze, then turned around with a sheepish look on his face.

I sighed. "Ask the receptionist. Now, don't forget to use your Shadow Clones during training and I'll see you for lunch tomorrow?"

"At Ichiraku!" Naruto nodded enthusiastically.

I waved goodbye, noting vaguely that Sensei had already vanished, and stepped out of the hospital, basking in the fresh air and sunshine. I twirled my snapdragon through my fingers before tucking in neatly into the loops of my braid.

It was a lovely day.

I meandered slowly back home. Even though I hadn't made the Finals, that didn't mean I was going to slack off on my training, because the day of the Third Exam was also the day of the invasion. Knowing that, I probably had more motivation to train than my peers.

Physical training would have to wait until my ribs were well and truly healed, but there were other things I could do.

There was no one home when I got there, and I spent most of the morning cleaning my ninja gear and restocking my mission pack anyway. It was unlikely that I'd get a mission before the Finals, but I technically wasn't involved in them, so it was possible. It made me feel better to have it ready, anyway.

At lunchtime, I cast an uninspired eye around the kitchen and decided to go out for lunch. Maybe I'd go see Sakura and hope I caught her on her lunch break.

I headed towards the Haruno household, but as I was passing the Yamanaka Flower Shop I was nearly tackled and dragged inside.

"You've got to help me!" Ino said, grabbing me by the shoulders. "I'm going to get crushed out there!"

My head wobbled back and forth as she shook me. I clamped my hands down on her wrists to stop her.

"Ino!"

"Did you see Temari? I can't fight like that! What am I going to do?" She babbled. I took a moment to look at her. Ino looked terrible. Drawn and frazzled. "I'm going to get _killed._"

I didn't bother asking why she was at the Flower Shop instead of training, if she was so worried. The Yamanaka Flower Shop was practically Ino's second home and it had a very calming atmosphere inside with the numerous flowers everywhere. It was a good place to think and there was always more work to be done inside.

"Ino!" I repeated. This time she listened. "Calm down. You've got a month to work things out. Have you talked to your dad?"

She blinked and breathed in deeply. "No, not yet. What could I _say?_ 'Sorry, I'm going to embarrass us all'?"

"How about 'Dad, I made it to the Third Exam, could you please help me train'?" I suggested wryly.

She flushed.

It was a logical first step. Inoichi was still the master of their family style, even if he didn't teach her any new techniques, which I doubted he would, frankly. Like our family style, there was only so fast you could progress. I wasn't sure of the details - clan secrets - but some techniques took their toll on the user. I could imagine that throwing your spirit around was one of them.

"Is he here?" I asked.

"Uh, yeah. Out in the greenhouses," Ino replied, twisting her hands together.

"Go and talk to him. I'll watch the counter," I said, making shooing motions at her. It wouldn't be the first time I'd worked here as the cashier. "Then we'll get together and write up a profile for Temari and see what we know about her."

"Right," she breathed deeply. "Good plan. See, I knew you could help me!"

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, Ino."

I fluttered about the shop, taking care of the flowers, chatting to customers and cheerfully ringing up purchases for about half an hour before Ino came back out, her dad following behind her. I wasn't really surprised by the long wait, since Inoichi was the _master_ at getting you to spill. Ino probably would have cracked and talked to him before too long even without my prompting.

"Shikako," he greeted. "I'm sorry to hear you didn't make it to the Finals."

I shrugged, philosophically. "Luck of the draw. If I'd come up against nearly anyone but Shikamaru, I probably would have."

Nearly anyone, because I would have forfeited twice as fast if I'd drawn Gaara.

"That's the spirit," he said. "Now, you two girls go and get some lunch. I'll take over here."

Ino was much more cheerful, nearly approaching her usual buoyant attitude, as we swung by to pick up Sakura who was predictably ecstatic to hear that Ino had made the Finals.

"Wow, Ino," Sakura said admiringly as we found a restaurant and ordered lunch. "Rookies so rarely get nominated for the Exams. For you to make it to the Finals is statistically… well."

Ino laughed uneasily, flicking her hair out of her face with a graceful wrist. "Yes, well. I got lucky in the prelims and didn't have to fight. That just means I really have to show what I can do in the Finals."

"Exactly," I agreed, pulling out a sheet of paper and a pen.

_Temari of the desert_, I wrote at the top. Ino and I started by filling in everything we knew or had observed about her and how she fought. Sakura might not have been present for those fights, but she was a well of knowledge about chakra and ninjutsu types and was able to draw conclusions from the information we had gathered.

"Alright," I said, taking a break from writing to eat. "So she's a long range fighter and pretty well covered against projectiles. She's no slouch up close, either, and getting in close is a challenge in and of itself. We didn't really get to see much, but she fought smart so I wouldn't count on her being easy to fool."

"So I'm pretty much screwed," Ino concluded.

Sakura 'donk'ed her over the head. "Don't be like that."

"Sakura's right," I chided. "You can't give up before you begin. Now, Temari mostly used her fan - a Suna Tessen - to whip up her wind jutsu. So her attack would probably be weaker without it, though she probably wouldn't be helpless. Her defence was based on deflecting wind currents… so I wonder how it would handle explosive notes? Hmm…"

"Explosions aren't the answer to everything," Ino and Sakura chorused, giggling.

I poked my tongue at them. "You guys make me out to be so much worse than I really am."

"Wind jutsu are usually divided into either cutting and slicing attacks or brute force shoving attacks," Sakura said, voice taking a lecturing quality. "They can range from incredibly precise to wide range devastating attacks. It's strong against lightning based attacks, but weak towards fire - which it tends to enhance."

"Thank you, Sakura-sensei," I said.

She flushed and slapped me lightly on the shoulder.

"The attacks we saw her use were quite large and Tessen lean more towards wide ranging than incredibly precise, so dodging them is going to be an issue," I mused. "There's also the fact that she was able to _fly_ on it… so pinning her down is going to be difficult."

Ino sighed, then examined her hands. "Does anyone know what the arena for the Finals is going to be like? Inside, outside… What have I got to work with?"

I tapped the pen against my lips. "It's in the stadium, isn't it? We could go and have a look but they might change it between now and then."

"That's better than nothing," Ino said. "After lunch?"

"Sorry," Sakura said, looking down. "I've got class this afternoon."

"Yeah?" I asked. "How's that going?"

We chattered away until she had to leave, then picked up our stuff and headed towards the stadium. The offices were locked, but it was easy enough to get into the arena itself. It'd probably be more securely guarded closer to the date, but for now we got in just fine.

"Well," Ino said, looking around.

From inside, the stadium looked _huge._ The stark concrete walls were intimidating and tall, almost seeming to make the place claustrophobic. The ground was scuffed, dry dirt and grass, packed down hard, and there were scraggly bushes and trees around the circumference.

"Not very much cover," I said, inspecting the trees. They might do for a bit, but it wouldn't be a viable long term strategy.

"Mm," Ino said vaguely. I wondered if she was already starting to plan. Apart from her initial panic, Ino was nothing to sneeze at in an opponent. In any other year, she would have been the top kunoichi, if not the rookie of the year. Well, maybe not against Neji, but the point still stood.

On our way back to the Flower Shop we ran into Asuma-sensei.

"Oh, Ino! There you are. I've been looking for you," he said.

"Asuma-sensei?" She blinked. "Oh, right. We've been brainstorming." She fluttered the paper with Temari's details on it at him.

"Good girl. I was going to ask you what training you needed for the Finals." He puffed on his cigarette, eyes flickering to me.

"That's my cue to leave," I said wryly. By rights, with my team mates and brother in the Finals, I probably shouldn't stick around to hear her training plans. "I'll catch you around, Ino."

"Thanks for your help," she said sincerely. "I think I was a little freaked out this morning."

I laughed. "Something like that."


	27. Chapter 26

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: So I was browsing through the Narutopedia and I saw that the Nara family techniques were listed as Hiden. Secret Techniques that aren't a bloodline but can't be copied _even with the Sharingan_. So that said to me that there was more to the techniques than hand seals and chakra. Added to the fact that Shikamaru, resident genius, knows one technique by the Chunin Exams and only the very basics of a second by the Sasuke Retrieval Arc… something's going on here, right?

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Chapter 26

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_A winning effort begins with preparation. ~Joe Gibbs_

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It was at the dinner table that Dad announced a change in plans. He did it in his usual laid back manner that belied the seriousness of the situation.

"After dinner, we're going to start training," Dad said. "I didn't want to start teaching you this until you made Chunin but given the circumstances… it might be for the best."

Given that he'd spent most of our lives telling us that learning the Clan techniques was a delicate process best done in carefully calculated stages… it was a bit of a surprise. Mum looked pleased with the announcement, but I was never quite sure she understood _why_ Dad was so set on the stages. Intellectually, she knew, but she didn't use Shadow Jutsu and that made a difference.

_Circumstances…? Does he mean Orochimaru?_

If Orochimaru had targeted my team once, he might do it again. I suppose I could see that as something that would change his mind. Maybe.

"Teaching us what, exactly?" Shikamaru asked, looking like he was having the same thoughts as me.

"You'll just have to wait and see," Dad deflected.

Shikamaru slumped back into his chair. "Troublesome," he muttered.

"Good," Mum said firmly. "I'll work with you in the morning and your father has you at night. That gives you the afternoon to train with your sensei." Her look clearly said Shikamaru _would_ spend that time training and not cloud watching.

I smirked at him. "I hope you're planning, Shikamaru. Shadow Possession isn't going to do much against a thousand bugs."

He glared at me balefully. Shino was a pretty horrific opponent for him to face. Not only did free moving bugs negate the effectiveness of Shadow Possession, Shino was pretty clever himself.

I'd spent the afternoon writing up more profiles of the competitors for the Finals. I'd copied Temari's profile out from memory, intending on plotting it out further when I'd decided I might as well draw up some for her brothers… and then Neji and Shino as well. That way I could just hand the whole thing out to everyone and not feel bad about helping some more than others. They weren't complete, and I'd have to look up Jyuuken and find out more specifics about what Shino could do but I already knew enough to know that Shikamaru was at a disadvantage.

"There's a way around every obstacle," Dad said mildly. I wasn't sure if he was chiding me or reassuring Shikamaru. Probably both for the effort of one response. That was the Nara way.

The days were long so there was still plenty of sunlight after dinner. We traipsed out into the forest and were directed to gather firewood. Shikamaru and I exchanged looks and shrugged; presumably there was a method to this madness.

Dad led us to a small clearing in a hollow and we set up a fire on top of what looked like the remains of a hundred other fires. There was ash and charcoal and a circular dead space amongst the grass.

"Wish I brought marshmallows," I said wistfully, looking at the dancing flames. It built slowly, first consuming the tinder then the twigs before catching the larger pieces alight. Shikamaru slumped backwards, lying down and staring up at the sky.

Dad didn't say anything. Sometimes, clan training was like being given the pieces of a puzzle and having to put them together yourself. I wondered what pieces he was handing us now?

The dancing flame caused the shadows to waver, overlap and change. But none of that was really new.

When the fire was burning well, nearly roaring, Dad threw something in the flames that made the smoke spew out thick and heavy, hanging around the ground instead of rising into the sky.

Shika and I both looked dubiously at the smoke.

"I hope there's not going to be any singing and dancing involved," Shikamaru sighed. "That'd be such a _drag_."

"Idiots. It's not _that_ kind of smoke," Dad drawled, though there was a smirk on his face.

"So what's it for, then?" Shikamaru asked. "It's not like you'd drag us out here for nothing."

"Look at your shadows and you tell me," he said cryptically, leaning back against a tree trunk and stretching his long legs out. It seemed like he was preparing to be here a while.

We looked. And looked. It wasn't until I was stretching my arm out, wiggling my fingers in the smoke and watching my shadow do the same that I saw it.

"Fog shadow," I murmured, naming the phenomena. "Shadows are three dimensional; they occupy all the space behind an object that blocks the light. Usually, we only see two dimensions, when they hit the ground… but the smoke is heavy enough that it shows up."

It was like watching dust motes dance in a sun beam. Sort of. The opposite, really.

"That's exactly right," Dad drawled. "So far, you've only been using your shadows to connect to the shadow of someone else and Possess them. But the higher level clan techniques use shadows manifested as something solid."

He demonstrated, creating a thin tendril with the Shadow Stitching Jutsu and sending it punching through the trunk of a tree. Splinters went flying.

"I see," Shikamaru said thoughtfully. "So instead of pushing our chakra into the shadow on the ground, it has to go into all of it…."

I could see an immediate problem. "But the increase in chakra drain would be proportional to the increase in volume… it'd be too much." Even the Shadow Possession Jutsu wasn't _chakra light. _"Even if you only did it by surface area, it'd still…"

"And now you see where our family's _unique_ affinity with shadows comes into play." He leant backwards against tree again. "Shadows are considered the negative double of the body, the alter ego of the soul… associated with the unconscious mind. So, it might be said that we have a _spiritual_ affinity."

There were numerous, slight differences between mental and spiritual energy. Both combined, formed half of chakra but 'originated' from different sources. Mental energy came from learning and experiences, while spiritual energy was your 'willpower', or personality. Once, I might have scoffed at the notion of 'spiritual' anything, but I of all people could hardly deny that souls existed. How else could I be here?

"Oh, I see," I said, realisation dawning. "That's how we can force people to mimic us with the Shadow Possession Jutsu. Because there's such a large mental component to it… we're not physically _forcing_ them to move like a puppet jutsu would, we're using a sympathetic connection to convince their chakra that we're the same thing, and then when one moves so does the other…"

Sneaky. Insidious.

"But how does that help us here?" Shikamaru drawled. "It's not like you can change your spiritual energy, right?" he asked, uneasily. That's what we'd been taught. Because chakra and the energies that compromised them were a catch-22 situation; if something affected your body then it would affect your physical energy… and if it affected your physical energy it would affect the body. The same was true with the soul, and really, did you _want_ to mess with that?

"Change?" Dad echoed. "No, not exactly. You don't need to _change_. You already are what you need to be. You just need to … synchronise properly."

I wasn't exactly sure I understood. Or that I liked where this was going.

"The Shadow Possession is the first Jutsu you learn for a reason. It's a gateway jutsu to the more complex clan techniques. However, it's very chakra inefficient. You can hold it for a minute, tops. But in order to make it more effective, you need to become more _in tune_ with your affinity to shadow. Which is what leads us on to the next level techniques. Understand?"

I nodded, a little reluctantly.

"Hiden," Shikamaru murmured. "Secret techniques. No wonder…"

"Yes," Dad said simply. "And most of the upper level jutsus are Forbidden Techniques." Not 'forbidden' in the common sense - as in 'don't touch' - but in the sense of ninja rankings. More 'caution, extreme danger; use at your own risk'. "Which is why you _will not_ even _attempt_ this training without proper supervision."

We gave our word easily. Neither of us were particularly willing to run the risk of causing ourselves damage by messing around with our own energy unsupervised.

There wasn't any neat tricks or special procedure to doing it, which was good, because having to fight a manifestation of your inner self or something would have been far too cliché for me to handle. It was basically a kind of meditation exercise - activate our shadows, isolate the way the chakra felt where/when it was strongest, and attempt to increase that feeling. Simple in theory but with many problems in execution. Like, how exactly do you tell where it's strongest? How do you measure and replicate that? Was I the ratio of energies in the chakra? Presumably the affinities, since that was what we were talking about…

I was pretty sure I achieved nothing by the time Dad called a halt. "That's enough," he drawled. "You wont learn this quickly. Certainly not by the Chunin Exams."

Shikamaru groaned. "Troublesome."

"There's no point in rushing ahead and losing sight of where you're going," he said philosophically. "That doesn't do anyone any good."

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The next morning, Mum made good on her promise to train us. She'd been doing so on and off ever since I came back from the Land of Waves, but Shika's inclusion in the Finals seemed to have driven her to step it up a notch.

The fact that Shikamaru didn't moan about it - much - let me know he was really kind of worried about his up coming fight.

After training I slipped off to drop into the hospital to visit Hinata - and to check that Sasuke was still here. He was, but not allowed visitors and the receptionist was fairly certain he was going to be released this afternoon. Good, he and Sensei hadn't left yet.

Hinata looked far too surprised that someone was visiting her and I made a mental note to stop by more often.

"Er, hi, Hinata," I said. Her room was pretty bland, but I spied a familiar set of flowers in pride of place on her bedside table. "How are you doing?"

"Ah! Shikako," she said, blinking at me. "I - I'm fine."

Given that she looked pretty awful and was in one of the more heavily monitored sections of the hospital 'fine' was probably an overstatement.

"That's good to hear," I said, not pushing the issue. "We were all really worried about you after the prelims."

Her fingers twisted together and she ducked her head. "Yes. Kiba and Shino have already been to visit me. And Naruto…" A light blush dusted across her cheeks. "Is it true? Is he facing Neji-nii-san in the Finals?"

I nodded. "Yeah. The first match of the day. After what Neji did to you, Naruto isn't going to let him get away unscathed. Or at all. Neji might be good, but Naruto is… surprising." I quirked a smile at her.

She smiled back tentatively. "He is very strong," she acknowledged.

"You've got good eyes, Hinata. I think… you were the first person to ever see that." Even for me it had been difficult to see what Naruto _could_ be, and I had known what he would turn into. But Hinata had seen what he _was_.

She flushed, though whether at the compliment or the topic, I wasn't sure. "I'm not… I'm not very strong…"

I squeezed her hand. "Yeah you are, Hinata. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. We got our asses kicked too, remember? But we got back up and kept fighting, and so did you. For now, you just need to heal so that when the next fight comes along, you can show them how much you've grown."

She looked at me, expression indecipherable, the nodded. "Y-yeah. That's right. I have changed…"

I smiled. "Exactly. So, anyway. Uh, I know it's pretty boring in here so I brought you a few of my books… I don't know if you'll like them but…" I shrugged awkwardly. "You can borrow them for now."

There was a few fiction books and an encyclopaedia on the medical uses of plants. It wasn't exactly exciting reading, but I knew Hinata made her own medical salve, so she might have liked it.

"Umm, I can bring others if you've already read these… just let me know."

"Thank you," Hinata said quietly. "I haven't. Read these, I mean. It's not considered… appropriate material…" 'for a Hyuuga' went unsaid.

I blinked. "Seriously?" I double checked the books in my hands. Nope, young adult adventure books. Nothing inappropriate here. "Wow. They're not exactly _high class literature_ but they're not that bad. Let me know if you like them, I've practically got a whole bookshelf full in my room."

I stacked the books on the table and waved goodbye. It had been a short visit, but I had a boy to meet about some ramen.

Naruto was already at Ichiraku when I ducked under the banner.

"Hey, Shikako!" He greeted, boundlessly cheerful. "You'll never guess what happened yesterday!"

"What happened?" I echoed, ordering a miso ramen. "Weren't you supposed to be training with Ebisu-sensei?"

"Yeah," he said sheepishly. "I was!" he defended at my sharp look. "We went and talked to Hinata and everything. Then he said he needed to 'judge my skill level' or whatever, so we went to one of the training grounds to spar. He's actually pretty good," he added grudgingly.

"Kicked your ass, did he?" I said knowingly.

"No! Well, maybe a little bit. But it's not like he used any jutsus or anything, so he's still lame." He scowled. "And he said my chakra control was really bad and my taijutsu was sloppy. He was going to teach me Water Walking, but I already know that!" He looked pleased at having exceeded expectations.

"Chakra control, huh?" I mused. "Did you get that seal removed?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Kakashi-sensei took me to the Old Man after the prelims. He knew what it was, right away. No problem!" He grinned.

"Well, he is the Hokage," I said. "So what'd you do instead?"

"Uh, well. He asked me if I'd ever fought while Water Walking." He twirled ramen around his chopsticks, almost pensively. "I said no, so we went to this hot springs place to practice. The hot water kept busting up my clones whenever they fell in." He grimaced. "It was _really_ hot. And it's really hard to keep your balance when someone is trying to knock you around like that."

"I know," I said soothingly. Not that I'd ever fought on water, either. Though I'd probably do better than Naruto who tended to learn something once and then call it done. He was getting better at that, but I doubted he had done much Water Walking since Wave Country.

"Yeah, so we were fighting and then there was this old guy peeping on the ladies bath." He froze and cast a nervous look at me. "And then the closet pervert - Ebisu, I mean - tried to tell him off but he just got knocked out. Then the old guy said he was, like, some kind of toad sage or something… so I figured, he must be a ninja, right?"

_Toad sage? That sounds like…_

"Yeah, so I left some clones to keep training and watch out for Ebisu and then I went to convince the pervy sage to train me. I figured, he had to know at least one decent technique." He scowled again, waving his arms about. "He didn't want to but I got him in the end. Heh. Another one falls to the Sexy Jutsu."

_Definitely sounds like…_

"So you're training with both of them?" I asked, amused. It was actually a really good idea.

"Yeah," Naruto said, sounding slightly less than enthused. He looked… troubled. "It's weird… maybe you can help me…"

"Shoot," I agreed easily, wondering what was up.

"Well, it's like this, see," he said. "The pervy sage… he keeps talking about how I have a lot of chakra, right? So he said I should learn how to… err… learn how to increase the amount of chakra I can use."

_Or learn how to draw on Kyuubi's chakra, right?_

"Mmm, I guess," I said.

"But the closet pervert - Ebisu-sensei, I mean - he says that I should increase my chakra control so I don't waste so much chakra doing techniques. But when I tell _him_ that I have a lot of chakra, he says it doesn't matter and that I'm still weaker…" he trailed off quietly.

"So which one is right?" I guessed at his dilemma. On the surface, they seemed like two contradictory approaches. "Well, it's like this. You have a lot of chakra, right? But because your control isn't so good, you waste a heap of it instead of being able to use it in Jutsu. So effectively, you really only have _half_ the amount of chakra you seem to have." He nodded, showing that he was following. "Now if you increased the total amount of chakra you have, then that _half_ would increase too. But if you increased your control, you'd be using maybe three quarters or even all of it instead. So by both approaches, you'd still end up with more chakra to use."

"And if I did both, I'd end up with twice as much!" He grinned, making an intuitive leap ahead. That was Naruto. You couldn't be sure he understood and then he went and surprised you.

I blinked. "Yeah, that's right. Increasing your chakra control has other benefits too; for starters it makes using Jutsu easier."

"It does?" Naruto practically shouted. "Why didn't anyone tell me that?"

I nearly sweat dropped. "It's in the name. Chakra control - the ability to guide and direct… oh, never mind. You never noticed how Sasuke and I spent less time gathering our chakra when we're using Jutsu?"

"Well, yeah." Naruto shifted uncomfortably. "But… I just thought… so that's what it is, huh? Chakra control."

_Just thought we were _better_ than you._ I could read the unfinished sentence easily enough. For all his bravado, Naruto was surprisingly aware that he wasn't, really, all that good. He just never really admitted it and hated it when other people brought it up.

"Well," I said, picking up the napkin that was next to my bowl. "This is a chakra control exercise." I emitted chakra gently to float it about five centimetres off my palm. It came easily, without even thinking about it. Behind the counter, Ayame gasped. I guess civilians didn't really get to see chakra being used a lot. "Iruka-sensei showed us how to do this with leaves, remember?"

"Uh, not really. I think I skipped that day," Naruto admitted, squinting at it.

I rolled my eyes. "Right. It's like Tree Climbing. You constantly emit chakra, only instead of trying to stick to something, you use it to push it away and hold it steady. If you use too much, it'll just be thrown away."

"Like being pushed off the tree," Naruto said.

"Right. You should probably ask Ebisu-sensei for more control techniques. I bet he knows heaps of them," I suggested. No doubt Ebisu would be incredibly surprised at the request.

Naruto's napkin fluttered through the air, landing solidly in his ramen bowl. "Ah no! Not in the ramen!"

I giggled. "So what _have_ you been learning?"

"Well, the closet pervert has been working on my taijutsu. I don't know _why_, since he said that I wouldn't want to get in close to Neji." He looked at me expectantly.

"Eh, your clones use the same taijutsu you do," I said, taking a stab at the reasoning. "So if _your_ taijutsu is better, their taijutsu is better and they'll be more effective. If you get in close Neji can shut your chakra down like he did to Hinata and you wont be able to use any techniques at all. But your clones will disperse with a hit anyway, so…"

"So it doesn't matter if he shuts their chakra down," Naruto finished. "Hinata was saying stuff about that. How they, like, shoot chakra out of their hands and it messes you up really badly inside. You can't even see it until they hit you. And then, like, their eyes can see through everything so you can't even hide. Creepy."

"They can also use it defensively," I said. "To deflect things. I bet Neji practices with Tenten a lot, so he's probably pretty good at that too."

"Well I'm going to be better!" Naruto proclaimed. "The pervy sage is teaching me this really cool technique."

"Really?" I asked. "What is it?"

"Summoning Jutsu! It's like this contract thing and then you can summon toads!" Naruto said.

I hid a smile. "I've heard of them. Orochimaru summoned snakes, remember? You said you got eaten by one of them."

"Wait, that was a summon? That thing was huge! Sheesh, no wonder the pervy sage says it takes a lot of chakra. I can't even summon anything good yet! I keep getting tadpoles."

"Maybe more chakra control will help?" I suggested. "Hey, do you think that I could meet your 'pervy sage'?"

He blinked at me. "Sure, but why would you want to do that? The old guy is an awful letch."

"I just wanted to ask him a few questions, that's all," I said. "Maybe tomorrow? That way I can bring all my seal workbooks…"

How much I'd be able to get out of him would be another story all together. Worst came to, Naruto would probably pester him into answering at least one question.

"Sure, we were out by training ground 31 today, so… we'll probably be there tomorrow too." He shrugged.

"Sweet. Thanks." That would give me a chance to get over the huge roadblock I'd run into on my sealing. Hopefully. Superstitiously, I crossed my fingers. "Are you still working on your Hidden in the Mist Jutsu?" I asked. "It wont help you much against Neji, since he'd be able to see through it, but it might help against some of the others…"

Like Gaara. Wet sand was heavier than dry. Probably more difficult to control, too. Of course, he'd have to have a decent water supply to use…

He pursed his lips. "You're right. Once I beat Neji, I'll have to fight Sasuke. The mist is good against him. Maybe if I get some clones to work on it while I'm with …"

"It'd be a good idea," I acknowledged. "Your Shadow Clones are really handy, you know?"

He grinned, hand going behind his head. "Yup. It's the most awesome technique ever!"

After lunch I waved goodbye to him and headed off to the library for research. There'd be nothing there directly on the Hyuuga and Aburame - I'd have better luck in our clan archives - but I'd already discovered that historical records could be a treasure trove of information. Added to that, Kikai might not have been listed anywhere, but they were beetles and I could extrapolate from general information.

For example, like most insects, Kikai had waterproof exoskeletons. However, insects didn't have lungs. They breathed through a tracheal system, that opened into the atmosphere through a series of holes all over their bodies called spiracles. If these spiracles were covered in water, an insect would drown just as surely as a mammal.

Kikai were also susceptible to poisons and insecticides, though if a hive contained even a single beetle with a resistant mutation then a skilled Aburame could quickly breed a resistant strain. Evolution on a reduced time frame.

Smoke could sometimes affect the ability of the hive to communicate with each other by masking pheromones, which was why beekeepers used smoke. That had limited effectiveness here though, because, the Aburame controlled their hive via chakra. Or something.

"Taking up entomology?" Kakashi-sensei asked, lifting the cover of a book with a single finger. _Handbook; Coleoptera._

I jerked, pen scratching across my notepaper. I hadn't even noticed him arrive. "Kakashi-sensei!"

His eye crinkled in good humour. "Yare, yare; inside voice. This is a library, you know."

"No, really?" I asked dryly. "I hadn't noticed."

"And you say I never teach you anything," Sensei said, looking mighty pleased with himself.

I groaned. "Sensei…"

He chuckled and pulled out a very battered looking map. "This is where we're going." I was slightly surprised that he had actually come to tell me, but glad for it.

I eyed the spot he was pointing at. The map was very basic, but I was sure that on my more detailed map that location had altitude lines. "There's a plateau there, right? And a cave system…" My fingers touched the spot, then 'walked' back to Konoha, measuring the distance. "It's about two hours out…"

Easily able to be covered in a day, there and back. I'd worried that it would be further out.

"I'd tell you not to visit…" Kakashi-sensei drawled. "If I thought you'd listen. Instead, I'll tell you to keep the trips down to every three days."

I was glad he didn't forbid it. I didn't _like_ going against rulings and I especially didn't want to find out how far I could push Kakashi-sensei before he started retaliating. I had a feeling you only went that far _once_.

"When are you leaving?" I asked.

"Mmm, I'm supposed to pick Sasuke up from the hospital at two," he replied.

I glanced at the clock reflexively. "It's half past four."

"Why so it is." He smiled.

Yeah, Sasuke was going to try and kill him within a week.


	28. Chapter 27

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: I have the slight suspicion that the Byakugan _can_ see through Transformation Jutsu, but I can't find any episode that has that info in it. If any one knows, drop me a line and I'll see if it matches up with what I intend to do…

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Chapter 27

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_Speed is a great asset; but it's greater when it's combined with quickness - and there's a big difference.~ Ty Cobb_

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I made good on my promise to interrupt Naruto's training the next day, picking up my seal notebooks and scurrying out to the training fields. Truth be told, I was a little nervous. I'd never had to actually go and bother a complete, uninterested stranger for help before.

Still, it wasn't like I was going to get a better chance.

"Shikako! Look! Look!" Naruto shouted, shoving something bright green in my face. My eyes crossed trying to focus on it. "I did it! I summoned a toad!"

It was, well, a pretty small toad. Barely the size of one of his hands. But considering he'd only started learning how to summon creatures yesterday it wasn't bad. Especially when you considered Naruto had several dozen Shadow Clones running around at the moment. In fact, I didn't even know if this was the _real_ one.

"That's great, Naruto," I said smiling.

Someone snorted. "I wouldn't get so excited about it, kid. That's a pretty pathetic attempt!"

"Shut up! I'm trying, alright?" Naruto hollered back.

I perked up, looking for the voice. There. A white haired man crouching behind a screen of bushes, giggling every now and then.

"Is that…?" I asked.

Naruto scowled. "Yeah, that's the pervy sage. Are you _really _sure you wanna meet him?" The way he said it implied he couldn't imagine why anyone would.

"What's this?" Jiraiya cried, suddenly there in the same way Sensei sometimes was - exactly where you didn't expect him. "Someone wants to meet with the great Jiraiya? Is it a pretty woman? Oh, brat, you make me so proud!"

"It's not like that, you - you pervert!" Naruto exploded, waving his hands about and shouting at the top of his lungs. "Why can't you be serious at all?"

"Well, you're _starting_ to get the right idea," Jiraiya leered at me, clapping Naruto firmly on the shoulder. "This one is a little young for me though." He laughed, a tad too long and a tad too loud to sound natural.

I waited for the feeling of embarrassment or outrage to start up. There was some but…

A lifetime ago something like that would have had me flushing and stammering. Now? I wanted to check over my shoulder to see who he was talking to.

There was a feeling of disconnection, like the seconds pause when I looked in the mirror and didn't recognise the face looking back. Sometimes I still looked for a rounder face, a curvier body, lighter hair, paler skin… sometimes. Just enough to make me feel like this skin wasn't _quite_ mine.

So Jiraiya leering at it…

It didn't _feel_ like he was looking at _me_.

It probably wasn't a very healthy way to feel, but it worked for now.

"Jiraiya-sama," I said, bowing low. "Please-"

He cut me off before I even had a chance to ask. "Oh, no. Just because I got suckered in to teaching this brat doesn't mean I'm about to go around giving lessons to every kid he drags along. So you can just toddle off back home and do whatever it is young girls do." He giggled, thoughts drifting off on an obvious and obnoxious tangent.

"I-"

"Nope. Not a chance. Sorry." He waved half-heartedly over his shoulder and turned to go back to his previous spot watching whatever he was watching.

He obviously wasn't going to listen. Not without something to catch his attention. My thoughts raced. It was a gamble, because he _was _a ninja and a Sannin at that but he was obviously fairly laidback and I was mostly sure I could get away with it.

Shadow Possession wasn't strictly an _attack_ jutsu. And there was no way he'd regard me as an actual threat.

My shadow lashed out.

"Jiraiya-sama," I said hurriedly, knowing it wouldn't pause him for long. Not if he didn't want it to. "I've been studying seal work but there is only so far I can get studying books without someone to ask for clarification. Please, could you answer a few questions?"

I dropped the Shadow Possession, knowing it would be better to let him go than have him break it. I definitely didn't want him to see me as any kind of enemy. He turned back around, and this time there was _weight_ in his gaze. I raised my chin. I hadn't faltered before, under Orochimaru, and I wouldn't falter here.

"A Nara, huh?" he muttered. "Sorry, little girl, regardless of whatever clan tricks you've got up your sleeves, you just _don't impress me._" There was a shiver in the air. Not quite Killing Intent but … Intent all the same. It made me highly aware that if he wanted, he could crush me and _I couldn't do a thing_. "I'm a busy man, I don't have time to hold your hand and teach you how to make your own explosive tags or whatever kids want to do with seals these days."

It was utterly dismissive.

I couldn't stop the flash of anger in my eyes. "I already know how to make my own explosive tags," I said, pulling my notebook out of my pouch. This one held all the different templates for the tags I used. There were about twenty different variations of explosive tags alone. "What I want - what I _need_ - to know is how to create my own seals. And how to apply them with a touch for use in combat. _Nothing_ I have read even hints at it." I frowned just a little put out about it. Oh, I understood _why_ ninja were so stingy with information, but it didn't stop being irritating.

Jiraiya's look was reconsidering, and he snatched my notebook out of my hands with a lightning fast movement. "Hmmm," he said, flicking through the pages. "You'll never be able to seal like that using mass production seals like these," Jiraiya shook his head. "You have to _own_ your seals. Mind and soul. Look, the reason no one else can do the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God Technique isn't do to any safety seals or secrecy seals, no matter what anyone else says. It's because he invented his own damn branch of sealing to make it work."

I blinked.

"Look. Seals are all about influencing the world with your chakra. The ink, the symbols… its all trapping. Important, yeah, but …" he flicked his fingers back and forth.

"But… then why are there so many distinct branches of sealing?" I asked, bewildered.

He laughed. "People only think in so many different ways, kid. You live long enough, you'll work _that_ one out."

"Oh." I blinked. That made… so much damn sense. "So I guess this is useless then." I looked down at the second notebook I'd pulled out. Jiraiya quirked a brow. "I was comparing the twelve most used branches of sealing arts. Method, theory, range of uses, results, points of conflicts…" I trailed off. Sealing was a matter of putting your own thoughts, own ideas, to paper, and then making them _real_. No wonder nobody used the same process. Oh, there were bits cut from here and there, bastardisations of this technique or that, overlaps, crossovers, wild leaps of imagination.

Every seal master created their own _language_. Not out of arrogance, not to mess with everyone else, or to keep their seals secret… but because they had to.

"Let's see it," Jiraiya said. I handed it over, mind still whirling. That new perspective… changed everything. Sealing was so unpredictable, so arbitrary, because _people_ were. In computer terms…The seals weren't the hardware… they were the _interface._

"Well, you completely missed the _point_," Jiraiya said slowly. I nodded along. "But… do you mind if I read through this? A large part of being a seal master is working out what _other_ people have done. I'll correct any mistakes you've made."

"Yes, of course, Jiraiya-sama," I said automatically. I wasn't quite sure what the look he gave me meant, it was long and judging and lacked any of the lechery he usually emitted. Probably wondering how I'd missed the point so badly.

_Damn._

"Eh, I don't get what you're talking about!" Naruto complained, crossing his arms.

I jolted. I'd mostly forgotten he was there. You knew you were preoccupied when you forgot about _Naruto._ "Uh, I just did something dumb, that's all." I smiled at him sheepishly. "But that just means I have more training to do now. Sorry for interrupting your training and all."

Naruto shrugged the apology off. "Nah, don't worry about it. It's not like the pervy sage does anything but watch those girls, anyway. Hey! Maybe you can help me with this jutsu!"

I blinked. "Of course, Naruto. You know I'll always help you. What are you having problems with?"

"I'm doing this summoning jutsu, right? But all I keep getting are these tadpoles and tiny frogs! I want to summon a really big one, like the pervy sage did!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Okay," I said slowly. "So how does this jutsu work?"

Naruto demonstrated. "I build up the chakra, and do the hand seals and… _Summoning Jutsu!_" he slammed his hand down onto the ground, chakra smoke billowing out.

_Ribbit!_

"Aww, man. That's another tiny one!" The frog was slightly larger than the one he'd shoved into my face at first, but not by much.

"Hmmm," I said. I'd felt the build up, and I'd felt the chakra that he'd actually _used_ in the jutsu. The difference was pretty damn big. "Let me try something. I'm going to use my diagnostic jutsu on you while you do the summoning jutsu, okay?" I summoned medical chakra to my hands and placed them on his shoulders. It took me a few seconds to zone in on his chakra system. "Okay, do it again now."

Using my chakra sense, I could get a fairly decent picture of his chakra usage, but this jutsu was _designed_ for close up investigation of the body. Naruto's chakra built up and up and up, so much it must have been almost painful, then just … fizzled, as he tried to do the jutsu, only small amounts drizzling down his arm and into the summon.

I drew back and considered.

"Well?" He asked.

"Give me a second," I said, biting my lip. What on earth was going on here? It was bad chakra control, sure… but…

"Let me see you do a Shadow Clone," I said, creating more medical chakra.

Naruto didn't even question why. He built up his chakra again, faster and easier this time with a more familiar jutsu… and then it was snatched away, twisted into the air to form a new body.

I had a sneaky suspicion. "A Transformation?"

Again, his chakra built… and again it twisted outwards reforming his body. He didn't _channel_ it.

There was more than one part to chakra control. You had to mould it, creating a balance of physical and mental energy. Then you had to manipulate it into doing whatever you wanted.

Naruto wasn't _great_ at moulding chakra, being inefficient, but seemed to be much worse at _manipulating_ it. His best techniques were ones that seemed to just _take_ the energy given to him and manipulate it themselves.

"Hmm." I drew back again.

He looked at me expectantly.

"Okay. Let's try this," I said, deciding. "Build up your chakra." He did, closing his eyes to concentrate. His chakra built until it was nearly visible radiating from his skin. I winced. Gods, it was just _steaming_ off him; what a waste. "Now do the hand seals _but_ don't do the summoning yet." Slowly his hands moved through the seals, his face scowling in concentration. "_Now_ move the chakra in your Hara down your arm."

Naruto blinked his eyes open. "Huh?"

I touched his stomach where the bulk of the chakra was. "This is where you're building your chakra, right? Now, you need to move it up your shoulder and down your arm." I traced my hand down the path it should have followed.

Naruto grimaced as he tried to follow. He was just bleeding chakra at an amazing rate.

"Now do the summoning bit," I said, as it reached his hand.

"Summoning Jutsu!" Naruto said, biting his thumb and slamming his hand down on the ground.

Chakra dispersed.

"Yo!" A small orange toad said. It still wasn't very big, maybe the size of Akamaru, but it was an improvement.

"Hah! I did it!" Naruto exclaimed. "That's super cool! But… I don't get why it worked now but not before…" he looked at me hesitantly.

"Well," I said. "When you're Tree Walking or Water Walking, you build the chakra in your feet, right?"

Naruto nodded. "Right. Kakashi-sensei said that was the hardest part of the body to gather chakra." He looked pleased with himself for remembering.

"Exactly," I beamed. "So if you use your feet for those techniques, what are you using for this one?"

Naruto blinked. Then stared at his hand that still had blood smeared across the fingertips. "My hand. So I… should have been moulding chakra in my hand all along? OH MAN! Why didn't I think of that?" He smacked himself in the forehead.

"Ebisu-sensei probably talked to you about chakra control right? And manipulating it?" I asked.

"He said I wasn't any good at it," Naruto confirmed mulishly.

"You lose a lot of chakra between moulding it and using it in the jutsu. So you need to focus on moving it where you want to go, right?" I asked. "That's probably what more chakra control will help you with the most."

"Right! I'm going to get this jutsu down. Believe it!" Naruto said firmly. "Here I come! _Summoning Jutsu!_"

I smiled. "I'll leave you to it, then."

I headed back to the clan grounds, head buzzing with new information. I wanted to get started on sealing right away, but I also wanted to finish drawing up my analysis sheets on the other Genin. That way, I could pass them out to my friends tomorrow.

So instead of heading back to my room, I set course for the clan archives.

The Nara Clan collected information.

There were four buildings on the clan property that had secret basements converted into libraries. One was open to anyone in the clan, one to Genin, one to Chunin and the last only to those who had achieved Jounin rank. I suspected there was more that were too secret for me to even _know_ of. That wasn't even counting the secret cache of information that each ninja would likely compile, to be added to the clan archives after their death (provided the clan head agreed, of course).

We collected information like Uchiha collected techniques. Some of it bizarrely specific, like my great uncle who had gone to lengths to classify precisely the kind of parasites that our deer collected. (Of course, that then led to medical treatments to remove them, so it wasn't _useless_). Other information was very broad. Other information still was likely stuff other people would like to keep secret.

Like, for example, fighting styles of other clans.

At Genin level, I didn't have access to _that much_ about the Aburame or Hyuuga, but it was enough. Some of it, I had already puzzled out yesterday at the Konoha Library. Some of it sparked more ideas, and I wanted to go and visit Hinata again.

I didn't know if she'd talk to me like she would to Naruto, but it was worth a shot, particularly if she knew I was asking on his behalf.

I took flowers this time, and even grabbed an extra one to give to Lee. We weren't exactly friends, but we had made it to the same stage of the Chunin Exams. He was an orphan, so I didn't think he'd have many people visiting him, and there were rumours going around that he was badly injured enough to end his ninja career.

I doubted that Rock Lee had the common sense to let something like _injuries_ stop him from doing what he wanted.

I signed in at the reception desk, indicating who I wanted to visit.

"Rock Lee?" the nurse asked before sighing. "Please, if he's not in his room, let someone know. We've already had to drag him back inside twice today."

I blinked. "He tries to escape?"

"Worse. He keeps trying to _train_." She sighed again. "It's only aggravating his injuries, but he just wont listen to sense."

"That… sounds like Lee," I admitted.

It was a very awkward visit. Lee was very polite, I wasn't sure that he knew how to be anything else, but we didn't have much to talk about once I'd wished him well. The only thing I could think to talk about was the Chunin Exams, and that was just a bit too insensitive for me.

So I put the vase of flowers on the - previously empty - beside table and fled the room at the first opportunity.

"Hey, Hinata," I said, knocking gently on the door to her room. "How are you?"

She blinked, looking up from the book she was reading. I recognised it as one of the ones I'd left here yesterday. "I-I'm well," she said softly. "It's nice to see you again."

I smiled. "I feel like I have a lot of time on my hands right now," I admitted. "Being that I'm still healing too."

Because I was still healing, I was only supposed to be doing light exercises. Though, I'm pretty sure that what I was considering 'light' exercise and what the medics actually meant by 'light exercise' were very different things. Eh, I was keeping everything chakra enhanced during training, so chances of rebreaking anything were very slim.

Hey, I was keeping a careful eye on it. It's not like I _liked_ having broken ribs.

"Oh, I see," Hinata said. "Have you been doing much?"

I shrugged, sinking into the visitors chair. "Mostly visiting everyone else," I admitted. "Seeing how everyone is getting on and all. I saw Naruto this morning," I teased, dangling the information in front of her.

She brightened. "You did? How is he… how is he doing?"

I hummed. "Not bad, actually. It's really too soon to say how much he'll have improved by the Exams, but its bound to shock a lot of people."

She smiled, a little bit bashful and a little bit proud. "That's Naruto."

I grinned. "Sure is. Hey, Hinata? Do you think you could answer some questions for me?" I asked. "I understand if you can't… with clan secrets and all…"

"Umm," she twisted her fingers together. "I can try."

I smiled. "Thanks. Really. Umm… I know that the Byakugan can see through things… so my question is; can you see underground?"

Hinata blinked. "Yes, but… um… it's very difficult to walk when you can't see the ground…"

"Oh. That actually makes a lot of sense. So you don't tend to look down with the Byakugan unless you already suspect an attack?"

She nodded.

So while you probably could surprise a Hyuuga with an attack from below… you'd only get away with it once. It might slow them down a bit to have to constantly check where the ground was, but not that much.

"Second question… can you see through the Transformation Jutsu?"

She frowned, as though thinking about it. "Umm… we can tell that there's chakra but… it depends…"

"So if someone Transformed into, say, a kunai or something…"

"I-It would have a chakra system, so I'd know that it was a person," Hinata confirmed.

Hmm… there was a jutsu that created copies of kunai, but I had no idea how it went. But if Naruto created cloned kunai before battle, then they would _all _have chakra…

Besides, Naruto's clones were chakra constructs and his Transformation Jutsu changed their shape completely instead of just projecting an image overtop of the real thing.

"Thanks, Hinata," I murmured. "I know it's kind of awkward for me to ask, but I really think this will help Naruto."

"I-I'm glad to help Naruto," she said softly, looking down.

"You're a good person, Hinata," I reassured her before changing the topic. "So how are you liking those books?"

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The next day I packed a cooler bag of food and headed out for Sensei's training camp. It was two hours run at a fast lope, a ground eating, efficient pace. If I was willing to spend chakra I could probably cover it faster, but I didn't know if Sensei expected me to join in on the training so I wanted to conserve energy.

Sasuke was running through some Taijutsu drills when I arrived, with Sensei standing lazily to the side. I guess that was one benefit of camping in the same place - it didn't give Sensei a chance to be late.

"Just in time for lunch!" Kakashi-sensei said, clapping his hands together.

Sasuke blinked, baffled. "Shikako. What are you doing here?"

I giggled at the look on his face. "You didn't think I was going to let you go for a month with no one but Kakashi-sensei for company, did you? Who knows what that would do to you."

"Hey!" Sensei objected good naturedly.

Sasuke smirked. "I can only imagine."

"Right." I nodded, sharing the amusement. "I brought food," I said, unpacking bentos and thermoses. "There's some extras for dinner, too."

"Thanks," Sasuke said quietly, taking the box. "I think I'm sick of ration packs and protein bars already."

I smirked. "One day down, twenty eight to go," I teased.

He shuddered.

It was a quiet lunch, but amiable. None of us were exactly talkative people but we were definitely comrades.

"Are you sticking around?" Sasuke asked me.

I shrugged and looked at Sensei. "Kakashi-sensei?"

There was a glint in his eye. "Why, I have the perfect idea! How about a race? I'll time you two."

"Where to?" Sasuke asked interested.

"Hmm, oh, I think to the edge of the plateau, down the gully to the last spire and back will be plenty far enough, don't you think?" Sensei said innocently.

I squinted. "I can't even see the last spire."

Kakashi-sensei just chuckled.

Sasuke shrugged and looked at me. "You up for it?"

I nodded. "Sure. I should be fine to run."

Kakashi-sensei drew a line in the dirt and we both dropped into runner's crouches behind it. "Ready, steady… GO!"

We both exploded off the starting line. Chakra flared in my limbs as I ran, boosting my speed. I used it to increase the amount of friction I could grab on the ground, instantaneous grip and release helping me eek out just that bit more speed. The ground flashed past underneath my feet, almost as if I wasn't touching it at all.

It was… exhilarating.

I didn't look for Sasuke, content to know that for now he was behind me.

There were a lot of spires, looming out of the ground as we passed through the canyon. It meant we had to weave around them, which would have been easier if we were going slower. And then they ended. The stretch of sandstone and open space was quite the sight, if I'd taken the time to observe it. I didn't really, sticking one foot to the ground and crouching to pivot around it using my forward momentum to swing around to face the direction that I'd just come from. I was suddenly quite glad for my chakra enhancements as I'd underestimated the G-Forces that would result from the action.

But it did give me a very tight spin, and a straight shot past Sasuke back to the starting line.

"Ten minutes and twenty seven seconds," Kakashi-sensei said idly as I cruised over the starting line. I started to bleed off speed, sliding over the ground.

"And eleven minutes fifteen seconds for you, Sasuke," he added, snapping his stopwatch closed.

I considered the difference between adult and child, Genin and Jounin. "So it'd take you, what, three or four minutes, Sensei?" I panted.

"Slightly less, probably," Sensei agreed.

Sasuke groaned, flopping down onto the ground. "I'm never going to get fast enough."

"Now, now, Sasuke. It's not time to give up yet," Kakashi-sensei admonished.

I caught sight of something I hadn't noticed before. "Are you wearing weights, Sasuke?"

He 'hn'ed in acknowledgement.

"We probably wont get far with the weights method," Kakashi-sensei said. "It relies on time to adjust to them, which we don't have. Mostly we'll be working on using chakra to enhance your speed. We should be able to get you up to Lee's speed, at least, by the end of the month."

I wondered if I should invest in weights. Maybe not, they only affected a certain part of the body, and only along with gravity. Maybe, hmm, maybe if I looked into making a resistance seal? To increase the effort needed by _all_ parts of the body, like trying to move in water only without the buoyancy?

I could already tell that I hadn't been as chakra efficient during the race as I could have been. Not using chakra like that meant I wasn't exactly used to it. It had it's benefits, but I'd have to work on using it _sometimes_ or I'd lose that advantage.

"Straight line running isn't going to cut it though," I said, thinking out loud. Fighting probably involved very short distance sprints and rapid changes of direction more than long distance races.

Sensei's eye glinted again. I was starting to think it signified sadistic amusement. "That's right. Next up; agility drills. Or, I guess we could call it… dodge training."


	29. Chapter 28

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Nemesis Jedi - Right, about the ciphers… I meant to clarify about the second book not having them, believe it or not. .' My bad. The first one did, but Jiraiya could recognise the seals because they were basic explosive notes seals and so forth, so he got the gist without having to have the words. I'll bring it up in story later, and we'll say it slipped her mind to mention due to the face palm moment. XD

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 28

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_Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky_. _~ Pink Floyd_

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I sat, drawing up explosive notes as I thought. They were standard Konoha design, not the most efficient, not the biggest or the most intense, but I was giving these away and no ninja wanted to use an explosive note they didn't trust. So standard Konoha design it was.

I'd made these so many times that the motions were as familiar as breathing, the calligraphy brush steady between my fingers. There was something infinitely graceful about the slide of the ink over paper and I wondered if this was why some people spent years mastering the art in order to write that one _perfect_ Kanji.

But mostly, I wondered about seals.

How to transcribe my thoughts without first converting them to words. How to convey impressions and feelings and intent and _will._

Seals could do anything, conventional wisdom said. The trouble was in getting them to do it.

_People only think in so many different ways, kid._

Except… thoughts were shaped by society and beliefs and values and all kinds of things. My complete and utter failure to see the point had just highlighted the fact that, while I was integrated in this land, sometimes I was still _other_.

Not just that, but sometimes… more often now, after starting to meddle with our spirit energy, sometimes I had the disquieting feeling that all my thoughts had a shadow. An intangible mirror copy just out of reach.

None of the sealing styles had ever really made intuitive sense to me. That's the whole reason I had tried to puzzle them out by decoding them. I was starting to see why.

But… it was one thing to _say_ 'create your own seal array' it was another to actually try and do it. How could I possibly _create_ something like that? Everything else I had ever learnt had been learnt by rote. This technique does this. Do this and that will happen.

It was kinda intimidating.

I started by pulling out all of the pieces I had used before and seeing which ones made intuitive sense to me. Which techniques worked the best. There was a lot of crossover in the sealing arts, a lot of 'generally accepted' ways of doing things.

I didn't have to reinvent the wheel, after all. I just had to find the bits that worked for _me_.

Actually, now that I thought about it, sealing reminded me a little of studying electricity in physics class. You had to draw a complete circuit, regardless of what you included in it - input, output, measurement, resistors, capacitors… the concepts were remarkably similar.

It had been a loooong time since I'd done physics.

Alright, maybe I should start with something simple. My own explosive tag seals - I already knew the theory behind the combustion and I'd studied every variation on them that I could find. And being able to set explosives with a touch would be beyond handy.

I nodded to myself and finished the tag I was drawing. Then stared at the huge pile that had materialised while I had been thinking.

"Got a little carried away?" Shikamaru asked dryly.

"Don't be silly," I said airily. "There's no such thing as too much explosives." Granted, explosive tags were usually fairly expensive and most ninja never used more than one or two per fight. But since I made my own, that didn't matter to me.

"Just _what_ are you planning to blow up?" he asked. "Because I need to know when to make sure I have an alibi."

I scoffed and picked a fifth of them off top the pile. "Here," I said, handing them to him. "I'm making sure everyone is restocked. You need any specific tags?"

Shikamaru 'hmm'ed thoughtfully. "I'll let you know."

I shrugged. "I think I'm going to make some water storage scrolls, later. You want some?"

"Could come in handy," Shikamaru agreed.

"That's what I thought." Against Gaara, against Shino… Naruto could use them for his Hidden in the Mist and in combination with his lightning jutsu. I couldn't help my friends fight, but that didn't mean I couldn't give them the tools they needed.

Storage scrolls, a personalised explosive seal, some kind of training resistance seal… I was building myself quite a list of things that needed to be done.

I sighed, and pulled out a new notebook. I sorted them according to what they contained, which meant I had a fair few half finished notebooks floating around, but it was a better system than putting everything in one book which would mean having notes of medical jutsu next to an analysis of chakra recomposition next to a seal array.

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"Hey, Naruto!" I called, sliding into Ichiraku when I caught sight of the familiar orange jacket. I hadn't intended to come here, but, hey, whatever. "How's training?"

He jerked. "Ehehe, Shikako! I didn't see you there." He shrugged. "Its going okay. I mean, the toads are cool and all but the pervy sage just keeps wanting me to draw on - I mean, use more chakra and stuff. And Ebisu-sensei is boring, but I can kinda tell I'm improving." He grinned foxily. "And boy was he surprised when I asked for more chakra control techniques."I laughed. "I bet he was. So this is the real you? Not a clone?"

"Of course! Clones don't need to eat," he said.

"I know," I teased, smirking. "But I wouldn't put it past some of _your_ clones to sneak off to eat ramen."

The way he flushed said I probably wasn't too far off the mark.

"Here," I said handing over an envelope with his share of the explosive notes in it and a copy of my analysis. "These are for your fight. You should probably go over the information with Ebisu-sensei. Just be careful not to lose it. There's stuff on there that you don't want just _anybody_ getting their hands on."

Naruto glanced at it. "Hey, these are like Kabuto's Nin Info Cards!"

I twitched. "It is not! It's a detailed report on your opponents skills, strengths and weaknesses with potential strategies to take advantage of them. It's nothing like-"

"Okay, okay, sorry!" Naruto said, waving his hands back and forth. "It's great. Thanks!"

I sat back, huffing. "And here I was going to tell you about this awesome new idea that I had about your Shadow Clones… I guess you don't want to hear it."

"No, wait! Yes I do! Please tell me!" Naruto begged.

Well. I guess he hadn't _meant_ anything by it. "Oh, alright. Are you free for a bit? Or send a clone with me."

"I'll come. What is it?" He asked eagerly. "Is it a super cool move that'll help me defeat Neji?"

"It might be," I said. "It's just an idea. We'll have to see how it works."

Naruto was very eager to see what I was talking about. I guess describing something as a 'cool idea' was only just slightly below 'cool jutsu' especially since it seemed to use his favourite technique. We headed to one of the simpler training fields which was just basically a kunai range with posts.

"So," I said. "Why your clones are transformed into things, can they still see and hear?"

"Yeah. That's how we used the spiders, right?" Naruto said, frowning a little in confusion.

I hummed. "Yeah, but what if it was something that didn't have eyes and ears? Like, say, a kunai?"

"Well, I don't know," he confessed.

"Let's try it," I suggested. He made some clones, with dutifully turned themselves into kunai and then dispersed.

"Its like…" Naruto wavered. "Kinda like seeing and hearing but not really."

It wasn't a very clear explanation but I thought I got the point. "But you can tell what's going on, right?"

He nodded firmly.

"Good. They are chakra constructs, so I expected something like that. Even when they _look_ like they have eyes and ears they don't really. Okay, so next question. If a clone is transformed into a kunai and then clones _himself_, do they come out as kunai?"

"That one is easy," Naruto said confidently. "Yup."

"I thought so," I said. "Now its demonstration time. Give me a clone transformed into a kunai and be prepared to duplicate ten times when I yell 'now'."

Naruto frowned, but did as I asked. "I don't really get it," he said. "Where's the cool bit?"

"Watch this," I directed. I threw the kunai straight for the posts and waited. "NOW!" I yelled, a split second before it hit.

Ten kunai thunked into the wood. They held for a second, then dispersed, leaving behind ten holes. Strange that Shadow Clones could be solid enough to do damage but not take it. I suspected it had something to do with the fact that pain disrupted chakra. Which might explain why a focused and expectant clone could take hits better than a surprised one.

"Now imagine if that was a person, expecting one kunai and getting say… ten. Or twenty. Or a hundred," I said. "And then say, even if you missed… your clone kunai could just wait around until Neji - or whoever - stepped near them and turn back and knock them out. Or…"

I glanced at Naruto. His eyes were very round. "But can't the Byakugan see through the Transformation Jutsu?" he asked slowly.

"Maybe," I admitted. "So maybe he'll know there's something off about your kunai. But if you make them before you go into the arena he wont know _what._ And it's like Lee said to Sasuke, isn't it? It doesn't matter if you can _see_ it if you can't do anything about it."

Oh, Neji would probably be able to deflect hundreds of weapons… but this didn't give him the warning of a flight path when one suddenly doubled into hundreds. He might have Kaiten - the Heavenly Rotation - but that was chakra intensive and I doubted he could use it often.

"You've got to work on the timing, though," I cautioned. "The closer you can get before they replicate, the less time Neji has to react."

"You can count on it!" Naruto said, determination beginning to shine. "I wont rest until I've got this down!"

He summoned another clone and it transformed even as he reached for it. I stepped back to watch.

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The days drifted away, slowly at first, then faster and faster often with little to show for their passing. I studied. I trained. I spoke to the others. And every three days I packed up lunch and went to make sure Sasuke was still alive.

I struggled with the seals. Oh, I could make explosive seals by the dozens, functional seals, efficient ones, but they still weren't _right._ Then, one afternoon, I stared down at the paper in my notebook and wondered why it suddenly seemed so _obvious._

It was simple. A triskelion - three spirals that joined to form the sides of a triangle - with the kanji for blast in the centre and the details - radius, intensity, timer - scribed out in English with adjustable numerical attributes. It was remarkably simple, yet highly adaptable. Bigger explosions, smaller ones, extreme heat, delayed activation… I could change it all, something that sometimes annoyed me with standard tags.

"Now to make sure it works," I said thoughtfully. It didn't look like any other explosive seal I'd ever seen, apparent from the single central kanji, but that was kinda the point. I drew out a few seals, took them down to the training fields and watch in elation as they blew up.

I wanted to cackle madly. I wanted to run around and show people what I'd done. Naruto! I could show Naruto.

"No, no, wait," I murmured to myself. "First…"

First, I wanted to learn how to apply it. Learn how to use it without having to draw up the ink first.

_It's just trappings,_ Jiraiya's voice echoed. _You have to own your seals, mind and soul._

I remembered Naruto, slamming his hand down into the ground, the delicate webbing of black ink spreading from his fingers.

_What's the correlation?_

I closed my eyes and focused on the pattern of the seal, filling in the numbers I wanted. I slammed my hand down onto the ground, a surge of chakra and a twist of _my will be done!_

Beneath my hand bloomed the ink of my explosive seal, perfect and lethal.

"Bugger," I said.

I dove to the side.

The explosion sent me tumbling and I rolled across the grass, laughing breathlessly and unharmed. "Didn't _quite_ think that one through. Note to self…"

I was giddy with success. For all that it was such a small thing, almost unnecessary even, it was still progress beyond what I'd hoped for.

"Naruto!" I called excitedly, searching the training field that he'd last occupied with Jiraiya.

Naruto was standing on the head of a giant frog, easily one the size of a small cow. He perked up when he saw me.

"Oh, hey, Shikako! Have you come to talk to the pervy sage again?"

I beamed at him. "No! I wanted to show you something."

"Really?" He jumped down to land beside me, the toad dismissing itself in a puff of smoke. I wondered if they were getting annoyed with him. "Is it another cool technique?"

"It's something I learnt to do," I said. "Oh, just watch!" I stooped down and grabbed a small rock, one just the size of my fist, off the ground. The twist of chakra and will power came easily, again, as if something had just clicked. And because I was showing off, I upped the intensity of the explosion.

Ink webbed across the rock.

I cocked my arm back and threw it high into the air. When it reached the peak of it's flight, it exploded, a muffled 'whump' of fire, burning almost white hot at the centre.

I beamed at Naruto, proud as anything.

"That. Was. Amazing!" Naruto shouted, grabbing me and spinning me around. "It was - you just - then it exploded!"

I laughed. I wasn't entirely sure Naruto understood what I'd just done, but that was the nice thing about Naruto. He'd be excited with you anyway.

"Oi, brat! Quit messing around with explosives! You scared all the ladies off," Jiraiya popped up, aggrieved. "Oh, it's your _lady friend._ Come to see Jiraiya again, hehehe?" He leered.

"Don't say it like that!" Naruto shouted.

"Jiraiya-sama," I said, bowing a little. "Sorry for disturbing you. I was just showing Naruto what I'd managed to do."

"And here I thought you said you already knew how to make explosive tags," Jiraiya said shrewdly.

"Uh, yes, I do. I mean, that's why I started with them because I already know how…" Hrm, that line of logic seemed better in my head.

"Do it again!" Naruto instructed, shoving a rock into my hand. "Watch this, pervy sage, it's awesome!"

I did so. Naruto's eyes followed the explosion, but Jiraiya's rested on me, heavy and inscrutable.

"Well, it's a good thing you showed up, anyway," Jiraiya said, pulling out a familiar looking notebook. "How long have you been working on this?"

"Uh, since just after graduation." He gave me an incredulous look. "What? We had a mission to do as well," I added defensively. I hadn't had _that_ long to work on it.

"That's not what I… oh, never mind. How many more of these notebooks do you have?" He asked.

"A few. I work on stuff other than sealing as well, you know. The rest are mostly encrypted though."

"I noticed that," Jiraiya said. The look he gave the book said he would very dearly like to work out that code. Whether because he wanted to read what it said, or simply as a professional code breaker I didn't know. "Why isn't this one?"

"I …uh… didn't encrypt that book because its an analysis. I wanted… I wanted to have it put in the clan library later." I looked down. It was pretty arrogant to think I deserved to have anything entered into the clan library, but it wasn't like it was a _creation_ of mine. It was just collating and analysing the work of others. Anyone could have done it. "The rest are in code. And I don't really want to give you a chance to break it."

Some ninja were scary smart. There were people who probably _could_ rediscover an entire language based on whatever clues they could find in my notebooks. And there would be some - seal patterns, diagrams, graphs… there was always something.

And I wasn't even _entirely_ sure no one spoke English anywhere. Certainly, it wasn't a major language of any of the Elemental Nations, but all it took was a small regional town to have their own dialect (or even worse, outside the Elemental Nations) and all of a sudden there would be massive attention focused on me.

"Fair enough, fair enough," Jiraiya said, scratching his chin. "Well, we might as well go over this now. Brat! Get back to work!" He flicked the notebook over, revealing that he'd stuck post-it-notes all throughout the book, covered with cramped handwriting. "Now see here…"

There was a reason that Jiraiya was considered a Seal Master. Possibly _The_ Seal Master, depending on who you asked. I was getting just a very small glimpse of that, with his additions and corrections and embellishments to my analysis. I had thought that I had gone into detail, but there was so much _more_…

The fact that he was teaching it to me, sharing this knowledge, was so much more than I could have hoped for. I'd basically accepted that tipping my entire perspective upside down was the most that I was going to get out of him. Maybe get him to answer a few more questions.

This was a treasure trove.

It was a good day.

So of course, it couldn't last. Pride comes before the fall and all that. I was still giddy with success when we settled in for our nightly training/meditation. Two weeks of this and nothing to show for it. But Dad cautioned us to expect nothing else and not to get anxious about it.

I don't know what it was. Maybe because I wasn't as calm and bored as usual. Maybe my shift in perspective. Maybe a lot of things.

Because when we settled in, when I started _looking_ into my shadow… I saw it.

Just a tiny spot. A spark of darkness where the shadow was so much greater and _deeper_ than that around it. The shadow was so dark it seemed solid, a grasping, living entity so deep that not even light could escape.

I reached for it.

Then - suddenly - something was pulling me back, dragging me away from the dark emptiness of that deep black.

"Come on, sweetheart," Dad was murmuring, crouched in front of me, hands on my shoulders. I could feel the chakra flowing through them, but it seemed… muted, somehow. "Back up, that's a good girl. Best not to go so fast, eh?"

I blinked slowly. Once, twice, and again. The world seemed … far less bright, less sharp than usual, as though I was looking through fog. It seemed almost… distant, like everything was a long way away. Like I was looking through a tunnel or a telescope.

"Shikako?" Shikamaru asked, voice sharp. I heard it clearly and yet…

"Don't fuss, brother-mine," I said, though my voice sounded bland and lacking inflection, even to me. Vaguely, I was aware that that should have worried me. It didn't.

That should have worried me too.

"What's wrong with her?" Shikamaru demanded.

Dad cast him a look. "She went too far. Now do you see why this is so dangerous?"

Shikamaru swallowed. "But she'll be okay, right?" He looked worried. I felt a small spark of regret, deep inside, at causing him worry.

"I feel very cold," I observed, but it was a distant concern, as though everything was so very far away.

"I think that's enough for tonight," Dad said. "It'll probably take you a few days to … unwind a bit."


	30. Chapter 29

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: After mentioning that messing with your spirit energy was dangerous, I wanted to highlight that by it _actually being dangerous._ Unfortunately for her, Shikako doesn't have a 'main character exception' card, like most of them do when using dangerous techniques. Get careless with it, you'll get messed up.

Also Moka-girl made the point that there _are_ romanji letters around Konoha. Which sort of implies that there might be other, non Japanese languages out there. Hmm. Then again, Japanese in the Naruto-verse might just have evolved with another set of characters because, hey, hiragana, katakana and kanji sometimes aren't enough. XD

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Chapter 29

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_The sea has neither meaning nor pity. ~Anton Chekhov_

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I blinked awake slowly. Sunlight was streaming in through the window, creeping warm fingers over my bed. Usually I was up and gone before the angle of light got that far.

I didn't move.

The warmth was distant. I knew it was there, could feel it on my skin and yet… inside I still felt cold. It didn't touch me.

"Shikako! Wake up! You're missing breakfast." My door banged open, Mum standing poised in the doorway. I turned my neck to look at her. "Oh, you are awake." She sounded unnerved. There was an awkward pause before she drew herself back together. "Well, what are you waiting for? Hurry up."

I stood and dressed and pulled my hair back into it's usual plait. The movements felt mechanical and awkward.

_Is this what it means…_

The consequences of mistakes when using the shadow jutsu had been highlighted, but no one had ever described how it _felt_. This empty, distant feeling. Quietude. Listlessness.

_Like standing in shadow…_

I drifted downstairs.

"Finally," Shikamaru said, glancing up at me. "Why'd you get to sleep in? I've already been up to feed the deer."

I took my seat at the table. I didn't feel hungry but this was routine and I could see no reason to change it. "You should have woken me. I would have helped," I replied. There was no difference at the thought of waking earlier or later, doing work or doing nothing. It just… barely mattered.

Shikamaru's face faded into an uneasy look. I tried to smile at him, but my facial muscles felt stiff and uncooperative.

"Best if you don't do anything until you're back to normal," Dad said gently. "No training, no ninja techniques, no wandering off on your own. At least for today."

I tilted my head to the side. "I was intending to visit Sasuke today," I said. It had been three days since my last visit.

"That's not really a good idea," Mum said. "I'm sure it wont matter if you miss a visit or two."

I shrugged one shoulder. It wouldn't, not exactly. I was aware, though, that Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke would probably be concerned, as they would be expecting me.

"Why don't you go with Shikamaru?" Mum suggested to fill the silence. "And go and see Chouji or Ino or something?"

I blinked. "Aren't you training this morning?" I asked.

"Dad did just say you couldn't," Shikamaru replied.

"That doesn't mean you can't," I responded. "And you are the one with a match coming up."

I could think, perfectly well, and reason things out logically. I could act and react. I could move. I wasn't any _different_.

Except… everything seemed so distant, so muted, so … unimportant.

Smothered, maybe. Suffocated.

"You wont get bored?" Shikamaru asked dubiously. "Just watching?"

"No," I said. Boredom? That implied the desire for other actions. And while I was aware that that should have been a reaction to being forbidden to pursue my normal activities, it wasn't an issue right now.

"If you say so," Shikamaru muttered.

"Oh for gods sake!" Mum shouted suddenly, banging her fist on the table and half standing. "How can you just act like this is _normal?_"

Shikamaru jerked, eyes flaring wide open with shock and panic. He sat very still, so as not to attract her attention.

"Yoshino," Dad said. "Don't get so upset."

"Don't get so upset? Don't get so _upset?_ Your daughter is acting like… like-" her hand cut through the air sharply. "Like a machine! Why are you not _upset?_"

"You know there are dangers to using our clan techniques," he said. "This is one of them. Manipulating your own spiritual energy is not done lightly, or easily. There are _risks_ involved. You're very wrong if you think I'm taking this casually. But there was no harm done. Yes, you can irreparably damage yourself like that but this is just a temporary state, like a fever, while her spiritual energy sorts itself back out. I was watching them, Yoshino, I wouldn't-" his voice faltered, just very briefly. "I wouldn't let anything happen to them."

Mum deflated like he'd taken the wind out of her sails. In a way, he had. For all her temper, Dad was very good at diffusing her.

"I worry about them enough when they're on missions," she sighed. "I don't want to have to worry about them when they're sitting right in front of me."

"They're good kids, Yoshi," Dad said gently. "They can take care of themselves."

She slumped forwards, just a little, then marshalled herself. "Not with that Taijutsu, they can't," she decreed, waving a spoon in Shikamaru's direction.

"Aww, not Taijutsu," Shikamaru whined. Taijutsu was his least favourite of all the shinobi arts and he preferred to avoid it as much as possible. I suspected that was because it demanded a large amount of movement.

Dad leaned back in his chair, watching the argument with a fond smile gracing his lips. He caught my eye and it turned a little sad, but remained all the same.

I nodded. Then got up and followed Mum and Shikamaru out the door, seating myself on the veranda to watch them train.

I suppose, another word for how I felt might be 'peaceful'.

"Come on," Shikamaru said when they were done, yawning and slouching. He wasn't _quite_ looking at me. "I'm meeting Asuma-sensei and Chouji at the barbeque place."

I nodded and stood.

Shikamaru reached out and grabbed my hand, lacing our fingers together. It wasn't uncommon, but usually I was the one to do it so I could better tug him along. He didn't look at me, didn't give any indication that it was out of the ordinary for him to do, just started walking.

I followed.

'The barbeque place' had a name, but since it was one of Chouji's favourite eateries and pretty much the most common place for Team 10 to meet, it was just 'the barbeque place'. They all knew where they were talking about.

"Hey, Shikamaru!" Chouji's cheerful voice called as we entered the building. "You're late. Even Ino is here, already!"

"Sorry, sorry," Shikamaru drawled, heading for the booth where his team was. "Something came up. Hope you guys don't mind that I brought my sister with me."

Ino's head popped up over the edge of the booth. "Shikako! Boy am I glad to see you. Maybe between the two of us we can convince Chouji to switch out some of the pork for salad, ne?"

"Ino," I said, nodding my head in greeting. "Chouji."

Even with such a small greeting, they were looking at me oddly as Shikamaru nudged me into the booth. Asuma-sensei's eyes were alert. As a ninja, we were _always_ cautious of people who had suddenly changed. Impostors, breakdowns… there were a whole host of reasons why it might be a bad sign. Asuma-sensei didn't know me, but Ino and Chouji did, and he was observing their reactions.

"Alright there?" Asuma-sensei asked casually, but his eyes were watching us sharply.

"I had an accident in training," I said placidly. It was the truth, more or less.

"Yeah," Shikamaru drawled uneasily. I was sorry that my actions, my words, were causing him discomfort. "Dad says she's on lockdown for a while. No training. So…" he shrugged.

"A training accident?" Ino asked speculatively. "That sucks. Those can really mess up your whole day."

I'd considered that the Yamanaka and Nara jutsu were more closely related than previously thought, but I still wasn't sure I wanted to know what kind of 'training accident' could result from the Mind-Body Switch Jutsu.

"Yeah, that sucks," Chouji empathised. "Want some barbeque?" In Chouji's world, things improved with food. It wasn't so much a change of topic as an offer to help.

Breakfast had been hours ago and I could smell the cooking meat on the hot plate, but I didn't feel particularly hungry.

"You should eat," Shikamaru said, nudging the chopsticks by my hand.

Obediently, I picked them up. The movements were soothing and repetitive. Reach, grab, move, chew. Reach, grab, move, chew. The motions were identical each time. Exact and efficient.

"She's not going to _stay_ like this, is she?" I heard Chouji asking quietly.

"I hope not," Shikamaru replied.

Ino did what she does best and started chattering, about the new flowers they'd got in, about the people that had stopped by the Flower Shop recently, about juicy pieces of gossip she'd picked up.

"… and Lee, you remember him? They're saying that his career as a shinobi is over. That he did himself so much damage with the gates that he'll never fight again…" Her mouth twisted down, voice taking a more sombre tone. "That's… really sad, isn't it? I mean, its not like we knew him, or anything, but he seemed so… determined."

"I visited him at the hospital," I said. "He's always out in the practice fields. It frustrates the nurses."

"Some one like that isn't going to give up just because things are painful," Asuma-sensei said. It was a little prod at his team, who were more likely to give up than fight.

Shikamaru scoffed and rested his chin in his hand. "And sometimes knowing where your limits are is more important."

"Yes," I agreed quietly.

"Moderation, that's the key," Asuma-sensei said with the tone of someone imparting great and sage knowledge. "Too much of one… too much of the other, it's equally as bad."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Shikamaru replied, completely unimpressed in the way only teenagers can be.

"Maybe you should 'moderate' your cigarettes then," Ino suggested. "Or, stop them all together, that would be much better."

His hand hovered protectively over his flack jacket pocket, presumably where he kept his cigarettes. "When you kids get to Jounin, you can tell me to back off the cigarettes then. Can't guarantee I'll listen, but I think you'll have other things to worry about by then."

"I would hope Kurenai-sensei would have you weaned off them by then," Ino said.

"I- what? What's she got to do with this?" Asuma-sensei yelped.

Ino giggled. "You're dating, aren't you?" Ino kept up with the gossip, something like _that_ would not slip past her. "You should give her some flowers. We have some nice roses in at the moment. Red, oooh, or maybe some lovely white ones."

Red for passion and true love or white for eternal love, purity and secrecy. Together they spoke of unity. Ino was _meddling._

Asuma-sensei took out another cigarette and pointed it at her severely. "_We_ are just friends," he said firmly. "So get that idea out of your head."

"You can give friends flowers too," Ino said sagely, not at all put off. "Yellow roses stand for friendship and joy."

"Keep that up and I'll come up with new drills for you," Asuma-sensei warned. "Something involving running. Lots of it."

Ino huffed. "Jeeze, don't get so touchy. I think its sweet."

"Thank you for your approval," Asuma-sensei said dryly. "And _moving on…_"

"Man, that was good barbeque," Chouji said, almost on cue. "I am so ready for training! Are you coming with us, Shikako?"

"I am not supposed to be alone," I said, which was confirmation in its own way.

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The next day was better, in a way.

I was aware enough of how I was feeling to know it was abnormal, a degree of self reflection that I hadn't had before.

It… ached.

Like feeling alone in a crowd, like being separated from the outside world by a glass wall. It would have been a good time to see if, without my emotions clouding my mind, I could think clearer, learn better… but I found my motivation lacking. Without my fear of the future, the desire to protect my family, it just seemed so pointless.

Emotions made you what you were.

"Better today?" Dad asked, sitting beside me on the veranda as we watched Shika and Mum spar. He cradled a cup of green tea between his hands.

I hummed in agreement. "I think I see why no one strives for this state," I said.

"Some do," Dad admitted. "When you're older… have been through more… you'll probably see the attraction. But it's a hard balance to find - just enough to shock you, not enough to harm you - and most outcomes are much worse than the things that could drive you there. It's not a good coping mechanism."

"I see," I said.

Dad sipped his tea. "Have you got anything planned for the day?"

I considered it. My motivation for training was low, but I could read. I had plenty of fiction books and some of what I was learning was interesting beyond its usefulness anyway. "I could… go and visit Hinata. And Sakura."

Dad looked pleased at the suggestion. "It's good that you're reaching out to your friends. That's… a good sign."

I smiled, and it felt less stiff and awkward than before, though still unnatural. "I could go visit Sasuke," I added.

He regarded me closely. "Do you think that's a good idea?" He asked.

"It's not that far away and the route is fairly safe," I said. "I wont train with them but… I know they'll be worried."

And the fact that I didn't want them to be worried meant that I was getting better.

Dad nodded. "Alright. Stay safe."

"I will."

The trip out was easy, mindless running along a familiar path. It took me longer than usual because I stuck to the ground rather than going through the trees, obeying the 'no ninja techniques' rule.

They must have noticed me coming because both Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei were waiting when I showed up.

"It's been more than three days. I thought something had happened," Sasuke said, relief seeping into his voice. It wasn't much, but it was noticeable.

"I apologise," I said. "It was not my intention to cause you worry."

His eyes sharpened, roving over my face. "Are you okay?"

Kakashi-sensei was frowning, or as much as I could tell.

I tilted my head slightly. "I am uninjured. I suffered an accident in training which rendered me incapable of travelling here."

Sasuke hesitated still. "What's Team 7 Rule One?"

I blinked slowly at the odd, out of place question. "No dying," I answered. Perhaps he thought I was an impostor? Without someone here to vouch for me it was a legitimate concern. "The bridge was named 'The Great Naruto Bridge', Kakashi-sensei gave us the bell test, we started with a Heaven Scroll… um…"

"Okay, I believe you," he said, glancing at Kakashi-sensei.

I attempted a smile. "I brought lunch," I offered.

Sasuke took the bag carefully and we all sat. I ate mechanically.

"So, what happened?" he asked eventually, breaking the stiff silence.

I considered what to say. By rights, it was a clan secret and I shouldn't say anything more. On the other hand, this was my team and there were parallels…

_How much can I explain without giving anything away?_

"There's a lot of debate bout what concepts like 'mind' and 'soul' and 'mental energy' _really_ mean, but everyone agrees that they're influenced by chakra. So if something is affecting your chakra, it's affecting _you_. Your mind, your soul, your core personality… whatever it is that makes you, you," I said at length, trying to explain without _actually explaining._ "And so, some techniques are dangerous to learn. Not just physically, but…" I pressed my hand to my heart.

Sasuke froze, chopsticks suspended halfway to his mouth. "What?" he rasped.

I noticed that Kakashi-sensei had sharpened his attention.

"When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes into you. When you step into the shadow, the shadow steps into you. If you push too far, too fast, if you aren't absolutely sure of who you are…and it will swallow you whole. Then you can lose pieces of yourself."

Sasuke swallowed heavily, eyes darting around my face.

"We call it 'falling into the black'," I continued.

"And you…" he trailed off, unable to complete the thought.

"This is only temporary," I said, trying to reassure him. "I'm much better today than I was yesterday. Next time you see me, I should be back to normal."

"That's… that's good. Right?" he asked.

I nodded. "Mmm. This state is … unsuited to being a ninja."

"Why?" Sasuke asked. "You'd think…" he looked at me uneasily. You'd think being emotionless is a state to strive for, I knew he meant to say.

I stared blindly into my bento. "I am not hungry, so I will not eat. I am not tired, so I will not sleep. I am not afraid… so I will not fight. Motivation is… difficult." It was only routines that meant I had so far, the fact that others around me were doing so.

"That wouldn't matter to some," Kakashi-sensei said, almost to himself. "As long as a soldier followed orders…"

"Why should I follow orders?" I countered, voice low. "There is no reason for it." Punishment for disobeying? To protect people? For the village?

Meaningless.

Kakashi-sensei shook himself. "So this is temporary?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yes. I will be more careful next time."

And yes, after that, Shikamaru and I were much more careful when training with our affinities.

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Eh, I wanted to cover so much with this chapter and I feel like I missed all of it… This chapter made me depressed. :(


	31. Chapter 30

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Nemesis Jedi - I think a few people were expecting the same - trained killer minus pesky moral obligations - but I see Shikako as fairly introverted so she just got progressively quieter. It gives a bit of a new spin on the Nara laziness, ne? Genetically inherited indeed. The 'forbidden from training' point was half to do with that; on one hand, she might hurt herself and not care, on the other, she might create horribly morally lacking techniques ala mad scientist. And if there _was_ a fight, well, she _claimed_ to not be afraid, but that might not hold up under stress. It wasn't a complete shut down, after all. And, yes, she will have to deal with _that. _Mwhahaha.

Pokey - It's okay, I understand by what you meant by 'more'. I intended to have _more_ but… well, that's the difference between intention and execution.

And also? Wikipedia Shogi Tactics for the win.

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Chapter 30

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_To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering. ~Friedrich Nietzsche_

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I clicked the pawn down onto the shogi board, completing my Yagura Castle - arguably the strongest defensive formation in the entire game. Contrary to expectations, the opening game of shogi revolved around building a good defence before you could attack, mainly because of the ability to drop tiles at any location on the board - rapidly advancing your pieces left you open for attack.

"Defend the king with three generals," Shikamaru quoted the old proverb with a sigh. "Oh man. And here I thought we were going to have an easy game." Despite his tone, his eyes were eager as he advanced his rook's knight.

"It's not like we don't have the time," I replied, gaze flickering to the hospital bed that we sat beside. "Naruto's been out for _days_ already. The idiot."

"Maybe the kid croaked," Shikamaru suggested.

I scoffed. "It'll take more than chakra exhaustion to take out Naruto. Though I seriously want to hear the story of how _Naruto_ got chakra exhaustion." And _really,_ to get chakra exhaustion so close to the Finals…

Shikamaru shrugged. "Hey, you're the one who told me about the rumours you heard. I know nothing about it."

"How could you _miss_ the giant toad leaping around on the horizon?" I shook my head. "Never mind, you were probably cloud watching."

"You don't tell Mum, I don't tell Mum," he replied.

"Tell her what?" I teased. "That you're skiving training to play shogi with me in the hospital?"

"Hey, my training buddy is here too. I can't do much without Chouji."

"Sure, sure," I said. "I'm sure Asuma-sensei couldn't come up with _anything._"

Naruto groaned and stirred.

"Seriously?" Shikamaru asked rhetorically. "You've been out for days and you pick _now_ to wake up?" he scowled at the shogi board.

"Where am I?" Naruto muttered, sounding lost and disorientated. "What is this?"

"The hospital," Shikamaru replied drolly. "They said you've been out cold like this for three days straight."

Naruto blinked and sat up, scrubbing his eyes. "Huh."

"Nice to see you awake, sleepyhead," I teased. "I thought you were going to miss the Finals."

"Wait! What? How many days did you say it had been?" Naruto shouted, jumping up on the bed.

"Oh man, this kid gives me such a headache. I liked him a lot better when he was in a coma," Shikamaru muttered, leaning back in his chair.

"Naruto! Calm down," I directed, ignoring my brother's comment. "You've still got a few days."

"I need to be out there training!" Naruto said. "I can't believe I wasted so much time!"

"Would you knock it off?" Shikamaru said, exasperated. "Now listen, you don't want to be freaking out the day before a big competition. Resting can be the best thing."

"You don't want to be tired before your fight with Neji, do you?" I added, trying to reinforce the point.

"I guess not," Naruto muttered, sinking back down on the bed. "Ugh. I'm really starving."

I rolled my eyes.

"Well," Shikamaru drawled, setting a fruit basket on the bed. "I went to all the trouble of getting this stuff for Chouji, and then the doctors told me he couldn't have it. That's such a drag. But at least we can eat it."

"Chouji? You mean he's here in the hospital too?" Naruto asked, wide eyed.

"Nothing to worry about. All he's got is a bad case of indigestion. He ate one short rib too many." It was said in good humour. A kind of 'that's Chouji'.

"Hehehe," Naruto giggled. "That's just like him." He reached out to pick up an apple then froze, a wicked grin lighting up his face. "I know, we can totally go and eat it in front of him. It'll drive him crazy!"

"That's so mean," Shikamaru said. "I like it."

When he bothered to use it, Shikamaru's sense of humour leaned more to the sharp, sly kind. He had actually laughed at most of Naruto's pranks at the Academy, even if he hadn't been as loud as Kiba about it.

"It's this way," Shikamaru said, leading us through the hallways.

But as we drew nearer to Chouji's room, I became unsettled. "It's awfully quiet," I commented uneasily.

"It _is _lunchtime," Shikamaru commented, but I noticed that his shoulders were equally tense.

I reached out with my chakra sense, momentarily bewildered at the fluctuations of chakra from the various medical seal work and machinery. I didn't quite know what I was looking for, but I found it in the dark, agitated chakra coming from one of the far rooms.

_Lee's room?_

I sprinted down the hallways, Shikamaru and Naruto blinking in surprise before following me. I didn't know what was happening, but it couldn't be good.

Because I was pretty sure the chakra I was sensing was Gaara.

I skidded around the corner, banging the door open and charging into the room, Naruto and Shikamaru half a step behind me. It probably would have been horribly embarrassing if I'd judged the situation wrong, but by the way that Gaara's sand was climbing all over the bed and the sleeping Lee, I didn't think I had.

Shika and I both lashed out with our shadows, catching Gaara at almost the same time. It was the oddest feeling. We'd never both targeted the same person because, well, there wasn't any point to it. I could feel Gaara through it, and he was appropriately paralysed, but I could also feel the link back to Shikamaru and I knew that if I pushed, I could try and paralyse him too. Of course, he'd be able to do the same to me and in the end it would probably come down to who had stronger chakra and greater will. But Gaara was torn between us, fighting a double layer of Shadow Possession Jutsu. That would, however, last only as long as we were in synch with each other. If I moved and Shikamaru didn't, we'd be weakening each other.

_Interesting._

"My hand… I can't move my hand," Gaara rasped, hand poised over Lee's bed in the half curled fist that he used for his Sand Coffin.

With an awareness born from years of closeness, Shikamaru and I both turned, moving Gaara away from the bed to face us.

"What the heck do you think you're doing in here, you rat!" Naruto shouted, half questioning, half demanding.

"Is there a problem here, Gaara of the desert?" Eh, I sort of wished he had a last name. That didn't sound _nearly_ as authoritative as it could have. "Use of chakra techniques is prohibited in the hospital."

Shika gave me a _look_ like 'it's pretty damn obvious he was trying to _kill_ him. You think tell him it's _forbidden_ is going to work?'

Well, okay, no. But I wasn't _good_ at verbal confrontations. And reminding Gaara that there were people other than us that wouldn't like this might have done _something._

"I was going to kill him," Gaara said, blankly, calmly, like he had every right.

The statement made us all real.

"You already beat him once in the competition," Shikamaru retorted. "What's your problem? Wasn't that enough for you? Do you have some kind of personal grudge against him or something?" There was a hard edge of anger in his voice that didn't show up often.

"I have nothing against him. It's nothing that complicated. I simply want to kill him, that's all." Again, said so calmly. His green eyes were blank. Admittedly, it was probably better than homicidal rage, but disturbing all the same.

"You think we're just going to stand by and let you do whatever you want?" Shikamaru asked in disbelief. "Not going to happen."

"If you don't stay out of my way," Gaara replied. "I'll have to kill you as well."

I felt my breath catch. Oh, I'd studied Gaara's attacks and defence. I'd worked out battle strategies. But this was _not_ an ideal location for fighting - a small enclosed space, helpless patients, Naruto wasn't armed in any way (he wasn't even wearing shoes!), I wasn't carrying my specially prepared waters scrolls… it was not looking good.

"Oh, yeah? Well lets just see you try it!" Naruto challenged. On one hand I wanted to face palm, on the other it was so _Naruto_ that I had been expecting it.

"Yeah, yeah, we watched your last match against Lee. We know you're tough. But we have a few tricks up our sleeves as well. On top of that, its three against one. So don't be a fool, okay? Just take my advice and go. Quietly." Shikamaru was bluffing. He wasn't any keener to get into a fight here than I was.

Against a normal, sane person, it might have even worked.

"I'll say it once more," Gaara repeated. "If you get in my way, I'll kill you."

"And I'll say it again," Naruto repeated, equally fierce. "Lets see you try it!"

"Back off!" Shikamaru hissed at him, not as used to Naruto jumping in over his head, feet first and whooping with joy, as I was. "We don't wanna go there! This guy fights like he's mad. Like he's a demon or something."

An odd look came over Naruto's face. "He can act like a demon if he wants to, but you know what? I got the real thing inside of me!" He glared at Gaara.

I was surprised at even the oblique reference. Maybe that was an opening I could use to talk about it. Later.

"A demon, huh? My demon is as real as yours is," Gaara rasped. "From my birth, my upbringing was not what most people would consider a happy one. In order to ensure I became the strongest of shinobi, my father infused my unborn self with a sand spirit. I destroyed the life of the woman who gave birth to me. I was born a monster. It's name is Shukaku and it's the living incarnation of a monk of the Sand village who had been sealed up in a jar of tea."

Shukaku, yes. Monk? No. Then again, why tell the Jinchuriki the truth. Not like it would help them stay in control or anything, right?

"That's awful," I said.

"Man, that's creepy," Shikamaru said, shuddering. "Gee, what a swell guy your dad must have been. He really must have loved you a lot."

"You speak of 'love'. Don't measure me by your standards. Love. Family. The only emotional ties I have to my family are the ones I like to wrap around their necks. And they're only ties of hate. Given life by the death of my mother and nurtured into being, I was the salvation of my village. I was the Kazekage's child. My father taught me the inner most secrets of the shinobi. He pampered and protected me and left me to myself. For a time, I thought that was love. And that was when everything started."

Maybe Gaara really wanted to tell people about this, to justify himself. He was really monologuing here.

"When _what_ started?" Naruto demanded, swallowing. His face was pale. He was obviously seeing parallels here.

"Ever since I became six years old… my father tried to destroy me more times than I can count!"

"You just finished saying how your father pampered and protected you. So which is it?" Shikamaru demanded.

"Those who become too strong are apt to become feared. The jutsu that gave me birth had unbalanced something in my mind. Even the fools in my village realised I had… emotional problems." His voice twisted on the last words, wry and bitter and full or dark humour.

Depending on what Gaara meant by 'inner most secrets of the shinobi' it might not be _just_ the Ichibi's fault. I doubted the Kazekage taught _kindly_.

"My father, the Kazekage, created me as his ultimate weapon. But I eventually became a threat to the very village I was meant to save. By the time I was six I became a figure of terror to the villagers. To them, I was a relic of the past that they wished would disappear. So you see, I had failed at the one purpose for which I was given life. What then, was left for me in this existence? Why go on living? For a long time, I couldn't find an answer to that, but in order to live, you need a purpose. To exist for no reason… it's the same as being dead."

It was … spellbinding, listening to him talk. Horrible and awful and still managing to hold us entranced.

"Then in time, the answer came to me. To put it simply, my reason for living is in the killing of others. For years, I lived in fear of those who were sent to murder me. But now I am at peace. I killed many would be assassins and it was while I was doing it that the truth was made clear to me. I live solely for myself. I love only myself. As it was the death of my mother that gave me life, so it is the death of others that sustains me. It makes me almost happy to be alive. And there's no end to it. As long as there are still people to kill in this great, wide, crowded world, I will never disappear!" His eyes widened alarmingly, face twisting into a grimace of pain. Talking time was apparently over.

"Now! Let me feel alive!"

Sand started to swirl around the room, rising into the air. He wasn't moving, wasn't using hand signs but the sand still moved. Ooooh, not good. I readied my chakra for a lightning jutsu, hoping that it would disperse the sand enough for us to retreat. Naruto wasn't moving, and Shikamaru didn't have much besides Shadow Possession, which obviously wasn't working.

"Alright! That's enough!" A wonderful, wonderful voice ordered. "Save it for the final competition. You're just wasting it today, is that what you want?"

Maito Gai stood in the doorway, his very presence diffusing the atmosphere of the room. The sand retreated, flowing back into the gourd. We dropped our Shadow Possession, confident in our backup.

Gaara clutched his head and groaned. His steps were shuffling and hesitant, awkward and off balance, but he paused by the door for one last comment.

"All the same, I will kill you. Just you wait. I'll kill you all."

We didn't even move as he left.

"Alright, kids?" Gai-sensei asked with a smile and a thumbs up.

I managed a shaky smile back. "Nice timing, Gai-sensei."

He laughed, slightly dramatically. "An ironic compliment from a student of my Eternal Rival! I cannot wait to see Kakashi's face when I inform him of this!"

We shuffled out of Lee's room, double and triple checking the corridors for Gaara's presence. He was gone.

"So…" I said, dragging the syllable out. "Chouji's room?"

Shikamaru blinked, then ran a shaky hand through his hair. "Sounds good to me."

Naruto didn't say a word as we retraced our steps, picking up the fruit basket that had been dropped and spilled it's contents across the corridor.

"How troublesome," Shikamaru sighed finally, as we settled into the chairs in Chouji's room.

"What's wrong, Shikamaru?" Chouji asked. "And why'd you have to bring that food back? It makes me so hungry."

I snapped a banana off the bunch and threw it to him. "We wont tell if you don't," I said.

He looked at it mournfully, probably wishing it was a pork rib or steak or something.

"We ran into Gaara," Shikamaru said. "Just now, in the hospital."

"Trying to kill Lee," I elaborated, because that was the important part.

Chouji froze. "You… you're not joking, are you?"

I shook my head. "It would have gotten messy if Gai-sensei hadn't shown up when he did."

We relayed what had happened to Chouji who listened in worry. Naruto was silent the whole time.

"Naruto? Are you okay?" Chouji asked. "You're kinda quiet over there."

Naruto stared down at his hands, clenching and unclenching them. "That guy…" he murmured. "He said… he had a demon inside of him."

"_Shukaku_," I repeated. "The name of one of the Ten Tailed Beasts - the Bijuu. It's known as the Ichibi, the One-Tail and so regarded as the weakest of them all. It's known to be affiliated with the Sand Village, with two previous hosts including the monk Keshin Shukaku, which was probably who Gaara was talking about, and Bunbuku Chagama, who was most famous for the Massacre of Tsutanai Village during the Third Great Ninja War where he indiscriminately killed thirty enemy shinobi, the entire civilian village and three squads of Sand shinobi."

Shikamaru blinked and leaned backwards. "I forgot you used to love those stories," he muttered.

"The Bijuu are pretty interesting," I defended. "Did you know, there are stories that all nine of them used to be one being known as the Juubi - the Ten-Tailed - which the Sage of Sixth Paths then split into nine separate beings?"

And while most of the 'stories' about Bijuu were just that, I'd found out as much as I could because I knew they would one day be important. And given the way this world worked, I couldn't write off very much as 'fantasy' no matter how absurd. And well, a child fascinated with Bijuu myths is much less suspicious than a shinobi looking for information on Jinchuriki. My interest in history helped me put together a lot of different facts to get a clearer picture of the truth.

"Is… it common?" Naruto asked hesitantly. "To… have them sealed inside people."

I bit my lip and nodded. "Yeah. It's called 'Jinchuriki' meaning 'the power of human sacrifice'. I think all the Bijuu have been sealed at one point in time but most villages try and keep that information quiet. I think the only one I've never heard anything about is the Kyuubi but it must have, or it wouldn't have appeared so suddenly." Maybe because Konoha had never really used Kyuubi in battle the way other nations had.

Shikamaru's eyes had gone wide. "Naruto," he said carefully. "You said… 'I've got the real thing'…"

Naruto looked away. "Yeah," he muttered. "I did."

"That was the red chakra you used on the bridge," I said abruptly. "And in the forest."

He nodded.

"Man," Shikamaru drawled. "What a drag. That's gotta be rough."

"I kind of guessed," I admitted, feeling bad for putting Naruto on the spot like this. Particularly when I already knew the truth. "And we're not supposed to know about it, right?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, just glancing up at us quickly. "The Third Hokage made a rule, that no one was supposed to tell the kids about it…"

"Soo…" I dragged out, wanting to reassure Naruto but not really knowing how. "What's it's name? I mean, if the Ichibi is called Shukaku and the Yonbi is called Son Goku, then does the Kyuubi have a name?"

Naruto blinked. "Isn't 'Kyuubi' it's name?"

"Nah. Kyuubi means 'Nine Tails'. So it's more like a title, right? Or a description. Kinda like… Genin, or Jounin."

"Oh," he replied, stumped. "I don't know."

I shrugged. "Eh, never mind then. Want to play shogi?" Shikamaru was already setting up the shogi board again.

Naruto blinked and looked around the room at us. Shikamaru gave him a half hearted smile.

"Apple?" Chouji offered, holding out the fruit basket that was suspiciously half empty. He knew Chouji well enough to know that sharing food was sacred.

Naruto took one and if there were tears in his eyes, we didn't comment.

"Come on," I said, bumping shoulders with him. "You and me verses Shika and Chouji."


	32. Chapter 31

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Nemesis Jedi - Naruto _was_ doing well in his training… he just wasn't doing what Jiraiya wanted. Summoning toads was just a chakra intensive jutsu that was meant to drain Naruto until he was forced to call on the Kyuubi's power. Since he wasn't able to do that without the danger… off the cliff it was. Hmm. Jiraiya is a dick of a teacher.

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Chapter 31

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_If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near. ~ Sun Tzu_

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"Ready?" I asked Shikamaru as we headed towards the stadium.

"If I say 'no' can we reschedule?" he joked.

"Probably not," I said. However odd it might have seemed to everyone else, I was more nervous than Shikamaru was. Oh, not about his fight but… given the way everything else had matched up I was pretty damn sure that there would be an invasion today.

I was wearing my standard mission gear, complete with kunai pouch and sealing scroll tucked into my jacket. I was as prepared as I was going to be. That didn't make it any less terrifying. Maybe I should have worked harder on finding a way to warn people.

The walk to the stadium was slow and quiet. The matches officially started at ten, which gave people most of the morning to arrive and get seated. And so, the streets were already buzzing with people and vendors.

I noticed that there were a lot of ninja out and about. More than I'd ever seen before. It wasn't obvious, but there was also a curious dearth of civilians. At first I thought they were just increased security for the Tournament, but then I realised - they were all combat ready. It was hard to tell just by looking at them, there isn't really any difference between a ninja on duty and off, but there was a tension in the air.

Then it dawned on me.

They knew the invasion was coming. They were planning to let it hit and break on the defences of the village. A statement of how useless trying to attack was. It was a trap. Most of the civilians had already been moved to the evacuation shelters. It was doubtful that the visiting shinobi would notice, since Konoha had the highest number of civilians in our hidden village. Mist had almost none.

The candidates for the Final Exam were supposed to meet up in the middle of the arena and I had tickets for the general Konoha populace section of the stands. We hung around the entrance for a while, not too eager to go in just yet. I perched on one of the stone fences, observing the people pouring into the entrance. There were a few ninja, but mostly civilians, merchants and nobles and allsorts dressed in fancy clothes.

Ino and Chouji arrived shortly after us.

"Oh, man," Ino said, staring at the stadium. "I'm so _nervous_."

"You'll do fine," Chouji said, sounding like he'd been repeating the statement all morning.

"Of course I will. How could I not?" she tossed her hair. "But… Temari is pretty scary."

"Just do your best," I said quietly. "Other than that… don't get killed."

"You better believe it! I'm far too pretty to die," Ino said, tossing her hair. "Imagine how much of a _crime_ that would be."

Shikamaru snorted and rolled his eyes, leaning back to stare at the sky. Ino whirled on him.

The three of them, Ino-Shika-Chou, they _meshed_. Even now, with the barest of words between them, I could see that Shika was far more settled, less nervous, than before. And Ino, for all her ranting, was much calmer.

They were a good team.

I caught sight of some familiar people and waved. Kiba and Hinata made their way over to us, shouldering their way through the crowd. Akamaru barked a greeting.

"Shino not here yet?" Kiba asked, eyes scanning around.

"He could be inside already," I offered. "We haven't been here that long."

"Oh," Hinata said quietly. "I wanted to wish him good luck."

I smiled at her. "How are you feeling, Hinata?" She'd only been out of the hospital for a week and even then they'd been a little doubtful about it.

"I'm okay," she said. "Really."

Kiba gave me a look that said he wasn't quite so certain about _that_. He looked very protective, hovering over her shoulder. I suppose if you were injured there are much worse people to rely on to look out for you than an Inuzuka team mate.

"Well, do you guys want to head upstairs? Hopefully we can find some seats together," I offered. It'd be nice to have someone to sit with, and then I could keep an eye on them.

"Sounds good to me," Kiba said, shrugging. "Whaddaya say, Hinata?"

"O-of course."

I stretched before jumping down to the ground. "Chouji?"

"Coming," he said, eating the last of his chips and tucking the empty packet away.

"I guess that's our cue to head inside," Ino said glancing nervously at the door.

"Good luck!" We chorused.

Unlike what I was used to when I thought of stadiums, the seating didn't go right around the arena. There were five or six pagoda sitting atop the wall on one side and _that_ was where all the spectators were. One of the boxes was obviously reserved for the watching Kage, while the others were divided into status rankings. The very rich and important, the moderately rich and important, and the common folk and ninja that were scouting for upcoming talent. I suspected that several department heads would be about, even though fresh Chunin rarely got headhunted. This was, after all, one of the very few chances to actually observe ninja in action.

The four of us settled into seats that were, amusingly, beside two ninja that I recognised as proctors for the First and Second Exams - Izumo and Kotetsu. They were dressed in standard combat uniforms, not the grey Intelligence Division ones this time, but still.

"They look so small down there," Chouji commented. "And… where are Naruto and Sasuke?"

I bit my lip. "They'll get here soon." I was pretty sure, anyway. I couldn't see anything short of Orochimaru's return keeping Naruto away. Sasuke… well, he was with Sensei.

Sure enough, Naruto appeared shortly before the proctor called them to attention. Sasuke… didn't.

"Still not here," Kiba muttered, frowning.

"Sensei is _always_ late," I said. "but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't make Sasuke miss his fight."

"Welcome all!" The Hokage's voice echoed around the stands. "And our deepest thanks for coming here to the Village Hidden in the Leaves for our Chunin Selection Exams."

There was definitely some kind of technique involved here, since I couldn't see any speakers and there wasn't that mechanical tinny quality to it. And there was no way that his voice was carrying this distance naturally.

He gave a bit of a welcome speech, but it wasn't that bad considering how long he'd dragged on for in the prelims. I guess he knew that everyone had come to see the fighting.

"Alright," Hayate coughed. "The terrain is different but the rules are the same. Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuuga have the first match. Those two stay and the rest of you can go to the waiting area."

It was clear that he was talking to the candidates, but his voice carried up to us in the stands as well. Either the stadium had excellent acoustics, or there was some kind of amplification jutsu down there. It made sense, after all, this was being used to judge them - their skills _and_ their characters.

"You got anything to say to me?" Neji asked, down below.

"Only what I told you the last time," Naruto growled out. "I'm going to win this."

"So much the better for me," Neji retorted, smirking. "I can't wait to see the look of despair on your face when you learn that your foolish vow is impossible to keep."

"Are we just going to stand here talking all day?" Wind whirled around Naruto, stirred up by the agitation of his chakra. It even reached us in the stands.

"Let the first match, begin!"

Beside us, the two Chunin were looking on in interest. "Who would have thought that that little squirt could have survived this long?" Kotetsu mused.

"Yeah," Izumo agreed, leaning forward on his elbows. "He's been one lucky kid so far. But his lucks about to run out. He'll never survive this one."

"Yeah, it's going to be painful. Going up against one of the Hyuuga Clan? He doesn't stand a chance."

Hinata made a distressed sound at their observations. Admittedly, yeah, from an outsiders point of view, Naruto vs. Neji was a match up that would only end one way.

"Don't fuss, Hinata," I murmured. "Naruto is too stubborn to give up. He'll be fine."

"You got _that_ right," Kiba agreed. "I underestimated him and look what happened to me." Akamaru flattened his ears and whined.

"You think he'll win?" Chouji asked curiously.

I nodded slowly. "Yeah. It's _important_ to him to win, because of Neji's actions. He'll keep going long past where any reasonable person might have given up. And besides… it's not like he hasn't done any planning for this."

For one, I'd made sure he'd memorised my info sheet. For another, I'd walked him through several imaginary encounters with Neji, supplying the enemy action if he couldn't. Naruto had been mostly bored, but a little fascinated by it. But damn, I wasn't going to let him in there without a plan.

We watched in anticipation.

He launched a wave of kunai towards Neji, who deflected them easily, sending them scattering across the ground, one burying itself in a tree. To my chakra sense, they burned bright with chakra - clones - but did nothing. Setting a trap early, or showing Neji that your 'special' kunai are harmless?

Then he charged forward, laying on a brutal taijutsu assault.

_What?_

Naruto's taijutsu was better, but not in league with Neji's. And he _knew_ that he couldn't afford to get hit with the Gentle Fist.

"You idiot!" Kiba shouted, aggrieved. "A frontal attack will _never_ work!"

"Close combat like that is lethal. Unless…" My eyes widened. "Those kunai…"

He was only supposed to use clones to attack like that because risking his chakra system was stupid. So what if… that _was_ a clone. If the 'real' Naruto was one of the kunai… It would have taken a supremely fast Transformation, Replacement _and_ Shadow Clone Jutsu to pull off…

"That's so crazy it's brilliant," I breathed. It must have killed him to take a safe spot and stay out of the fight itself. But oh, if he pulled it off…

"What?" Kiba demanded. "What's he done?"

I giggled with glee. "Just watch. You probably wont see it for a while, but watch."

Neji wasn't even really using Jyuuken down there, otherwise the bout would have been over much faster. He was underestimating Naruto.

Naruto dived backwards out of the way of the strike that would have ended his ability to fight, and rolled back to his feet.

"Do you understand now?" Neji demanded. "You have no way of beating me."

"Get real!" Naruto scoffed, hands forming that familiar seal. "I was just testing you, that's all. Okay, now that we're warmed up, lets get started." The air around him shimmered, and suddenly there was even more orange down there.

"Well, isn't he something," Kotetsu said in mild surprise.

"That Shadow Clone Jutsu is a Jounin level technique," Izumo added. "Where'd that kid pick up a technique like that?"

"This match could be more interesting than we thought." I could have sworn he glanced over at us out the corner of his eye but it was too quick to catch it.

"Those are the clones he used against me, right?" Kiba said. "Is that _really_ a Jounin level technique?"

"Mmhmm," I hummed. "It takes a lot of chakra. Sensei pretty much forbid him from teaching it to us because of that."

"Huh. Our little dead last has come a long way," Kiba said, grinning wildly, cheering as the clones mobbed around Neji, who was starting to look a little _pressed_. One Naruto he could handle, but ten coordinated attacks was getting a little much. The Byakugan meant he could see them, but reacting in time was still an issue.

"Eight Trigrams: Heavenly Rotation!"

Wow. The Kaiten was _impressive._

"But that was…" Hinata said, shocked. "Only Main Branch…"

"A move like that," I commented, offhand. "Has got to be pretty chakra intensive."

Hinata blinked. "I- yes. It is."

"So how many times do you reckon Neji can pull it off? Five? Six?" I wouldn't think he could use it that many times, particularly not if he wanted to have chakra left over to fight.

"And how many times can Naruto force him to use it?" Kiba asked, catching on.

I smirked. "Oh, I'd say quite a few."

"Did you really think you'd won?" Neji asked coldly, as he stopped spinning. The defence/attack had shredded a fair few of the clones. "Your persistence is ridiculous."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Naruto retorted.

"It is _you_ who doesn't see your own limitations. People are set, fixed, unchangeable. Only a fool wastes time trying to become something he can never be. You thought you could be Hokage? It's absurd."

"A fool?" Naruto scoffed in disgust. "Here we go again. Who are you to judge what a person can or cannot be?"

"You think anyone can become Hokage? That all it takes is a little _hard work?_ Of all the shinobi in all the world, think of how few ever become Hokage. They were born destined to be Hokage. It's not something you become merely by _trying_ to become. They were chosen by destiny. Each person is given his own path to follow. And he must follow it. _Obediently._" He spat the word out, spitefully. "There is only one destiny we all share equally. Death."

"Yeah, so what? You can think that way if you want. People always tell me I just don't know when to give up." He smirked and pulled out a kunai.

Four of the Naruto's jumped, one from each direction, throwing their kunai towards Neji. The downward angle meant that if they missed, the knives would just hit the dirt, not other clones. I suspected I knew what was coming next.

Neji sneered and pulled his kunai to deflect them.

"Now!" Naruto shouted, just as Neji reached out to swipe the first away.

Four kunai blossomed into a rain of metal.

Of course the clones could do it too, I thought. They're already clones, and so are their kunai.

It has to be said that Neji has very good reactions. He spun into another Kaiten, almost immediately, but when the smoke cleared it was easy to see it hadn't been quite fast enough. He hadn't been prepared for the mass replication. There was blood leaking from a cut on his cheek, slices in his clothing and red blooming on the bandages around one arm.

He looked very wary.

"Hot damn," Kiba breathed.

"If only you knew," I muttered, eyeing the metal scattered across the ground. Not all of them had been dispersed by the Kaiten.

The Naruto's smirked and prepared another barrage. Neji spun another Kaiten to deflect the metal, but he knew he was in a bad spot. Naruto's clones were surrounding him, and when the Kaiten died down he didn't hold his position. He raced for the clone that had been speaking, to attack, and to get out of the circle of death.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto cried, creating even more clones. Neji fought some and ducked, dodged, weaved and jumped past the others. He was intent on striking the leader and ending the fight.

"You're the one hanging back for fear of my striking your chakra points," Neji deduced. "The more the others attack, the more you stand out for holding back. You're the real one, aren't you? This is the end for you. You're in my range, and you can't escape. Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms."

"The match is over," Kotetsu said from beside us.

"Not yet," I murmured, eyes fixed on the match.

"I have now struck all Sixty Four of your chakra points," Neji said, breathing hard. "You're lucky to still be breathing. Well, it must be frustrating. To realise how utterly hopeless it all was. This little dream of yours. You thought you could succeed through hard work alone. That's only an illusion."

"You're the one who sees an illusion." Naruto coughed, then exploded into smoke.

Hinata started coughing.

"Hey, Hinata, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Kiba asked concerned.

I turned to look at her. "You're coughing blood!" I said, alarmed, hands darting through the seals for my diagnostic jutsu. I crouched in front of her, squeezing into the narrow space between the rows of seats.

The others around us made noises of alarm and worry.

Her heart beat was fast and it was stressing the weakened tissue. When Neji had hit her heart tenketsu, it had damaged the muscle, which in turn had caused problems with her pulse and blood pressure. The high pressure had damaged the delicate capillaries in the alveolar tissue of her lungs, which was causing the blood in her lungs.

"This is beyond my skills," I said. "We need to get you back to the hospital."

Hinata shook her head weakly, but couldn't speak over her coughing. I could guess that she wanted to stay and watch the fight.

"Here let me have a look at her," a friendly sounding voice said. I glanced up, only to come face to face with an ANBU mask. "Don't worry, you can trust me."

_Metallic, like the gleam of light off a knife, like the sharp taste of blood, honed and sharp and lethal._

I swallowed.

_Kabuto._

"I'm a medic," he said.

He _was_ a medic. A damned good one. Kiba and Chouji were already moving so we could get Hinata out of the seats. He didn't have any reason to help Hinata, though, and I didn't exactly trust him.

But what could I say? Sorry no?

_Shit._ There was no one around I could trust to believe me if I told them this was Kabuto. If Sensei was here…

He carried Hinata up to the back of the stands, lying her flat on the floor and summoning his chakra. The green glow was extremely steady and fine tuned, a flat, monochrome green.

With half an ear, I could hear Naruto and Neji talking. About Hinata, about the Hyuuga Clan… I filed it away, but didn't pay much attention.

"Hinata's looking more lively now," Kiba said in relief. "These ANBU guys are good."

"She's okay now. She just needs to rest," Kabuto said.

I slid my chakra into her system. "Oh. Wow. You … healed her completely. That's amazing." It was. Lung tissue… heart tissue… it was extremely delicate. There was a reason that the Hospital hadn't been able to fully heal her. There wasn't any doubt that Kabuto was an excellent medic - he was just a depraved one.

I only hoped he hadn't done anything else.

Kabuto's motivations were impossible to determine. And that made him even _more_ dangerous.

"You should go back to watching the match. It's quite interesting, isn't it?" Kabuto said.

"_Interesting_ practically defines Naruto," I muttered. "Along with _unpredictable."_

"Thanks for helping, ANBU-san," Chouji said politely as Kiba scooped Hinata up into his arms. We couldn't leave her back here, someone might stand on her.

"People are born carrying an unchangeable fate. To carry a seal that can never be removed, a guy like you could never understand," Neji was saying.

I shared a glance with Chouji, the only other one who knew here.

"No, I understand," Naruto said lowly, then glared fiercely at Neji. "So what about it?"

That was… such a Naruto reaction. Life sucks, _so what?_

"You're not the only special person here," Naruto continued. "Hinata was suffering, just like you. She was from the Main Family, but she tried her best to change herself because no one would acknowledge her. That's the determination she had and she fought you even after she was injured. The Branch Family is supposed to protect the Main Family, yet you did that to Hinata and it was only an Exam. You were trying hard to fight against Fate, weren't you?" The insight came out of left field, which was usually where Naruto's insight hid. He was _good_ at understanding people.

"Why do you fight against your fate so hard?" Neji asked, sounding almost despairing.

"Because… you called me a failure," Naruto said.

We slipped back into our seats. There was a single Naruto standing, talking to Neji who looked tired. But the kunai were still scattered over the arena, so Naruto wasn't done yet.

"After I become Hokage," Naruto said, forming a cross seal. "I'll change the Hyuuga for you."

Neji settled back into a Jyuuken stance. "Then show me if what you say is true."

Neji was slower now, in both dodging the clones and attacking. He was trying not to have to rely on Kaiten, I could see, aware that he didn't have much chakra left.

_You turned it into a battle of attrition, huh?_

"Lightning Release: Striking Bolt!" Four Naruto's cried.

Lightning lanced. Blue chakra bloomed into a Kaiten.

Neji sunk to one knee, panting heavily, before staggering back to his feet. "Still not enough," he said and darted forward, out of the crater made by his Kaiten.

His hand struck fast, slamming into Naruto's chest.

"Again…" Naruto spoke, blood dripping from his mouth. "You assume… I'm the real one."

Neji's eyes widened. Naruto exploded into a puff of smoke.

And then, the dozens of kunai scattered about his feet turned back into clones. The nearest ones grabbed onto his legs. Some grabbed his arms. Around his waist. Pinning him, holding him immobile.

And, then, one cold cocked him in the jaw. Messy and brutal and unavoidable.

Neji slumped, unconscious.

There was a long pause.

"Winner," Hayate coughed. "Naruto Uzumaki."

We exploded into cheers, Akamaru howling along.

"Alright!" Kiba cheered. "Way to go Naruto!"

"Never saw _that_ coming," Kotetsu said, shaking his head. "Unbelievable."

Medics came onto the field and carted Neji off on a stretcher, and then the Naruto clones dispersed. All of them.

"Wait, what?" Chouji said.

Then there was a puff of smoke, and Naruto appeared standing beside one of the trees encircling the arena.

"You mean…" Izumo said, leaning forward. "Right from the start…"

"Neji never even _spoke to_ the real Naruto," I said smugly. "Let alone hit him. They were _all_ clones."

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><p>.<p>

Oh and if anyone is wondering about Hayate... it went something like this in canon: Dosu challenged Gaara on top of Kikyo castle, Gaara transformed/went nuts and killed him. Baki and Kabuto were watching and discussing their plans. Hayate overheard them then died. That leads me to assume they were all drawn there by Gaara.

Thus, no Dosu, no fight. Nothing to draw Hayate to that location. There's also comparatively increased security, particuarly on lookout for Kabuto and Orochimaru due to extra suspicions and things. Make sense?


	33. Chapter 32

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Y'know, watching the Temari vs. Shika match… he's actually fast. He did dodge her opening moves so fast no one actually saw him move. … And made it look easy.

Also, sorry if the Shino/Shika fight isn't as epic as everyone imagined. Those two are _hard_ to write fights for.

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Chapter 32

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_All war is based on deception. ~ Sun Tzu_

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There was a long pause between matches as the proctors tried to decide what to do next. By rights, Sasuke wasn't here and should be disqualified.

I propped my chin in my hand and stared down at the arena.

"Just what _is_ Sasuke playing at?" Kiba asked gruffly.

I shrugged. "Ain't that the question of the century?" Even as I spoke, I felt a whisper of familiar chakra brush against my senses. With so many people here, I would have ignored it… except I knew my team mates.

My head snapped around and I stared at the back wall of the box. There was nothing to see, yet I could still _swear…_

_Are you already here, Sensei?_

My brow furrowed. Was Sensei being _deliberately_ late? Well… more deliberately than normal. As in 'standing about watching for the moment to make an entrance'?

_What would be the point?_

Was he hoping that Sasuke would get disqualified and not have to fight Gaara? I couldn't see Sasuke agreeing to that. Wait, hadn't Gaara been some kind of signal or something?

Extending the fights worked in Konoha's benefit because it was actually a legitimate Chunin Exams. There were watching dignitaries in the stands. The more they saw before the invasion, the better our reputation would be. And Genin were not supposed to be frontline fighters in situations like this, so them exhausting themselves fighting was no biggy.

Though in the eyes of the dignitaries, the invasion could go two ways. If we held it off well, without extreme damage it would be all 'very good, old chap, I knew you were strong' but if we failed at that it would be 'well, I hear the Village Hidden in the Clouds is quite strong'. It would either cement our reputation or break it.

Down in the arena Hayate coughed before his voice carried up to us. "One of the competitors for the next battle has not arrived yet so we're going to postpone this match and continue with the next fight."

There was a little bit of jeering in the stands behind me. I wondered if they were selling alcoholic refreshments here. Then again, people could be juvenile idiots without the aid of alcohol.

"That's interesting," Kotetsu said offhandedly.

"They don't usually make an exception like that," Izumo agreed.

Temari created a blast of wind with her fan and used it to glide down into the arena. Already, she was a hit with the crowd. It had been obvious, even back in the prelims that Temari was a bit of a showman. Right now, it was working in her favour. Ino was pretty, and charismatic when she tried, but she wasn't flashy.

Then again, the point wasn't to win the crowd over.

"Match two; Ino Yamanaka verses Temari," Hayate announced. "Begin."

There was a tense silence as the two regarded each other for a long moment. Ino was the first one to spring into action, pulling out two handfuls of kunai and flinging them at Temari before back flipping out of the way to get some distance.

The kunai flew true, but Temari's shifting wind currents scattered them to the ground at her feet. She scoffed. "Don't you Leaf ninja ever lea-"

The explosion caught her off guard.

See, most of the time, when you attached explosive tags to kunai they trailed from the hilt like tails. That was simply because they were easiest to attach like that; you could do it in the heat of combat pretty easily. But, if you knew that you were going to be using explosive notes, it was just as easy to wrap them around the grip.

That had the bonus of not being easily visually identifiable.

The smoke cleared to reveal Temari crouched down behind her opened fan, having used it to protect herself from the worst of the blast. She was still a little scorched, though, and _completely_ pissed off.

"Wind Release: Sickle Weasel Jutsu!" She grasped the Tessen by it's huge iron base and heaved, body bending nearly double as she swung the huge open fan through it's full arc.

Ino did the sensible thing and went for cover. Dust blew, wind howled and slash marks appeared on all the trees. The gust was strong up here, I could only imagine what it was like for Ino.

"Is _this_ all a kunoichi of the Leaf village is worth?" Temari sneered, trying to regain the mental upper hand of combat. "Running and hiding, _girlie?_"

"You know," Ino said, stepping out from behind the tree. She looked a little battered, but not overly so. "I did wonder how those wind currents of yours would handle explosive notes. I guess the answer is 'not well', huh?"

"Ooh, bitch fight," Kiba winced. "This is not going to be pretty."

I could only _imagine_ what look was on Temari's face at that comment, but I agreed with him.

Ino hurled a second barrage of projectiles across the arena.

"I admit, you caught me off guard with those explosive notes, but don't expect the same trick to work twice!" Temari shouted, batting them away with a powerful heave of her fan, and sending the kunai reeling all over the arena. But the way that the light caught, for just a second, on nothing made me realise Ino's tactic.

"Clever," I said approvingly. "Ino knew she'd be expecting exploding tags, so the second batch had ninja wire attached."

"Same trick Naruto pulled on me, huh?" Kiba queried.

"Maybe. Not sure it'll work the same. The arena is bigger, for one, she has less wire and not all of the kunai are anchored… but I'm guessing Ino's game plan is basically - avoid the wind, trap her and then use Mind-Body Switch to make her forfeit…" As far as plans went, it wasn't bad. But, as they say, the Devil is in the details.

Temari kept blasting her Sickle Weasel Jutsu around, forcing Ino to dart in and out of hiding. But Ino wasn't running scared, she was moving with purpose, so I wasn't worried yet. Temari's attacks were throwing up a whole heap of dust, and effectively obscuring sight. But Ino was a sensor type so it probably wasn't as limiting for her as everyone expected. I could tell she was being very busy down there, but not at _what_.

"Come on! You run out of spirit already?" Temari taunted. "I'm just getting warmed up here! It'd be an awful shame to have to quit just yet!"

"You want spirit?" Ino yelled. "Then take this!" She hurled a … capsule? I couldn't quite see from up here. It arced up high, as though to come down on Temari from above.

Temari responded exactly the same way she had been so far, blasting it with wind. The capsule shattered, spilling a colourful gas into the air above her.

"Poison?" I guessed. The Yamanaka did produce a lot of plant based poisons, so it wasn't an extreme guess. When fighting by themselves, the slow speed of the Mind-Body Switch Jutsu meant that slowing down and stopping their opponent was modus operendi. Poison, traps, these weren't the basis for their fighting style, but they were used to assist in capturing an opponent.

"Hah!" Temari shouted, clearing the air with a wide sweep of her fan. "My team mate is a puppet master, you think I haven't built up an immunity by now?"

It wasn't quite the truth. Even from here I could tell that she was slightly slower (which meant Ino must have been using a damn fast acting poison) but it wasn't enough. Every village (if not _individual ninja)_ used their own poisons, and guarded the secrets to those recipes. Immunity to one branch didn't automatically mean immunity to another.

But it gave her experience with dealing with poisons, that much was clear with how quickly she got out of the way and swept the entire area clear.

"Nice try, little girl," Temari taunted, propping her fan up and leaning on it, just a little. "But you should go back to playing dress up with your dollies."

"That's it!" Ino shouted, jumping out from behind the tree she'd been sheltering behind. "I have had _enough_ of your lame taunts, you walking fashion disaster!"

"Aww, Ino," Chouji groaned. "And you were doing so well, too."

On my other side, Kotetsu leant back in his chair. "Match is over. Shame she lost her head like that."

I squinted down at the arena. "Ino's faking." Just _what_ she was doing, I couldn't tell, but the rant was a distraction.

Kiba winced as she hit a particularly shrill note. "Well, I wish she'd hurry up. I think my ears are bleeding." Akamaru whimpered in agreement.

"- and I'll show you!" Ino shouted, hands forming the triangular seal of the Yamanaka Jutsu.

"What?" Chouji gasped. "Ino, you can't-!"

Temari obviously didn't know what the seal did, but she didn't look like she wanted to find out. She grasped her fan and heaved… and it didn't budge.

There were gasps of shock from around us.

"The ninja wire!" I blurted out. Ino had left ninja wire crisscrossing the arena floor in various patterns, not intending to trap Temari with it like Naruto had Kiba but to channel her chakra through it. She was standing on one strand, and had channelled chakra through the weave until it reached Temari. One strand was wrapped around the fan, another around Temari's legs.

"Mind-Body Swi-"

"Wind Release: Gale Palm Jutsu!" Temari thrust her palm forward like a strike, chakra blasting from it. It slammed into Ino hard, lifting her off her feet and smashing into the wall. She slumped down it.

Temari panted in the sudden silence. Clearly, using wind jutsu without her fan was more difficult and draining for her.

Hayate coughed and approached. Ino didn't stir.

"Ino Yamanaka is unconscious and unable to continue," he announced. "The winner is Temari."

Cheers exploded around us, but I sank back with a groan. "You were _so_ close, Ino."

"That bites," Chouji said. "She's going to be impossible to deal with now." He looked mournfully at his empty chip packet before taking out another one.

"I have to admit," Kiba said slowly. "I didn't actually expect her to do that well."

"Solo combat definitely isn't her speciality," I agreed. "But she's been working damn hard this last month."

We watched as the medics carried Ino out of the arena. She might have lost but it hadn't gone as badly as it might have. She wasn't walking out of the arena… but she wasn't grievously injured, either.

"So next up …" Kiba trailed off, glancing at us.

"Yup," I confirmed. "Shika and Shino."

"Heh. Shino's got this won," Kiba boasted.

I scoffed. "Dream on. Shikamaru's obviously going to win." Okay, not 'obviously' but being overconfident in his victory was my duty as a sister.

"That slacker?" Kiba laughed. "He scored even worse than me at the Academy."

"Shikamaru knows exactly how much effort he can get away with not putting into something," I retorted. Because he _had_ graduated, however barely.

"That doesn't even make sense!" Kiba said.

"Yeah, well," I floundered for a retort. "Your face!" Oh, god. I hadn't said that, had I?

His jaw dropped open. "That's… you… Akamaru! Sic her!"

Akamaru yipped and jumped off Kiba's shoulder at me. He growled fiercely and then proceeded to slobber all over my face. I caught his tiny body gently and tried to hold him at arms length. "Chouji, help me! I'm getting mauled!"

Chouji was laughing and being utterly unhelpful, so I proceeded to twitch over sideways and 'die' dramatically over everyone's laps.

"We'll be merciful if you admit to our greatness," Kiba declared, between fits of laughter. "Bow down to the might of the Inuzuka Duo."

"Never!" I yelped, taking a different tactic and scratching Akamaru behind the ears. He seemed torn for a second, between continuing his 'attack' and submitting before bunting his head into my fingers.

"Traitor!" Kiba accused him, but he clearly wasn't serious, considering that he was still laughing.

"Never underestimate the resourcefulness of a Nara," I said, before scrunching my nose up and trying to wipe my face clean with my sleeve. Dog slobber, lovely.

"Shino Aburame verses Shikamaru Nara," Hayate announced. "Begin."

I scrambled back upright, careful not to spill Akamaru on the floor, in order to watch the fight.

Shino placed himself on the west side, so that the sun was sinking behind him. Meaning, all the shadows created by the wall were also behind him. It was an interesting choice. On one hand, it separated Shikamaru from what could easily be a huge advantage. On the other hand, it put a huge mass of shadow behind him.

It could go either way.

"It would be intelligent for you to forfeit this match," Shino announced. "Why? Because your shadow jutsu is not a good match against my clan techniques."

Shikamaru sighed. "This whole thing is so troublesome. But having to do it all over again… that would be even worse. It really doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me if I ever become Chunin or not… but, eh, there are other people counting on me, so I guess I better give it a shot."

"Well, he sounds enthusiastic," Izumo said sarcastically.

Kiba snorted.

Surprisingly, after his declaration of non-interest, it was Shikamaru that started the combat. He folded his fingers together into the rat seal and sent his shadow straight out towards Shino. Our shadow jutsu were fast, but not that fast. If you saw it coming, you could dodge.

Which was just what Shino did, jumping backwards until he'd exceeded the reach of Shikamaru's shadow. If he wanted to go any further, Shika would have to find another shadow to piggyback.

Shino's Kikai swarmed out of his sleeves, coating his arms and hanging in the air around him. He was probably dispersing them, too; secretly preparing for a sneak attack. It seemed like the clever thing to do.

Actually, come to think of it… "Shino probably had him bugged before he even set foot in the arena," I thought out loud.

"Yeah, probably," Kiba agreed. "He's sneaky like that. Not that there's anywhere to hide down there."

Bugs swarmed across the arena in loops and arcs, the numbers so heavy that the masses looked almost solid. Shikamaru proved that Mum's early morning training had helped as he dived and dodged and avoided them. Of course, the bugs would just regroup and attack again, and he couldn't keep dodging forever. He tripped, rolled, and they all dove in for the kill, a thick black blanket that would drain him of chakra in seconds.

Shikamaru reached into his weapons pouch and pulled out a kunai with fluttering explosive note attached. He slammed in into the ground next to him, the explosion knocking the bugs back.

"The hell-?" Kiba wondered. "He just … exploded himself?"

I snorted. "Shika is slow and lazy by choice not because of any lack of speed," I said. That was a mistaken belief a lot of people had. When sufficiently motivated, he could move damn fast, as shown by the lack of crispy Shikamaru as the smoke cleared.

The explosion had certainly damaged a number of Shino's Kikai, leaving burnt insect husks littering the ground. Not all of them, though, and he certainly hadn't committed everything to that one attack.

"Hiding is futile," Shino said impassively, forcing Shikamaru out of the foliage by way of another attack.

Shikamaru tossed a wave of kunai at him, which were contemptuously batted aside, and darted forward, only to be forced back by another wave of Kikai. The two attacks nearly caught him in a pincer move, but he evaded.

"It looks like Shino really has him on the run," Kiba commented, a little gleefully.

I shared a glance with Chouji, who had just as much faith in Shikamaru as I did. "I think… he's positioning," I said slowly. "Though I don't know exactly what his plan is."

"I trust Shikamaru to know what he's doing," Chouji said easily.

The two appeared to be stalemated, Shika avoiding Shino's attacks and making attempts forward while Shino maintained a careful distance between the two and trying to prevent Shikamaru from elongating his shadow. They jockeyed back and forth a little, gaining and losing ground. Admittedly, it was more energetic than I had thought Shikamaru's match would be.

There were bugs creeping around the walls and swarming over the ground, reducing the amount of ground that was safe to move on. I considered the number of bugs there had to be down there and how many I had estimated Shino to have.

"Shino's overcommitted," I said. "Game over."

"What?" Kiba jerked up and stared at me incredulously. "Shino's _winning!_"

Shikamaru rolled to a crouch in one of the craters left behind from Neji's Kaiten. From this angle, I could barely see the scroll that he spread out on the bottom of the ditch and I could bet that Shino didn't see it at all.

"There are no paths of escape left," Shino said as his bugs closed in on my brother. "You should surrender before my Kikai suck you dry."

"Just try it," Shikamaru challenged.

The Kikai descended on him. Shino might have half been expecting another exploding noted, because the bugs were staggered in waves, making a very thick wall of them instead of all swarming at once.

Nothing…

Nothing…

Then…

_Wssshsssnk!_

It was kinda hard to describe the sound. It was a mix between an explosion and a huge wave slamming down on the ground. A huge surge of water burst out of the scroll and _flattened _the surrounding area.

When I'd made those water scrolls, I'd had Gaara's transformed state in mind. Therefore… I'd included a lot of water. Around a hundred thousand litres, which was approximately the amount of water in a small swimming pool. I'd had to go out of Konoha to find a lake big enough to make five scrolls without depreciating it too much.

That said, the water fountained into the air, sweeping Shino's bugs aside. It didn't fill up the arena, or anything dramatic like that, but the craters were now pools and the ground was nice and soggy.

"Shadow Possession Complete," Shikamaru said with a sigh, unfolding out of the water. I was impressed he hadn't been swept away.

Shino blinked. "As the sun sinks, my shadow elongates," he surmised. "Meaning that my calculation of the distance you would need to cover was incorrect. Clever. However…"

"Unfortunately for you, what you have snared is my Insect Clone," Shino's voice stated impassively from the other side of the arena.

There were gasps from the stands as people hadn't noticed switch. Although, Shino had been hiding until that sentence.

Shikamaru smirked lazily. "You sure about that?" he asked, raising his hands. _Both_ Shinos mirrored him.

If it were possible to radiate surprise without moving a facial muscle, Shino did it. "How…" he trailed off. "I made certain that you did not connect your shadow to mine."

"Well, I'll have to thank Ino for leaving so much ninja wire lying about," Shika said, gesturing to one of the kunai lodged into the wall, a sliver of shiny silver trailing across the arena, where it ended by his feet. Even wire would cast a shadow, however faint. "Look over your shoulder, I'll let you." He twisted his neck so Shino could see the shadow extending from the wall behind him.

"I see," Shino said. "You used the ninja wire to get your shadow to the wall, then circled around until it was behind me. While I attempted to keep you away from it… that was exactly where you wanted me to be."

"Yeah," Shikamaru agreed, lazily.

"While I believed I was in control of the match… you were luring me into your own traps, to reduce the number of my Kikai that were free to move," Shino continued. "Believing I was winning, I committed too many of my insects to the field and you wiped them out."

I think he was stalling. The Insect Clone was shifting, _rustling,_ and I didn't know if Shikamaru could make it hold together for long. If it dissolved back into free moving bugs there might be a problem.

"While I'd love to forfeit now and claim I can't go any further," Shikamaru said with a yawn. "That would be a lie." His hand reached into his kunai pouch and withdrew four kunai, paper tags trailing visibly from the hilt. Shino mirrored him. "Mine have exploding tags, yours don't. I'm going to throw these to box you in, one meter square, if you don't surrender by the count of three. One… two…"

Four exploding tags in such a close radius would do a whole heap of damage, particularly since Shino wouldn't be able to negate it in any way what so ever.

Shino nodded. "I surrender," he said calmly. "You have caused a substantial amount of damage to my colony and I am currently unable to move. My options are limited. I withdraw from this match."

There was a beat of silence.

Hayate coughed. "Winner by forfeit: Shikamaru Nara."

The applause was thunderous.

"Huh," Chouji said. "I'm surprised that Shikamaru _didn't_ give up."

"I'm glad he didn't," I said, petting Akamaru absently. "Because that would have made me lose an argument with _Kiba_ and that would just be embarrassing."

"Hey!"

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><p>.<p>

One hundred thousand litres sounds like a heck of a lot of water, but that's a pool 10x10x1 metres. 100 cubic metres, 100,000 litres. Since, apparently, most school pools are like 50x25x2 metres… but big numbers are intimidating…


	34. Chapter 33

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: A few people commented that they were surprised that Shika didn't forfeit… I like to think that Shikamaru forfeited against Temari because it was such an obvious and clear-cut win. Against Shino, he needed the verbal confirmation of surrender. Well, that and his sister would have been mad at him.

And Nemesis Jedi - Shikako loaded _everyone_ down with enough explosives to level the stadium. XD

Ah, Chidori. One of the strongest and strangest techniques in this show. Personally, I think the English translation of 'assassination jutsu' is a little… erroneous. Don't quote me on this, but I think the actual Japanese translates better as 'one hit kill'. I mean, you end up dead either way, but assassination implies a level of _sneakiness_ that doesn't really… well. Loud chirping. Bright lights. I can see why it got translated like that but still.

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Chapter 33

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_All men are brothers, like the seas throughout the world; So why do winds and waves clash so fiercely everywhere? ~ Emperor Hirohito_

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The match between the winner - Shikamaru - and Kankurou was supposed to be next, but said Sand shinobi forfeited with some bogus claim of knowing he couldn't win.

"What the hell?" Chouji asked, summing up the feelings of most of the crowd.

"You don't come to the Chunin Exams to quit before you even enter the ring," I muttered, narrowing my eyes. "And he's got pretty much the best spot of them all - an opponent who's already fought. Something is up."

"You think?" Kiba asked warily.

Kotetsu and Izumo shifted uneasily. Just a little, but I noticed it.

_They know._

"I could just be paranoid," I said. "But something's been off this whole Exam."

"Tell me about it," Chouji agreed, casting a furtive glance around. "You think its… like the Second Exam?"

_You think its Orochimaru?_

"Could be," I said. I bit my lip. Could I say more than 'something is fishy'? I had no more _evidence._

Akamaru barked something.

"Keep your nose to the ground," Kiba translated. "And be on look out."

"Sounds like good advice to me," I said.

The crowd was starting to get restless again, jeering and yelling as the minutes dragged on and the next match didn't start.

_What are you waiting for, sensei?_ I wondered.

Hayate coughed before raising his hand. "The time limit has expired, so I'm officially calling this match-"

There was a spike of chakra and a gust of swirling leaves in the arena.

"Sorry we're late. You wouldn't believe the traffic."

I slapped my face. "Sensei!" I groaned in exasperation.

Someone chuckled. "Such a hip and cool entrance, my Eternal Rival. Forcing us all to wait for you like that…"

I looked up. "Gai-sensei. Lee. You made it!"

"Yes," Lee confirmed. "It looks like we came just in time. I heard… that Naruto beat Neji. Is it true?"

"Yeah," I said. "It was an awesome match. I'm sure Naruto will tell you all about it later if you ask him. Do you need a seat?" I asked belatedly, taking in his injured appearance.

We shuffled to create space for him when another familiar voice cut in. "There room for one more?"

"Ino!" Chouji said happily. "You're not hurt?"

She looked a little battered, and had bandages all over, but Ino wore bandages as a fashion statement anyway so it didn't look as severe as it could have.

"Battered and bruised," she replied cheerfully. "And I have a killer headache. Other than that, it's just my pride. I heard Sasuke was fighting though, so I had to come upstairs."

"I'm surprised the medics let you out," I commented.

She winked. "Our little secret, yeah?"

I was glad to see that she was in good humour even after her defeat. I'd been worried that it would make her depressed. The bench was getting a bit crowded, so I guess it was a good thing that Gai-sensei was content to stand in the isle where he was soon joined by Kakashi-sensei.

"What's up with Hinata?" Ino asked, eyeing her where she was propped up against Kiba's side.

"She had a flare up," I explained. "The ANBU back there, the one in the cat mask, healed her, but she hasn't woken up yet."

I caught Kakashi-sensei's eye, and my fingers curled gently into the hand sign 'person; suspicious' used to identify potential enemies. I hoped he believed me. I could have further identified him as Kabuto but I wasn't sure if Kabuto had been officially linked to Orochimaru.

"Hi, there," Kakashi-sensei said with a flick of his fingers that conveyed 'acknowledged'. "Sorry about that. You must have been worried."

"Does this look like my worried face?" I asked flatly. Okay, so I _was_ worried but I had been doing a fairly good job keeping it tamped down, and not seeming high-strung - teasing Kiba, commenting on the matches, petting Akamaru - and now that he'd brought it up I was aware of just how worried I really was. Not about them being late, no, but all the same…

He chuckled uneasily, scratching the back of his head. "Mah, mah, don't be angry. I wasn't going to let Sasuke be disqualified."

Which was probably as much confirmation as I was going to get that he _had_ been hanging around.

I huffed. "Please tell me that you at least saw Naruto's match. He did really well."

There was a minute widening of his eye. If I'd had more facial expression to study, I might not have even noticed it but since it was the only indicator I had, I did. "He beat Neji, did he?" he asked, deflecting my implied question.

"Beat him," Kiba scoffed. "Naruto _owned_ him. The match was a complete domination. I don't feel so bad about losing to him now."

Lee stared at him in round eyed surprise.

We were cut off as Hayate, finished recapping the rules for Sasuke, called the match start. No one wanted to miss this. There was still water trapped in the craters, which would give Sasuke an advantage if he could force Gaara into them. If.

"Begin."

I curled my hands into fists, knuckles going white from the tightness of my grip.

_Don't you dare get hurt, Sasuke._

The match hadn't even started and Gaara already looked like he was in pain. That _couldn't_ be a good sign. Not at all.

"Here it goes," Sasuke said, sending shuriken spinning towards Gaara with a quick flick of his wrist. They were stopped easily by Gaara's sand shield, which morphed into a sand clone.

Sasuke charged forward with a bout of taijutsu that was very nearly too fast to follow. Having volunteered as Sasuke's sparring partner, I knew exactly what that sand clone felt like as he battered it around, destabilising it and reducing it back to sand. He hadn't touched Gaara yet, but it was clear it wouldn't be long before he did.

"Incredible," Gai-sensei said. "He's almost as fast as Lee's normal speed."

"It is almost a mirror image of my own Taijutsu," Lee added. I couldn't tell whether he was upset about that or not, and I didn't take my eyes off the fight.

Sasuke darted in, a blow landing firmly across Gaara's face, before darting back out of range.

"So that's your sand armour, huh?" He said almost conversationally. We couldn't really see from up here, but I imagined there were pieces of sand cracking off Gaara's face.

Gaara didn't reply.

"I'm going to tear off all your armour," Sasuke said.

Sasuke ran circles around him, literally. He forced Gaara's sand defence to form a constantly moving circle in anticipation of his movements… then cleanly dove over it to attack Gaara in the centre. He hammered blows home, cracking the sand armour before flipping back out of the danger zone.

Gaara sunk to one knee, breathing heavily. He almost sounded like he was moaning in pain.

"It sure looks like it takes a lot of stamina for him to maintain that speed," Lee commented.

Down in the arena, Sasuke was panting. He burned a lot of chakra forcing that speed, which was one advantage I had over him.

"What kind of training did you do, to get to that level in a month?" Gai-sensei asked.

"Hmm?" Kakashi-sensei murmured casually. "Oh. Sasuke had copied Lee's taijutsu with his Sharingan, so I merely had him imagine Lee's movements… and then copy it. Sasuke mastered that taijutsu only because he knew Lee. Of course, he still had to work very hard to master it."

I blinked. I had thought Kakashi-sensei had copied it and then got Sasuke to copy from him… because otherwise, that sounded like a hell of an exploit. Then again, was that really Sharingan? Imagine how someone fights, then fight like it. Of course, the perfection with which he was pulling it off was almost preternatural.

"What's more interesting, though," Kakashi-sensei said, faux casually. "Is that nine times out of ten, Shikako can still beat him in a race."

I could _feel_ the shock from those around me.

_Thanks a lot, Kakashi-sensei._

"What? You thought I was just going to take the month off or something?" I retorted flippantly. I'd gained efficiency at chakra enhancing more than increasing my base speed but I had eventually managed to created a prototype air resistance seal to replicate the effects of weights. Those losses Kakashi-sensei was talking about was when I had decided not to cancel the seal before racing. Since Sasuke _had_ worn his weights, I considered it a more accurate comparison.

He wasn't wearing them now, of course, since the whole point of building speed was to use it against Gaara.

"But… if Lee couldn't…" Chouji said uncertainly, taking the conversation back to it's starting point. I thanked him silently. "Then how could Sasuke…?"

"He learnt other things, too," Kakashi-sensei confirmed. "Just watch."

"What's the matter, Gaara? Is that all you've got?" Sasuke taunted, dodging in and out of waves of sand. Gaara's offence was pretty lacklustre, probably because he was hunched over clutching his head.

"I'll…" he dragged out, voice raspy. "I'll kill you… your blood…"

His sand began creeping back to him, withdrawing and forming a cocoon. Sasuke tried to attack, only to stop suddenly, as the smooth outside protruded into spikes, nearly stabbing him through.

"The sand has covered his entire body," Lee said in awe. "Is that another layer of his defence?"

Sasuke tried to attack the ball, leaping at it and coming from all sides, but it shot out spikes every time he got close. It was too slow to hit him, but only just. He was using his Sharingan to avoid them, and his movements were jerky as he had to readjust quickly.

"Hmph," he snorted, unimpressed. His hand retreated into his pouch before emerging with a familiar scroll. He flicked the catch open, gripping the leading edge firmly in one hand before throwing the bulk of the scroll high over Gaara's orb of sand. It wasn't a fancy throw, like Tenten might have done, but a straight line over the top.

Then Sasuke flared his chakra into it and a wave of water came thundering down.

Kotetsu made a sound of surprise. "Another water scroll?"

"Yeah! Go Sasuke!" Ino cheered. "You show that creepy guy!"

I, for one, just waited to see what the outcome would be.

It wasn't as good as I had hoped - which would have been complete and utter destruction - but the shell of sand was cracked and only moving sluggishly to repair itself. It was clearly waterlogged. Sasuke tried another taijutsu barrage, but there wasn't an clear access to Gaara himself and he retreated up the wall.

Then he started gathering chakra.

"But… it can't be," Gai-sensei muttered.

"If you wondered why I always insisted on training Sasuke myself, now you know," Kakashi-sensei said calmly.

It clearly wasn't _easy_ for him to use the jutsu. The slow speed of it's activation, the bleeding of wasted chakra - though it did make an impressive lightshow, it was excessive - the grunts of effort, the distance Sasuke had had to retreat… they all told a story.

"I… don't understand," Chouji said, frowning at the arena. "What is it?"

"It's a jab," Gai-sensei explained. "But this jab is a jab like no other. It's the only weapon in Kakashi arsenal he didn't copy from someone else. The secret of the jab is in the speed at which it is delivered and the ninja's ability to focus his chakra at the point of impact. Once these two elements - speed and focus - have achieved certain levels, the chakra actually becomes visible and gives off that distinctive sound that you hear. Like birds chirping. It is this sound that gives the technique it's name; Chidori. One thousand birds. Also known as the lightning blade. It got _that_ name because Kakashi once used it to cut a bolt of lightning in half before it could touch the ground."

That was a story I wanted to hear, sometime.

"Yeah, right," Ino muttered, disbelieving. "These old guys and their war stories."

"Regardless, it's a technique of unimaginable power, requiring almost inhuman levels of speed and chakra. It is a dangerous technique. Not to be taught lightly."

"Yeah, you're one to talk," Kakashi-sensei shot back at the implied criticism. "Right, Lee?"

"So it's like the Third Raikage's Hell Stab," I said. It was a pretty famous technique, actually, since none of the Raikage were the type to quit the field once they became Kage like the others tended to do. Right up until his death, there was always the fear of having to face him on the field. That, and Kage were so famous that there _was_ a wealth of information on their techniques.

Kakashi-sensei's face was absolutely deadpan. "No."

Gai-sensei laughed heartily. "She has you there, Kakashi. It is true that there are similarities between the two techniques, but there are also large differences." He didn't go on to explain the differences, though.

Which was fair enough because Sasuke had started running, so I probably wouldn't have listened anyway.

I held my breath as Sasuke got closer and closer, blurring as he dodged the spikes of sand that tried to slow him down. His arm shot out and buried itself in the sand.

There was a moment of silence.

Then, Gaara's scream echoed hoarsely through the stands. "Blood! It's my blood!" He sounded more terrified than angry.

I had to bit my lip and swallow against the bile that tried to rise in my throat. He was, at this point anyway, crazy and psychotic. He was dangerous.

But that _terror_…

He sounded like a child.

_Twelve. He's only twelve._

I couldn't, couldn't, look away as Sasuke fought to pull back from the orb of sand, fighting his arm back out. It grasped after him, unwilling to let him go.

The sand that shot out after him was formed _differently_. No longer free floating, but a bestial looking arm, shot through with purple. The beginnings of his transformation.

My teeth clenched together so hard my jaw ached.

Then the orb collapsed, the sand raining down around Gaara and pooling at his feet. He was clutching his bleeding shoulder, and his breathing was raspy and loud.

Sasuke was crouched down, watching him and favouring his left arm. Clearly the Chidori hadn't been without cost.

They watched each other, a serious and deadly standoff across the arena.

And then the white feathers began to fall.


	35. Chapter 34

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Nemesis Jedi - It's just a little insulting to his big, bad ninja pride, that's all. Sure, she can sense the _other guys_ but… but… I'm better than them. To be fair, she only _suspected _he was there but hey.

DeeJay-Dubu - You have PM's disabled, so I have to reply here. XD The quotes come from various places. Some of them I already have and am keeping for the right chapter. The rest, I have a vague idea of what I want them to say, or mean, and then go trawling with Google to find something appropriate.

About the strength of the sleep genjutsu: when the camera is doing the pan around the stands, you can see quite a few of the sleeping people are wearing Konoha headbands. What rank are they? Who knows, but the implication is that the genjutsu is pretty strong.

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Chapter 34

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_Leadership has been defined as the ability to hide your panic from others. ~ Anonymous_

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The genjutsu came fast and strong. I could see why the others fell victim to it so easily. The only one who would have been certain to see through it would have been Hinata, and she was already out of it.

_Huh. Maybe that's what Kabuto did?_

In my lap, Akamaru growled and jumped back to Kiba, who looked dazed but was forming the seals for genjutsu release. Animals tended to have different nervous systems, or at least different sensory priorities which made them difficult to trap and it looked like Kurenai had beaten it into her team.

I shook the genjutsu off, aware that others were doing the same. Kotetsu and Izumo were up and out of their seats already. Kakashi-sensei had gone straight for the back of the stands where the illusion originated and where I felt a flicker of metallic chakra.

_At least he believed me about the ANBU._

Smoke exploded in the Kage's box, billowing out into the air. People were dashing to and fro. It was hard to understand everything that was going on.

But it wasn't just Konoha ninja that were popping up. I pulled out a kunai and deflected the incoming projectiles - carefully, carefully! There were too many people around - before hopping awkwardly up on the backs of the seats and blocking the flying kick that tried to take my head off. I balanced using chakra to stick my feet steady and twisted, slamming him down onto the ground.

I was about to follow up with a downward kunai thrust, but Kiba got there first, looking a little afraid and a lot shocked.

I nodded at him. "Thanks."

"What the hell's going on?" he muttered, eyes wide.

"An attack," I said sombrely eyes darting around. I was glad - vaguely and distantly - that they were wearing uniforms. Black balaclavas, grey tunics with black and white camouflage. If they hadn't been, this would have been much, much more confusing. And yeah, with their faces covered like that… it was easier to fight them. They weren't people, they were enemies.

_There! A group of four! Scatter them!_

I ripped the plastic covering off the back of a seat and focused, slapping an explosive seal on the it, before sending it frisbeeing into the congregated Sound shinobi. Then I had to duck hastily and backtrack because my lapse in attention to my surroundings was almost deadly.

_Note to self. Not good for use in the middle of a fight… _The set time was too long. _Shit. _I hadn't thought of that.

I tumbled to the ground in one of the isles, landing awkwardly, and kept rolling to avoid the kunai that were impacting the ground. The attacker loomed. I tensed, twisted my legs into a position that was painful but would (hopefully) allow me to deliver a full force kick to his face… and then relaxed as an oversize kunai blade slammed straight down through his back.

"Thanks," I muttered breathlessly to Kotetsu, ducking out of the way and back to my feet, as the corpse fell to the ground.

"Welcome. But it looked like you had it covered," he said noncommittally.

I didn't reply, adrenaline thundering in my veins. I glanced towards place my exploding tag had gone off. Three dead. There was another fighting Izumo that had a huge black scorch mark across his side. No damage to the sleepers. Good.

I ignored the little voice in the back of my head that was gibbering. This large scale attack was different to anything I had ever experienced.

There wasn't time to reminisce though. Almost as soon as I was back on my feet I was attacked again and I vaulted over a row of seats. Kotetsu was gone, already fighting. I could see Kiba, out of the corner of my eye. There was a flash of movement in the arena as the Sand Siblings took off. I caught sight of other familiar Jounin in other parts of the stands - Asuma, Kurenai, someone I thought was Ebisu.

There was too much input and not enough time to analyse it.

I planted another handstand, like I was going to flip away again, then reversed my momentum, slamming a heel drop onto the top of his head. He went crashing into the ground, and I followed through, crouching and slamming a kunai into the back of his neck.

A blur of black went past, and I automatically tracked it with my eyes. Black ANBU cloak, but the mask was missing. Kabuto.

He slid to a stop, both feet and a hand braced on the ground. "I see your legend _isn't _exaggerated, Kakashi," he said, easily.

Reflexively, I glanced in the direction he was looking. Kakashi-sensei, fighting six - five now - Sound shinobi. That plus Kabuto? Huh. His Sharingan was open but he didn't look injured. Then again, Kabuto wasn't the type to leave visible marks.

"But I don't intend to be stopped here," Kabuto continued.

My attention was dragged back to him. I watched him reach for me, almost as if in slow motion.

Another bonus I had found in using seals vs. weights, was that there was nothing physical you had to remove. It was a seal. You just cancelled it.

"Kai!" I said, panicked, cancelling the seal and simultaneously enhancing all my muscles. I dropped low, under his grabbing hand, planted my hands on the ground and powered out with a backwards double mule kick that slammed squarely into his chest. He went flying backwards, too stunned by the sudden speed of it.

I had time to think, _Shadow Possession probably would have been better_, before there was a blur of green, Gai-sensei chasing after him and following up with a punishing rain of blows.

"Shikako," Kakashi-sensei said cheerily, landing in a crouch beside me. "No time to be wool gathering."

"Yes, sensei," I said automatically, feeling more stable already. Jounin weren't just the Elite of the shinobi world, they were the _leaders_. They were the people who could pull a group together, who could inspire you to fight when everything was hopeless, who could convince you that _everything was going to be okay._

Like now.

"Listen carefully, I have a mission for you," he said, and my heart thumped. "This is an A-rank mission. Sasuke is chasing Gaara and the other Sand ninja. There is no time. I suspect many Sound and Sand shinobi have already infiltrated this village. Sasuke will need backup, but he's also going to be a target. Take who you need and go after Sasuke. You'll be limited to the Genin; we can't spare any fighters."

I froze.

_Me? In charge?_

"Shikako!" His voice was sharp and serious. "There is no time to waste."

I squashed the surge of 'I can't do this' and my fingers unconsciously formed a circle. My mind raced. Plans, plans, I needed plans.

Sensei slammed his hand down onto the ground and there was a puff of chakra smoke.

"Pakkun here will track down Sasuke by scent."

I took a moment to consider how adorably cute Pakkun was, scrubbing his face with his paw like that.

"You wanna shake? My paws are so soft and supple," Pakkun said, waving a paw at me. His voice was surprisingly deep.

Bemused, I caught his _tiny, tiny_ paw and shook it. In my head there was a voice going _SQUEEEE!_

"You, I like," Pakkun announced. I couldn't help but smile.

"Got it?" Sensei asked.

"Track Sasuke. Protect him. Stop Gaara," I reiterated. "Gaara has Temari and Kankurou with him…" I was talking more to myself at this point than him.

I'd need… Naruto, certainly. Which was terrifying because _he wasn't here._

Plans started falling into place. "Got it," I said.

"There's an opening in the back wall. Get ready. I'll cover you," he said.

I glanced at the back wall. I vaguely remembered seeing Gai-sensei shove someone through it, but it hadn't been important at the time.

I nodded and darted across the isle, back to where we had been sitting before. I pulled Ino down into the foot space, slapping a spike of chakra into her system before doing the same to Chouji. Lee was too injured.

My gaze dragged across Hinata and I hesitated. There was no _time._ Split second decision: yes or no.

She had been injured. It was unknown what Kabuto had done to her. She wasn't greatly skilled. Stressing her now might cause a relapse.

But my choices for this mission were limited. After listening to Neji's rant I was reminded of what lengths people would go to for the Byakugan. Leaving her here, alone and unaware, might put her in danger.

Split second decision; yes or no?

I slapped a hand down and sent a chakra spike into her system.

"Kiba!" I hissed, popping my head up for a second. He caught sight of me and made his way back.

The three I'd awoken were confused, but clever enough to not stand up.

"What's going on?" Ino asked, glancing up and flinching as two kunai impacted almost right above our heads.

"We're getting attacked. Sound and Sand ninja. Everyone in the stadium fell under a sleep genjutsu," I summarised quickly. "Kakashi-sensei has given us a mission. Gaara has fled the stadium and Sasuke went after him. We're to go after them and back Sasuke up… and protect him from being captured."

They stiffened.

"Hinata, you were healed, but I'm no medic-nin. Can you keep up?" I asked levelly. By all rights, taking her was a stupid idea.

She looked bewildered. "I- yes! I can!"

I breathed in deeply. "Alright. Kiba. Take these three out through the exit in the rear of the stands. I'm going to swing by the competitors box and pick up some more allies." _Hopefully. _"Circle around and we'll meet back up in the forest. They went over the North-West edge, so that's where we'll start searching."

He stared at me for a second, then nodded. "Right. Got it."

"Alright, then. Go!"

There were two ways to the competitors box. The tunnels, and the arena. The thought of being trapped in the tunnels while getting attacked did not appeal to me. That left the arena, which was equally, if not more, dangerous but had more room to move.

We all darted into action. The four of them went for the exit, I picked up Pakkun and went the other way to the front of the stands and then up and over the railing. My feet stuck loosely to the side of the arena wall, and I half slid half ran diagonally towards the competitors box.

"You sure about this, kid?" Pakkun asked, thankfully not wiggling. I was running full speed, and a few projectiles were clunking down around us.

"Ask me again when this is over," I said. "If we win, then I was sure."

That sounded better than '_No, no nononoooo"_ anyway.

The competitors box had four chakra signals in it. Shikamaru, Shino, Naruto and an unknown. Naruto's was flat and undisturbed. He was sleeping. The other three were spiking like they were fighting.

"Hold tight," I said grimly, as we zeroed in on the box. We came in from above, and I grabbed the top lip of the entrance and swung myself inwards, one foot leading in a straight kick. It slammed straight into the Sound ninja's face, knocking him cold.

"Thanks," Shikamaru panted.

I stooped and slammed a chakra spike into Naruto. "Don't thank me yet," I said to them. "Everyone still combat capable?"

Shikamaru nodded. Shino hesitated but did the same.

Naruto blinked fuzzily at me. "Shikako? What's up with the puppy?"

"Hey," Pakkun grouched. "Don't you be thinking I'm just a cute puppy now."

"I didn't say _anything_ about cute," Naruto protested, rubbing his eyes.

"We're under attack," I said shortly. "And we have a mission. We have to go and find Sasuke and Gaara. We're meeting up with the others in the forest; I'll give you more details then."

"A mission?" Naruto said, bouncing to his feet. "Why didn't you say so?"

I resisted the urge to smack him. Okay, I was a little wound up here. I think that was forgivable. "We'll go out front and up over the wall. Be careful. Most of the fighting is contained to the stands, but I got a few projectiles my way when I came down here."

"Troublesome," Shikamaru said, flexing backwards so his spine cracked. "Lead the way."

I did. No one took pot shots at us, which was good, because we weren't moving half as fast as I had been. I wasn't entirely confident they wouldn't have hit us.

We went up and over the wall, sliding down the outside until we reached the trees.

"This way," Pakkun said gruffly, leaping out of my arms. We followed him, and I spread my chakra senses wide. After the crowding of the stands, it was almost a relief to be able to pinpoint individual people.

We ran on, and I trusted that the others would be able to find us. With Hinata's Byakugan and Kiba and Akamaru it was practically a sure thing.

"Yo," Kiba said, as they joined us. It was a big group, now that we were all together. Kiba, Hinata, Ino, and Chouji with Shikamaru, Shino, Naruto and I. Plus Pakkun and Akamaru.

"No trouble?" I asked.

Kiba shook his head. "Nah. We're good."

"Right," I said, and pulled my sealing scroll out of my jacket pocket. I unsealed a box of spare kunai and refilled my pouch. It was a little awkward while running, but we didn't have time to stop. "Everyone, stock up. Ino, Shino, Shikamaru, what's your status?"

Hinata didn't have her pouch with her, and I hadn't brought extra's of that, so she just stuck a few kunai through her belt.

"Minor injuries," Ino said. "A little chakra depleted."

"Same to the chakra," Shikamaru said.

"My Kikai are depleted," Shino said. "I am in the process of replenishing my hive but… it will take a while."

"Anything that will help you with that?" I asked. "Soldier pills…"

He shook his head.

"Right." I unsealed a small medicine bottle and unscrewed the cap. I tipped about five into my palm and then tucked them into the special folds at the back of my weapons pouch. "Soldier pills. Shikamaru, Ino. Take one to recover. Chouji, take some spares. Kiba… do you and Akamaru need them?" They'd had to use them in the prelims for their more serious moves. Which was the same reason Chouji needed them.

"Yeah," he grimaced. "I didn't think we'd be fighting, so I don't have any with me."

I threw him the bottle once the others were done with it.

"Pay you back later," he offered. Soldier pills, like explosive tags, were kinda expensive.

"Heh," I said, shrugging. "Just try not to get hurt."

Speaking of explosive tags, I was glad I had decided to bring some. I'd thought, after designing that seal… but obviously it wasn't as combat ready as I'd thought. I pulled out my stack of notes and shuffled some to those who hadn't expected to fight.

I breathed in, breathed out. "Right. I'll brief you while we're moving. Our mission is to track down Sasuke and prevent him from falling into enemy hands. Our secondary mission objective is to assist him in defeating Gaara. Additionally, the seal that was put on Sasuke was unable to be removed. Kakashi-sensei was able to put a permanent containment seal on it, but if Sasuke becomes too low on chakra there may be repercussions." I was glad that they all knew about the seal already. It meant they understood my worry.

"Not good," Ino muttered.

"Right. So. Information you may not know. Gaara is the host of the One Tailed Beast, which means he has incredible destructive capabilities. Therefore, it is crucial that he cannot participate in the invasion. It also means he's very dangerous and we need to take utmost caution in dealing with him. Also, Ino, under _no_ circumstances are you to Mind-Body Switch with him. He is currently accompanied by Temari and Kankurou. I suspect that they're attempting to buy him time to recover so it's likely that one or both will drop back to stall us. It is also possible that there are other enemy shinobi in the forest."

I glanced at everyone to see if they were following. They nodded. Good.

"We saw her fight before, but just to recap. Temari is a wind type who uses her Tessen as a focus for her jutsu. She's strong in long range combat but no slouch in close range, either. If she tries to stall us…" I paused. "Ino, you know how she fights. Kiba, do you think you could get around her attacks?" He was fairly fast and agile. Added to that, with him and Akamaru they could attack from two directions at once.

Kiba grinned. "Yeah. You can count on it."

"Right. You two are going to deal with Temari. Kankurou is a member of the Suna Puppet Corps. Given Temari's comments earlier and his reluctance to fight in the Exam Arena, it's likely that his puppet is loaded with poisons. Priority will be avoiding contact with his weaponry and poison gases. If he drops back to stall us… Shino, Hinata, Shikamaru… can you handle him?"

It was a risky group. Two of them had just fought and Hinata had been injured. But Hinata's Byakugan would be able to locate the real Kankurou easily, and she could disrupt the chakra strings he used to control the puppet. Shino's Kikai could do the same. And well, Shikamaru was just plain clever. If they'd been at full strength, three against one would be overkill.

"We can." Surprisingly, it wasn't Shino that answered. It was _Hinata._ And she sounded just as firm as I'd ever heard her.

"Right," I sighed. "I definitely want Naruto to make it to Gaara. Your clones and your summoning jutsu are the biggest advantages we have against him." _And Kyuubi,_ I didn't add. "If we run into other enemies, Chouji and I will be the ones to drop back. Remember the mission objectives and regroup as necessary. Questions?"

With the teams split up like that, there would be _someone_ in each group that could track the others down, if it came to it.

Shikamaru cast me a sidelong glance. "If the mission objectives are Sasuke and Gaara, leaving so many of us to fight is counterintuitive."

Because it was Shikamaru I seriously considered my answer. "If a team can defeat a single enemy and then rejoin us after, it's more efficient than simply leaving one person behind. Given that we're in the middle of an invasion, and there are an unknown number of enemies about, I don't really want _anyone_ undefended. Do you have any better suggestions?" I asked softly.

Shikamaru hesitated, then shook his head. I glanced at the others. No one said anything.

"Better put the plan into action sooner or later," Pakkun said. "We're being followed."

Funnily enough, Pakkun probably had more mission experience than the rest of us put together.

"Numbers and location?" I asked after a beat.

"Two squads. No, wait." Pakkun cocked his head, focusing. I didn't know if he was tracking by sound or scent and I suppose it didn't matter. "There's one more. That's nine ninja."

"Aww, man, give us a break here," Shikamaru moaned.

I cast my chakra sense as far out as I could. I didn't have _huge _range, but if I focused… There. I couldn't tell individuals, but there was chakra that way.

"I got them. Shit, they're moving fast. Alright, people, keep moving. I'm going to set some explosives. Hopefully that will slow them down and thin their numbers. Chouji, stay with the group."

I backtracked a bit, retracing our steps and hooked onto the branch with chakra, spinning around so I was crouched upside down. They'd be wary of traps, but you couldn't check everywhere.

My touch explosive seal might not be combat ready just yet, but it was good for this.

I did some quick, on the fly calculations. How fast they were moving, how long it would take them to get here, how spread out the group was, the intensity it would take to take out nine Chunin/Jounin level ninja, if I could make it a column up rather than a simple ball …

I amped the radius and intensity up as much as I dared so that we would be well out of range and slammed my hand down onto the underside of the branch. Then I sprinted back after the group.

It was a tense moment before we cleared the explosion zone and kept running. I counted down the seconds till it went off and tried to track where our pursuers were.

The explosion was magnificent, if I may say so myself. A flume of fire reached right above the trees, and we both heard and _felt_ the shockwave. Regular explosive tags gave a fireball about the size of a person's body; you had to be really standing on them for them to do much damage. But if they were pocket change explosives, then this was a _bomb._

"Hoooly shit," Naruto breathed. "Just how many explosive tags did you _use?_"

I grinned and wiggled my fingers at him, since Naruto was one of the very few people who _knew._

"Pakkun? Are they still pursuing? I'm still getting chakra signals…"

His ears twitched. "If they survived it, they aren't moving yet."

I hissed a breath through my teeth. Couldn't assume they were out because they were down. "Hinata?"

I watched her carefully. If there was going to be problems, it would show with chakra usage.

"Byakugan!" Chakra surged in her eyes and the veins bulged. She didn't miss a step as it activated. Yeah, Neji might have more detailed sight better for combat, but Hinata had at _least_ a kilometre in range, not that she needed that much right now.

She swallowed. "I can count… four distinct bodies at the edges of the blast radius. Anything closer to the centre is… incinerated. Two of them are definitely dead, the other two have large amounts of third degree burns… I can't read their status b-but I don't think they'll be following us."

I swallowed as well and wanted to close my eyes. But … tree hopping. Not a good idea. "Right," I said, a little hoarsely.

_They weren't expecting _that…

Truthfully, I hadn't expected it to get them _all._ I mean that was the _point_ of it, but I hadn't actually expected…

We pushed on, chasing after Sasuke. We were covering a lot of ground, but it was a silent and tense trip. Maybe I should have said something to decrease tension and uplift moral, but I couldn't think of anything.

"What was that?" Kiba asked, when we heard a disturbance up ahead. It was a long way away, but explosions carried.

"Tripwire traps," Pakkun answered gruffly. I was a little impressed at how easily he could identify the cause, and how specifically. "They're sure not making Sasuke's job easy for him."

I bit my lip.

"Don't worry," Naruto said, _somehow_ catching it. "It'd take a lot more than that to get rid of him. He'll be fine."

"Of course he will be" I said. "But we're supposed to be catching up with him, y'know."

It was as joking as I could get in this situation.

"Sasuke has stopped moving," Pakkun said. "But he's still well ahead of us."

"Fighting?" Shikamaru guessed.

"Smells like it," Pakkun agreed. "Only one of them, though. The other two are still running away."

"Che," Kiba scoffed. "Just like Sasuke to hog all the fun."

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Okay, so canonically, Kiba took Hinata to the hospital/infirmary/somewhere, and came back to thank ANBU!Kabuto. Akamaru _then_ sensed that something was wrong, and Kabuto knocked them out. This was contradicted a bit in the flashback Shippuden episode, where Kiba and Hinata are both unconscious in the stands. However, I think Kiba could potentially break the genjutsu, so that's what happens.

Also, interestingly, the mission Kakashi gives Sakura in canon is 'stop Sasuke'. Baffling, but hey.


	36. Chapter 35

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Someone mentioned that Shikako could have done something to help the Third Hokage. I've seen many neat solutions to the 'Impenetrable box' Jutsu in fan fiction, and I must admit, my initial reaction was to wonder if Shadow Jutsu could get through the barrier, as it's not physical. Then I thought about just how crazy things would be in the middle of the stands and tried to portray that; Shikako was far more concerned about her immediate survival than seeing what was going on with the Hokage. Yes, Kakashi and Gai were capable of keeping up with fighting _and_ watching the Hokage's fight, but the kids are only Genin and lack that level of experience.

Nemesis Jedi - Hmm. They are wooden benches but there seems to be a bit of variation in the seats between the boxes. I know they were padded in the 'Elite' box, where the rich people were sitting, so I'm assuming there was at least an _attempt _in the other boxes. If not… eh, authorial privilege? ^.^ You'll let me get away with somethings, right?

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Chapter 35

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_Our enemies in this world make up their own rules. If we play their game, if we become like them we lose, we lose big. ~ Bobby Ewing._

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We knew we were catching up when we came across the used tripwire traps.

Most of them had already been set off, but it did slow us down a little to navigate through them.

But because we had slowed down, we were able to get behind cover when an absolutely _insane _gust of wind swept through the trees. Leaves were ripped straight off, branches were shredded, a few older trees snapped off at the trunk and went over completely.

"Well," Kiba drawled, forearms crossed in front of his face. "Zero points for guessing who's up first."

I cast a sideways glance at him and Ino. "You two good to go?"

Ino gave me a thumbs up.

"Okay, fast burst when the wind dies down. We'll be interrupting a fight so be careful!" I said. If you timed it wrong, you might get attacked from both sides before anyone recognised you.

Maybe I should have said 'on my mark' because Naruto's concept of 'dying down' and mine obviously weren't the same. Then again, he didn't get shredded when he burst from cover, so the rest of us followed him.

"Having trouble?" Naruto greeted cheekily, ploughing into the clearing. Well. It probably _hadn't_ been a clearing before Temari started throwing mega wind jutsu around.

The rest of us flickered in after him, arraying ourselves over the branches in a variety of places. I slid to a crouch next to Sasuke, surveying the surroundings. If I'd been in the mood to notice, I probably would have said we made a _damn_ dramatic entrance.

Temari's face went from 'determined but resigned' to 'ohshit' in the blink of an eye.

I cast a quick eye over Sasuke - tired but not exhausted. Maybe half his chakra gone. Uninjured.

Good enough.

"Come on," I said to Sasuke, with a tilt of my chin. "Don't take too long, you guys."

"Pshaw," Ino said. "Ten minutes. Tops."

"Oh no you don't," Temari murmured, grasping her fan and heaving, probably intending on stopping us from getting past her. But Kiba was way ahead of her, shoulder charging her and knocking her off balance.

"Get outta here!" He growled.

We went. I didn't _really_ have any worries about Ino and Kiba. Temari was practically exhausted already and while she was crafty and strong all the cards were stacked in their favour. Frankly, the biggest issue was that they'd never worked together before.

_Should I have split people into Team groups?_ I shook my head at the thought. _Too late now._

"Here," I said to Sasuke as we leapt from branch to branch, handing over a soldier pill. "Soldier pill. Take it when your chakra gets low."

"Thanks," he muttered, tucking it away in his weapons pouch. Given that his Chidori seemed to drain about half his chakra a shot, he'd need it.

I didn't want to give him more than one since I _knew_ Sasuke would use it. Soldier pill overdose was nothing to laugh at, especially since there were other complications.

I glanced at his neck, the black seal inert but still present. He caught my glance and grimaced.

"No trouble?" I asked.

"Not yet." He shook his head. I had the feeling that Kakashi-sensei had driven him to the point of exhaustion so many times over the past month that he knew how far he could push it before it started acting up. With Sasuke, however, that didn't necessarily mean he was going to stop there.

"We're here!" Pakkun barked, and we all slid to a stop on the branches.

"You beat Temari so fast, Uchiha?" Kankurou said before blanching. "Huh. Reinforcements. That's… troubling."

"Shit! Where's Gaara?" Naruto shouted, taking in the scene. Kankurou was there, but Gaara wasn't. "He got away!"

"On the ground," I said, almost in tandem with Pakkun.

Kankurou's fingers twitched, almost invisible chakra strings blooming from the tips. "I can't let you pass."

"You can't stop them," Shino said blandly. "We will be your opponents."

"We will handle this," Hinata said quietly to the rest of us.

Shikamaru said nothing, but I didn't need him to.

"We'll give you guys some space," I said. "Come on." Getting ourselves out of range would be a wise starting move, particularly if Gaara was about to go nuts and transform. And if Kankurou had area of effect poisons… yeah, distance was good.

We dropped down, catching the lower hanging branches, and following Gaara's tracks to give them some space.

"Alright," I said. "We'll get some space, so we don't get mixed up in their fight." I breathed in deeply and let it out, trying to come up with a strategy, the best possible use of the people I had. "Chouji, stay with Pakkun. You are a close range fighter, so I don't want you to engage with Gaara unless absolutely necessary. If you see an opening, use your judgement, but don't get caught by the sand." It … depended. Chouji's Multisize Techniques might come in handy even though he wasn't _fast_, particularly if Gaara started getting bigger. "I want you to be on lookout for incoming enemies, in case there are more of them in the forest. If anyone gets injured, get them out of the way and protect them." I didn't kid myself that no one was going to get injured. "When the others come, fill them in."

Chouji nodded seriously. "Right. Oh, man. This is nuts."

Sasuke was giving me a strange look, but I didn't have time to process that right now.

"We'll circle around him and box him in. Everyone okay with that?"

"Yeah, let's do this," Naruto said, but with markedly less enthusiasm than normal.

Gaara was stumbling along the ground. I don't know if he knew what direction he was moving in. I don't know if he even had any goal at all. He was just _moving._ Stumbling along, one hand clutched to his bleeding shoulder, the other to his head, mumbling and muttering.

Alone, I would have been perfectly content to just shadow him, preventing him from returning to the village by way of diversions. Sasuke, and to a lesser degree Naruto… weren't.

And once Gaara knew that Sasuke was there, by sight or by scent or whatever, he wasn't either.

"Sasuke U_chiha_!" He growled out, spinning around on the ground. "Come out! I know you're there!"

There was unfocused Killing Intent spiking in the air. It wasn't the focused intent of Zabuza or even the coldly dispassionate strength of Orochimaru. It was _hungry_. Bloodlust.

"Hmph," Sasuke said, unimpressed as he revealed himself. "I don't know what you Sand Village clowns are up to, but I'll stop you." His eyes _gleamed_. He was looking forward to this fight.

"We're so alike, Uchiha," Gaara said. "I don't have friends as you have, but they aren't what makes you strong. It's your purpose that does it. In that way, we're alike. But mine is the stronger purpose, for only by destroying you and all you represent can I even prove that I exist. Only by killing you can I know what life is."

He was groaning, howling, the sand armour on his face cracking off as he clutched his head.

We waited warily.

"You are my _prey!"_

Sand spilled out of his gourd, starting to coat his arm and face. His chakra was flaring, uncontrollable but stronger and stronger.

Gaara lashed out, clawed arm trying to grab Sasuke. Sasuke flipped backwards, avoiding the large but surprisingly agile attack. His Sharingan was spinning, picking up cues to allow him to dodge in time.

Gaara's sand arm was blasting holes through the trees, as though the rough sand was abrading the wood away. That and the amount of force he was using. Another very good reason to avoid being hit by it.

Not that I needed any more reasons.

"Why do you hide, Sasuke Uchiha?" Gaara growled, almost like he was taunting. "Do I frighten you? Are you shocked by my true form?"

I darted sideways, keeping parallel to Gaara and using the shadows of the branches to boost my shadow towards him. I was glad that he was sticking to the ground, it made catching him easier.

"Shadow Possession Complete!" I called, and then was nearly knocked off my feet at the sheer _feedback_ from the jutsu. This was worse than trying to hold him in the hospital. I grunted, struggling to hold it. "Naruto! Water scroll!"

Naruto barely hesitated for a second before darting out with his water scroll and flinging it towards Gaara. I was prepared for it, but nearly hit by the backwash as the wave crested over the ground.

Gaara howled. I struggled to keep him frozen, not even trying to make him mimic me. My chakra was draining at an alarming rate.

But his sand was sloughing off, the water soaking in and making it slow and sluggish. The rest of his sand armour was cracked and flaking from the sheer force of the water slamming into him.

"I will _kill_ you!" He howled, chakra surging higher and higher again, more sand spilling out from his gourd, forming a lashing tail behind him.

My shadow wavered and broke.

"UP!" I shouted, leaping straight up into the canopy, just as a claw of sand crashed down where I had just been standing. Dust billowed into the air and there was a creaking groan from Naruto's direction as the tree behind him toppled over. His chakra signal was bright and high in the air, so I knew he'd dodged the attack.

"This is unreal," Sasuke breathed. "His strength is off the charts."

"Is your existence stronger than mine? You'll never know unless you fight me! You'll never feel it. Attack!"

I could tell what Sasuke was going to do even before he started forming the hand seals. Chidori was the strongest attack jutsu he knew, and it was uniquely suited to disrupting Gaara's sand.

"Over here, Gaara!" I shouted, pelting him with handful after handful of kunai to gain his attention.

He growled, covering his face with the huge sand arm. The kunai _sunk_ into it like it was quicksand, half absorbed half _pulled_ in.

"Here! You can have them back!" He shouted.

They shot back out twice as fast, almost burning with the air friction.

_Interesting,_ I noted, even as I flipped out of the way, ducking behind tree trunks and rolling flat across the ground. _Does his automatic defence not work while he is transformed? _

He had actually had to intercept them himself, not just rely on the sand to catch them.

I rolled to my feet just in time to see Sasuke leap forwards, lightning chirping in his hand.

The Chidori carved right through the clawed arm, lightning disrupting the chakra bonds in the sand, sending it crumbling to the ground. But Gaara just _laughed._

"I see! So that's what it is! Now its clear to me exactly why I've been looking forward to this! This… pain… What a thrill it will be to crush such an opponent." His face was twisted into a demonic grin, the sand still coating half of his face and forming that of Shukaku. It looked _demented._

Sasuke was panting heavily. As I'd thought before, using Chidori took a lot out of him. One hand was clutching the crook of his neck, right over the curse mark. Shit.

"Naruto! Get some clones in there!" I shouted, going for Sasuke.

He swallowed, but formed the cross seal. "Right!"

I landed beside Sasuke, wrapped one arm around his waist and _jumped, _narrowly avoiding the flailing sand tail that tried to crush us.

"Shit," Sasuke breathed, and scrambled for the soldier pill I'd given him before. As he took it, I _felt_ his chakra flare.

It's said that soldier pills give you enough chakra to run for three days and nights. That might be so in theory, but considering the chakra expenditure of more serious jutsu it doesn't work quite the same in practice.

"Whoa." Sasuke shook his head and stood, pulling away from me. "That's a rush."

"Shadow Clone Body Slam!" Naruto shouted, and we jolted, peering around the tree to see a Naruto hurling another Naruto at Gaara. There were clones everywhere and even though Sasuke had destroyed one sand arm, it looked like Gaara had formed another.

The Naruto hurtled in an arc around Gaara, even as the others dispersed into smoke, using quickly formed Shadow Clones to change direction and distract the murderous Jinchuriki. He landed in Gaara's blindspot, rolled beneath the thrashing tail and took out a single kunai.

I had a sinking feeling that I knew where this was going.

"Konoha Secret Taijutsu Technique; One Thousand Years of Pain!"

"He didn't," Sasuke said. "Please tell me he didn't."

Naruto used the Replacement Jutsu to get himself out of there just before the kunai exploded, showering sand everywhere.

"Well, it was a weak point," I said feebly. "The sand couldn't absorb _all_ of the impact."

"Still…" Sasuke said and shook his head.

"Is that it?" Gaara shouted, smoke clearing. Sand was slagging off his face, looking halfway between melted and soggy, but even more sand was flowing out of his gourd, encasing his entire torso. There couldn't be _that much_ in there, could there? "That was the best demonstration you could make of the value of your existence?" The sand on his arm bulged and separated out into what looked like small, free floating balls. "Sand Shuriken!"

Then the world became a blur of high speed, high danger combat as we dodged, ducked, wove and attacked, trying to hit exposed skin and not get caught by sand. I slapped explosive tags down willy-nilly, shock tags - lightning based but not really strong enough to do much to an insane Jinchuriki -, tags that produced concussive blasts… anything I could get my hands on. There was a mess of clones around us, attacking, popping, pulling us from danger… I caught sight of Sasuke, Sharingan spinning, launched for an attack before I had to duck and dodge and focus.

I got hit by a flailing trail of sand - arm or tail I couldn't tell - and had just enough time to chakra reinforce my entire body before I went slamming _through_ a tree trunk. I wheezed, air forced from my lungs, and slumped to the ground, stunned for a moment.

Hands pried at my arms, lifting me and moving. Groggily, I saw green and white… Chouji. Good old Chouji.

"Alright?" He asked, eyes wide and worried.

"Fine," I rasped. "Gimme a sec."

There was the sound of chirping birds and the flash of blue lightning through the air. Sasuke was a blur of black moving for Gaara.

Again, the lightning sliced through the sand armour, scattering and dispersing the sand. We were landing hits, but we weren't _progressing_. Every hit we landed, Gaara recovered from.

"I lost everything once," Sasuke said, voice soft and flat, yet managing to carry. "I don't ever want to have to say that again. My trusted comrades falling, right in front of me…"

"I think that's my cue to get back in there," I said, standing and shaking myself off. My chakra reserves were low but I wasn't really hurt. After a seconds hesitation, I took a soldier pill.

_Sasuke was right. That is a rush,_ I thought. _But they taste _horrible.

I darted back through the trees, power flowing through my limbs. It was more _agitated_ than normal, buzzing like static electricity under my skin. It was a heady feeling.

"Are you afraid of me? Or are you still thinking of the best way to save your friends? Fool. Forget them. Think only of yourself. Love only yourself. That is what it means to be the strongest," Gaara was saying as I approached. He was mostly transformed now, only human legs sticking out of the mass of sand.

"Oh, shut up," I said, irritated, launching a wave of kunai with explosive tags at the ground towards his feet. They detonated in his face.

Sasuke and Naruto snapped around to look at me, disbelief and relief mixed on their faces. And so I was the only one who saw the attack coming.

"Move!" I shouted, leaping away.

He… _it_ breathed in, gaping maw opening wide. "Wind Release: Sandstorm Devastation!" The wind that gushed out was thick with sand, rough and abrasive and blasting. It was strong enough to disperse Naruto's clones and slam us all into trees. I clipped a branch, anchoring myself with chakra and crossing my forearms across my face to protect my eyes.

"Attack me, Sasuke Uchiha," Gaara growled. "Don't run and hide."

Sasuke glared at him angrily. He knew as well as I did that things weren't going in our favour here. He'd used Chidori on Gaara three times, and he was still as strong as ever, if not getting stronger every second.

Then…

"_Fang over Fang!"_

Twin fangs twisted over head, through the air on a crash course for Gaara.

"No! Kiba!" I shouted, panicked.

They hit his huge sand arm and kept spinning, _drilling _themselves into it. Beside me, Sasuke crouched and flashed through hand seals, summoning lightning to his hand once more.

"Sand Coffin!" Gaara shouted, the loose sand that Kiba and Akamaru were stirring up twisting around to entangle them.

Sasuke rushed forward.

I followed in his footsteps, and as he leapt to sever the arm holding them, I ducked down, ready to grab them as they were released. I nearly missed the first one released, as the Beast Clone form of Akamaru reverted in my arms. He was battered and his white fur was stained red but I didn't have time to assess them, slinging the real Kiba over my shoulder and hightailing it out of there. I saw a flash of blonde in the trees - Ino - but didn't stop.

"Chouji!" I said, skidding to a stop. Then I blinked. "Is that…"

"Temari. We brought her with us," Kiba explained, groaning and sliding off my shoulder. "Didn't wanna just leave her there." Leaving her alone would have just given her another chance to attack us. Bringing her here, as prisoner, was the compromise between that and killing her. "We thought you guys could use some back up. Didn't realise just how _much_."

"Yeah," I said, biting my lip. "Kiba, I want you to stay with Chouji. Don't attack unless necessary."

"I can fight!" Kiba protested almost immediately.

"I _know_," I stressed. "Kiba, you saw what jus happened; your Fang Over Fang Jutsu just _drilled _you into his sand. If we hadn't gotten you out of there…"

He went pale and nodded. "Aww, man. I hate this."

"Don't we all," I muttered, turning to dash back to the others.

"As long as you fight for the sake of others," Gaara spat at Sasuke. "You'll never advance beyond this level. Only one can remain undefeated and only he can know what it feels like to truly exist. Forget your friends and fight for yourself."

"Why do you gotta go around picking on Sasuke-kun, you jerk? He's had it rough, you know," Ino shouted back, sounding perfectly annoyed and not even a little intimidated, even though her white knuckled hands gave her away. "He's nothing like _you._ All he needs is a little love and affection."

_Ino_, I thought fondly. _You just have this desire to _fix_ people, don't you? Me, Sakura… Sasuke too. I should have figured. _

But Gaara screamed like her words had burnt him. "Shut up!"

Sand rushed for her, a clawed hand _hurled_ through the air. Ino's eyes widened. I knew with cold dread that I'd never get close in time to help.

Then, with a pop, Ino was Naruto and the sand slammed into him

_Be a clone,_ I thought desperately. _Don't be the real one._

"Now you're just pissing me off," Naruto shouted, from a completely different direction. Ino was standing safe, though terrified, beside him. "I get it. I do. You're no different than I am. Going through life with the exact same sadness and loneliness that I had to carry… You fought only for yourself, never relying on anyone…But you're wrong. Being alone isn't the same as being strong. And trying to hurt Ino, just because she wants to help Sasuke… that's just low."

Ino was staring at him like she'd never seen him before.

"I'm not scared of you," Naruto continued, deathly serious. "Because _I know_ that people aren't strong unless they have something they want to protect. And _I WONT LET YOU HURT MY FRIENDS._"

Chakra surged, pure and blue.

"Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Orange filled the trees. There must have been a thousand of them. "Naruto Uzumaki Two Thousand Combo!"

They charged at Gaara, a relentless almost suicidal barrage. For every one that Gaara burst, two got through his defences. The combined, choreographed pummelling threw him into the air, whereupon more clones promptly hit him back down again.

"Is that _Naruto?_" Someone asked weakly. I didn't even look to see who.

Gaara hit the ground so hard that it shook. A dust cloud billowed into the air, obscuring even the sky above us.

"I won't lose to you!" Gaara _screamed_ in outrage.

Then there was an explosion of chakra smoke and I gagged as chakra filled the air, as thick as water. We looked up. And up.

"What is that?" Sasuke asked in horror.

"Shukaku," I breathed. It _towered _over the tree tops, four maybe five times as tall as the tallest tree. I swallowed. I had underestimated it. I had greatly underestimated just how _big_ it would be. Shit.

_If this had been let lose in the middle of Konoha…_

The thought flashed quickly across my mind, irrelevant but horrifying all the same.

"So that's it," Naruto said. "The monster inside of him."

"Naruto," I said breathlessly, swallowing with a suddenly dry mouth. "Please tell me your summoning contract has some _really big_ Toads."


	37. Chapter 36

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Sasuke's 'look'… eh, so many people have mentioned it that I think its evolved into a bigger thing than I meant. Basically, Shikako has a blind spot involving herself, and isn't good at interpreting people as they relate to _her._ Sasuke was going 'huh, you're the leader and people are listening to you?'. I tried to make it clear but… guess not.

Thanks to DreamOfStories for the prod. XD I haven't given up yet.

And wow, major thanks to the people who rec'ed/commented on this on Spacebattles. XD

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Chapter 36

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_Rough waters are truer tests of leadership. In calm water every ship has a good captain.—Swedish proverb_

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We stared upwards, through gaps in the canopy at the monstrous, looming form of Shukaku.

"Well, shit," Kiba said bluntly.

Chouji looked a mix between determined and terrified. "I'm the only one that can fight on that scale."

I wasn't even sure he could. Chouji was hardly a master of the Multi-Size Techniques, and without the pills…

I didn't think he'd get anywhere near big enough to matter. Maybe he would clear the tree tops, but that was barely up to it's knees.

"Let's keep that for a backup plan," I said.

Naruto bit his thumb in preparation for summoning, then paused. "Err. Maybe you guys should get some distance. Gamabunta is pretty big. Don't want him to squash you or anything."

What had I thought, that we could all stand atop Gamabunta to fight alongside Naruto? Even if the Chief Toad allowed such a thing, we'd still just get in the way.

"Right," I said, nodding. "Good luck, Naruto."

I didn't want to leave him alone to fight, but realistically… there wasn't much we could do. It seemed wrong to put it all on his shoulders, as though he was the only one that could save us. It was too much pressure for one small boy. Yet, against an enemy of this scale what could any of us do?

"Let's move out, people."

Chouji hefted the stirring but unconscious Temari and Kiba staggered back to his feet. We ran into the others on the way. Shino had a bundled up Kankurou slung over one shoulder. Hinata was breathing hard but no one looked injured. It was a small relief.

"Please tell me we don't have to fight that," Shikamaru said flatly.

"Right now, Naruto is going to try something," I said grimly. "If it doesn't work… Plan B."

"What's Plan B?" he asked, warily.

_Chouji's Multi-Size Technique; setting giant explosive seals as close as possible; seeing if Genjutsu worked and trying to lead it into a lake; sending someone running for Konoha to find a Jounin; stuffing Sasuke full of soldier pills and setting him loose with Chidori; getting Ino to Mind-Body Switch and hope it didn't kill her and that she could shut Shukaku down_… I had backup plans, but they weren't necessarily good ones. And I was defining _good_ by the very low standards of 'everyone makes it out alive'.

"I'll let you know."

_Come on, Naruto._

Then there was an explosion of chakra smoke and a huge, red toad was rising above the tree tops. We could barely see one of them, let alone both, but I'd say Gamabunta was about the same size as Shukaku. That was a very, very good thing.

"You know," Kiba said sounding half thoughtful, half baffled. I was relieved to see that Kiba and Akamaru were only superficially wounded, cuts and scraps and not more serious damage. It seemed that the expelled and rotating chakra during the Fang over Fang technique had protected them from the worst of the attack. That made sense, since it was a jutsu that seemed to be created to slam you head first into solid objects. It _had _to protect you. "I sort of want to ask 'what the hell has he been learning'… yet I don't."

"This is why you wished Naruto to be one of the ones to confront Gaara?" Shino asked.

I nodded. "He signed a summoning contract this last month," I said. "Hopefully…"

The two giant creatures stared at each other. There was a rumbling sound from Gamabunta that made me think he was probably talking to Naruto, but it didn't carry. I had no idea what he was saying.

Then he drew a sword that was probably larger than the Hokage Tower and leapt. The ground shook like we were in the middle of an earthquake and I nearly tumbled to the ground. Ino and Shikamaru _did._

"This… is such a drag," Shikamaru said, not even bothering to get back up.

There was no way to really see what was going on, not with the trees in the way, and I didn't really want to leave the miniscule cover they provided. Getting any closer to that battle would just be suicide anyway. Naruto had been right to make us move.

The ground shook more, trees crashed, there were _loud_ booms and crashes. I gave up trying to stand and just clung to the ground like it was trying to throw me off. That wasn't really too far from the truth.

There was a spike of chakra, a roar, and I caught a glimpse of what looked like an orb flying overhead - _air bullet? - _before it was intercepted by a glob of water. Cold, torrential rain poured down on us from the dispersed attacks. If that was the force of a deflected attack I didn't want to get hit with one full force.

"Hinata?" I asked weakly, shivering just a bit at the sudden cold. "Think you can fill us in on what's happening up there?"

"Good thinking," Kiba said. "I'd like to know if we need to run or not." Akamaru whimpered, though whether it was in agreement, fear or pain, I didn't know.

"I - umm… y-yes." She folded her fingers into a hand seal. "Byakugan!" The veins around her eyes bulged as her Bloodlimit activated. "Umm… Naruto is standing on top of that toad. I- I think they're trying to get closer to … Gaara." She said the name hesitantly. Knowing that Gaara had the Shukaku and _seeing_ it were two different things. "Gaara is keeping him away with those long distance jutsu… I- I think they're some kind of wind bullet. Maybe?"

Hinata's narration may not have been the most confident, but having _some_ idea rather than none was a step up. We could catch glimpses of them as they moved and fought, and the jutsus they used and destruction they caused but that didn't give us a clear idea of what was happening.

Temari and Kankurou were starting to stir, the cold water having had the side effect of waking them up. Temari woke up first, which was understandable given that she'd probably only been clobbered around the head or something, whereas Kankurou would have had his chakra system either drained or shut down.

Her eyes flared wide with terror, when she caught sight of the sand behemoth towering over the trees. "No," she moaned. "Gaara's gone… he let it out. _We have to get out of here._ You… you don't understand! You're crazy if you think you can take Gaara like this."

I glanced at her, straining futilely against her bonds. Her movements were slow and sluggish, consistent with exhaustion. "Unless you have a secret way of containing him when he's like this, I suggest you be quiet."

"Only the Kazekage can deal with him when he's like this," she said forcefully, at odds with her pleading terrified eyes.

"Hmm. We're fresh out of Kazekages," I said cheerfully, mostly just to be irritating. I didn't feel particularly cheerful, that was for sure. But we were _not_ going to abandon Naruto.

"Given the invasion, it probably wouldn't help even if we had one," Shikamaru pointed out laconically.

Kiba snickered. "Yeah, I can imagine that. Ahem. Excuse me, Kazekage sir, could you please abandon the battle and come restrain your Jinchuriki? It seems to be getting out of hand. Much appreciated."

Sasuke's lips twitched. "That's rather polite for you_, Inuzuka_. Not going to just demand help?"

"Well, y'know," Kiba said, as though seriously considering the point. "Foreign Kage. Got to be on your best behaviour, right?"

Even Hinata cracked a giggle, at her team mate's mock serious face.

Temari looked at us in horror. "You're all mad."

I couldn't exactly argue her point, but that kind of banter was relaxing. There was a difference between being on guard and being strung out to the point of uselessness.

"Look!" Hinata squeaked, and we all spun around to try and peer through the canopy.

"Is that-?" Chouji shouted.

Shikamaru looked thunderstruck.

But there was none of that terrifying chakra. "Transformation Jutsu?" I suggested as the Nine-Tailed Fox - flipping _Kyuubi_ - leapt over the trees, grabbed Shukaku and _bit down._

"Naruto is running for Gaara. The real Gaara, I mean. The human body," Hinata said, flustered.

We waited with bated breath. I wished I could _see._

"He's attacking," Hinata said with a cringe. "And… again."

The sand starting shaking, like it was falling apart. It _was. _Whatever Naruto was doing was disrupting the giant structure. He was… he'd done it!

Then I realised, if the sand was falling… there was nothing to hold them up.

"Naruto!" I shouted, springing forward into the trees and sprinting for them. It was all I could do to scream his name like a helpless fan girl. I hated it.

I was aware that Gamabunta vanished in a puff of chakra smoke, either dismissing himself, or having run out of chakra, but I didn't pay too much attention. I was more focused on Naruto.

The sand was all gone now.

And he was falling.

A much smaller fall had done me a fair bit of damage in the Forest of Death, though I had been unconscious and if Naruto was still aware then he'd probably be able to negate most of it. Assuming he had chakra left.

I raced towards them, over scattered debris and broken trees, over furrowed and wrecked ground. Shouts of surprise echoed behind me, before the patter of racing feet as they followed. We wouldn't get there in time to catch Naruto.

But we'd be able to see the outcome of the fight.

I nearly cried with relief when I saw Naruto, battered and bruised and bleeding, with his chakra flickering like a candle in the breeze, but so, so _alive._ He was fine.

_You never give up, do you? _I thought with a huge surge of relief.

"It's almost unbearable, isn't it?" He was saying, as he dragged himself along the ground to the equally exhausted Gaara. "The feeling of being all alone. I know that feeling. I've been there, in that dark and lonely place. But now there are other people who mean a lot to me. Having them around… it makes me a better person. They _trusted _me to do this. And … I _wont_ let anyone hurt them. That's why I wont ever give up. I will stop you _even if I have to kill you._"

"But why… why would you do this for anyone but yourself?" Gaara asked, his voice soft and empty. The hate and rage was all gone, leaving only broken, wide-eyed confusion behind.

"Because they saved me from myself," Naruto said frankly. "They rescued me from my loneliness. They were the first to accept me for who I am. They're my friends."

I landed next to Naruto, crouching down beside him. "Yeah," I said, voice a little shaky. "We'd do the same for you, y'know. You did good, Naruto. You did good."

He gave me a small, tired smile and collapsed.

Gaara watched us with eyes that were so very bleak. "Love…" he said, more a whisper than a word. "Is that the thing that makes him so strong?"

I ran a diagnostic scan on Naruto, surprised and yet not that all that plagued him was bruising and exhaustion.

"This guy's chakra is all gone," Sasuke reported, crouching near Gaara.

I heard the unspoken, _now what do we do with him?_

And wasn't that a very good question?

The others had followed us, though they'd tried to stick together instead of streaking ahead like Sasuke and I had done. They'd even brought Kankurou and Temari with them, who stared in mingled horror and awe at seeing their brother brought low.

"Gaara!" Kankurou gasped, wiggling a bit. It didn't seem to accomplish much. "I swear, when I get outta here-"

"That's enough," Gaara whispered. "It's over."

Kankurou fell silent.

"So do we drag them back to the village with us, or what?" Kiba asked, with his customary tact.

"We should not head back to the village," Shino stated. "Why? Because standard operating procedure dictates we should find a safe location and await further orders."

"Depending on the state of the village," Ino said slowly, biting her lip. "Taking prisoners might not be a priority." She looked at me trying to convey something important. Ino knew what I did - prisoners would go to T and I, and people didn't exactly _leave _T and I. She knew it, accepted it… but had never had to apply the idea to a real person before.

Neither had I.

"Hmph," Kankurou said, all false bravery. "That's right. When the rest of our forces find out you're holding us prisoner, it wont go well for you."

Shikamaru raised a sardonic eyebrow. "You're kidding, right? Your brother _was _the main force of the attack and he fell to a bunch of Genin. I'd be surprised if anyone else even survived. All he's sayin' is that there might not be enough time to properly restrain _him._ In which case…" In which case they wouldn't survive long enough to be interrogated. Better to lose Intel than risk Gaara recovering and transforming again.

Kankurou fell silent, likely because he knew it was true.

We were probably supposed to keep them prisoner, and then they'd be interrogated by T and I about the invasion. Then… disposed of, probably. They were Genin, however strong, and not stable ones. I doubted that they really knew all that much. They might have been considered valuable enough for trade, due to heritage, but Gaara was too much a weapon for Konoha to ever hand him back. We could, probably _should_ kill them. They were enemies, ones that invaded our home and attacked us. But… Temari wasn't a faceless enemy. We knew her name, had talked to her, fought with her; she was young and pretty and vivacious. We weren't hardened enough for that, for it to seem but cruel. The others… after the Forest of Death, heck after the explosion here, they already thought I was merciless.

I _could_, probably, do it. But even thinking about it I was aware I didn't want to.

"So what should we do?" Chouji asked, directing the question more to the group than to me.

"Let us go," Temari said, jumping on the chance to direct their fate. Her eyes were pleading. "Please."

She was on her knees, pushed up awkwardly with bound hands and feet. Part of it might have been exhaustion, but she was begging. She was a proud, strong girl, yet she _would_ beg. Not so much for herself, but for her brothers. Even Gaara.

"So you can just attack us again?" Ino asked caustically.

"No," Temari said quickly, shaking her head. "The attack… it was never _our _idea. We were just… following orders." That wasn't a great excuse… and yet in some ways, it worked. People broke orders all the time, and if something was so reprehensible, so morally wrong then…

But in the world of ninja, invading a foreign nation wasn't one of those issues. Hell, even back Before, a soldier in the army would be expected to do the same. Here, you were loyal to the Village, or you died.

"We would return to Suna," she continued in a rush. "Straight back. We wont - We wont fight anymore."

I looked at the others. Uncertain faces stared back at me. At length, Shikamaru shrugged. "Our mission was just to keep them out of the fight, right?" He asked, clasping his hands behind his head and staring up at the sky.

"We can't just _let them go_," Kiba scoffed. "After what we went through to bring them down."

"Please," Temari begged, seeing her chances slip away. Her eyes darted from one face to the next. "At least… at least let them go. I'll do… I'll do anything." Her voice cracked. People shifted uncomfortably. Her eyes, I noted distantly, were a very pretty blue green. Teal, maybe. They were flickering around wildly, Sasuke to Shikamaru to Shino to Kiba… unsure who she needed to sway to her side. She didn't know, I realised, who was the leader.

It wasn't an unheard of statement. A bargain of last resort. There were Shinobi Rules against accepting, in Konoha, and it counted as bribery which could, in some circumstances be treason. No one appeared interested, though if that was because they were moral, or because they were _twelve_ I didn't want to consider.

"Temari!" Kankurou protested, immediately, loudly.

"Shut up!" She hissed at him, a quick shift back to domineering and in control, though the line of her back was terrified.

"Ano," Hinata said, very, very softly, tapping her fingers together. Her eyes were cast downwards, towards Naruto. "I t-think that we should let them go, i-if they promise…"

"I swear," Temari said immediately and a little shakily. "By the desert heat, by the shifting sand, by my mother's grave…" she flinched and glanced at Gaara, almost as though she expected him to react. But he was just staring at her as though he had never seen her before in his life. As if she were something too _alien_ to comprehend. "That we'll do nothing but head straight for Suna."

I looked around the circle of people. They stared back, unnerved, confused but offering no solution.

Shikamaru had voted for releasing them, and the rest of Team 10 would stand by him. So had Hinata. Kiba wanted to drag them in. Shino was unreadable. Sasuke hadn't said anything.

_Kakashi-sensei gave you the lead. It's your call._

I sighed and titled my head back to stare into the endless blue sky. There was a strange circular rainbow around the sun. A bad omen. But for who? My thoughts were scattered, I knew, probably from the stress.

I could explain it away. Letting them go released us of the pressure of trying to hold a Jinchuriki captive. With limited information about the state of the village, it could even seem like a wise decision. Taking captives in the middle of a war situation would only tie up troops guarding them. We'd never been ordered to capture them. Our heavy hitters were exhausted - we were _all_ exhausted - and we wouldn't be able to handle a round two. Ensuring the area was clear of other enemies took priority to chasing exhausted, retreating and defeated opponents.

_Looks like I already decided…_

"The quality of mercy is not strained," I murmured to myself. Huh. Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare. God, I'd hated that English paper. That quote had ended up being in the final exam, too. Pity I hadn't been able to remember it half so clearly then.

I looked back at her, so proud and kneeling. I stepped forward and slashed with a kunai, lightning fast. She flinched, and the silvery, tendrils of ninja wire broke and fluttered away from her hands.

"Go," I said flatly. "Take your brothers and go. But remember… you wont get mercy twice."

She stared, wide eyed, but didn't question the sudden generosity. None of us stopped her as she scrambled for Kankurou, undoing his bonds with fumbling fingers, and as they both stumbled towards Gaara.

"Was that wise?" Pakkun asked levelly.

I stared at their backs. They weren't far away. I knew they heard. "I hope so," I said softly. "I _really_ hope so."

"What was that you were mumbling before?" Shikamaru asked. "About mercy?"

"The quality of mercy is not strained," I quoted. "It drops as the gentle rain from heaven, upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; it blesses he that gives and he that takes…"

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><p><em>.<em>

So this chapter took forever to write. It really didn't want to be written. I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed with the fight scene. I hope that I explained the reasoning for releasing the Sand Sibs clearly enough. And that the gratuitous Shakespeare didn't bother anyone. Thanks, brain; you're five years too late for that quote to be helpful.


	38. Chapter 37

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: One of the downsides/troubles to having so many characters in one place is that it's really hard to juggle them all at once…

I see the decision to let the Sand Sibs go has stirred up some controversy. That's… good. Controversy is good. People brought up a lot of interesting points (and Pokey, your rant was perfectly okay). Some people thought it was the best decision, some people thought it was so very wrong. It was a hard decision. It might be right, it might be wrong. Maybe there were no right answers at all. But it got made.

The thing is, it's my interpretation that Konoha places high value on being moral and making decisions in the field based on the information available. In canon, how many times do the shinobi exceed or contradict mission orders? There are filler arcs based on that very premise. Heck, Land of Waves even brings up the issue when they find out about Gatou.

And a bonus point to consider - Shikako knows that the Sand Sibs would go on to be allies of Konoha and important ones at that.

Nemesis Jedi - sorry, I have no idea when Spacebattles will be open again. Wish I could help. You raise a good point though. I don't think that _any_ of the other Hidden Villages would be merciful. We already know Mist has no qualms offing _their own_ shinobi… Then again, it's all about the individuals that make up the village, and I've already decreed that Zabuza is far more compassionate than usually depicted. XD So who knows?

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 37

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><p><em>.<em>

_To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~ e. e. cummings_

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><p>.<p>

Things were hesitant, as we watched the Sand shinobi go.

"After that fight," Sasuke said levelly, eyes dark and giving no hints of his thoughts. Did he approve? Disapprove? Sasuke, I knew, likely had triggers about families and people begging for their lives. It wasn't _the same_ but… "Everyone in the area is going to know _exactly_ where we are."

Yeah, giant toads and sand demons were hard to miss.

"Could be a good thing," I replied, thinking the statement over. "Could be a bad thing. On one hand, if our superiors are looking for us with more orders they'll be able to find us. On the other… we don't know what kind of forces the enemy has, or how they're staggered."

The implication was there could still be many of them out there.

I weighed up the options, my brain running sluggishly and tired. But I was in charge, I couldn't _not._

"We need to find a safe location to use as a base, and possibly start sweeping the forest," I said with a nod to Shino, who had been the one to bring up the standard procedure. "I'd prefer it if we got some distance from this area. If our sensei need to find us, they will."

"There's an outpost in the sixth quadrant," Shikamaru said.

Outpost was stretching it a bit. It was a guard station, a stop along a patrol route around the forest. If I remembered the designation right, it was a solo station, usually manned by a single person, though it might have been increased if security had been tightened. But like all outposts and guard stations, it was a defensible location.

"Let's go," I said. "We'll approach cautiously in case it's been overrun."

I hauled one of Naruto's arms over my shoulder, and after a brief pause, Sasuke mirrored me on his other side.

We took off, Kiba and Hinata gravitating to the front to lead us. It was a much slower trip than either of our previous jaunts, and even though we were still on the lookout for enemies, the atmosphere of the group was less tense.

"Found it," Kiba said, sniffing the air with a pleased look on his face.

"T-there is a Chunin approaching," Hinata said softly, tapping her fingers together. "We should stop."

Stop and let them approach us. Less threatening, that way. We didn't want to suffer through a case of mistaken identity.

He circled our group once, then landed easily in front of us. He was, like most Chunin, wearing the standard Konoha blues and flack jacket. His headband was worn as a bandanna and he had a small, dark goatee. He was a little battered and had clearly been in a fight or two. He also looked reasonably familiar, and I thought he might have been one of the Sentinels for the First Exam.

_That was a long time ago…_

Well, not really. But it felt like it. _This morning_ felt like a long time ago.

"What's a bunch of Genin doing this far out? You guys should be in the shelters, at least." His eyes dragged over our injuries, and the way Sasuke and I were holding Naruto up.

I fumbled for a second. "We were in the stadium and were assigned a mission. It's complete now. We were headed for the outpost for updates or new orders."

"I see. Well, I'm Iwashi Tatami, from the outpost if you hadn't guessed. You're all Genin, right?"

We nodded in confirmation.

"I don't suppose you know the identification code?" The question was casual, but his eyes were careful. Infiltration was a standard tactic, but that usually came _before_ the fighting.

"We know the standard one," I said. If there was a new one for the invasion I didn't know it. "_Walls of blue flame, a priestly pagoda, glowing ironclad fireflies. Standing upright, silent to the end_."

The identification codes were a string of basically nonsense words. The one for Genin was different from the one from Chunin and so forth. But the real beauty of them was there were variations - if I'd said 'torch of blue flame' it meant 'I'm doing this under duress'. There were hundreds of variations, designed for circumstances where information couldn't be given freely.

Memorising them all was _crazy._

They didn't actually get used a lot, since most teams knew each other well enough to spot impostors in other ways. Or they preferred to use their own codes since anything 'official' could be 'stolen' more easily. But since we were strangers in the middle of an invasion, something had to be done.

His shoulders relaxed. "Alright. Lets head to the outpost and I'll fill you in. Anyone really injured?"

"Nah," Kiba answered, shrugging. "We got off lucky."

It wasn't really surprising that he hadn't immediately linked us to the fight to the east. They'd have been able to see it, more than likely, but attributing it to a bunch of Genin? Not hardly.

Iwashi led us expertly through the trees, to a spot where the trees were thickest.

"Welcome to our humble little abode. This is Mozuku, the other Chunin on duty at the moment."

I glanced around not sure what he was talking about. I couldn't _see_ the guard station.

It was Hinata that pointed it out. "In the tree," she said softly.

Not 'in the trees' like a tree house, but physically built into the trunk of one of the giant 'Hashirama trees'. A little niche had been carved out. Not a big one, just enough to store some supplies, to provide a little bit of cover, for a single person to hide in.

"I'll take over the patrol," Mozuku offered. "If you want to get them sorted."

Iwashi nodded. "Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks."

There was a small clearing by the outpost and Sasuke and I lay Naruto down at the base of a tree where he'd be out of the way. He was still out of it, and likely would be for a while. I gently brushed his hair out of his face.

"So what's going on?" Sasuke asked, voice calm and serious.

"Well, I'm going to take it that you know about the invasion," he said ironically. "A combined force of Sand and Sound ninja came in through the forests this morning, not counting however many snuck in with the Exam guests. When the signal for retaliation came, we crushed most of them between the walls and the outer forces. Right now, we're just doing sweeps of the forest to pick up any left over stragglers."

"Outer forces?" I echoed.

"Yeah, there's a fair amount of us out here. Chunin, Jounin… ANBU squads." A smug smirk kicked up the corner of his lips. "They didn't know what hit 'em."

We absorbed that.

"So what do we do?" Ino asked.

Iwashi considered. "Well, I don't want to send you kids out on your own. Those of you who are injured can wait here, and I'll take two of you with me, if you feel up for patrolling. Mozuku will probably do the same when he gets back."

"I'm in," Kiba said immediately. "Sitting around waiting ain't my style." Akamaru barked in agreement.

Iwashi raised an eyebrow. "I think you'd better put something on those cuts and scrapes first. No point having you bleed to death after everything."

That was an exaggeration, but it got the point across. Kiba groaned and flopped down on the ground.

Sasuke stood, brushing off his shorts. "I'll go." I glanced at him, but his chakra was still buzzing from the soldier pill regardless of how many Chidori he had used.

"Me too," Chouji said suddenly. "Since I didn't fight before."

I looked at him in surprise. Chouji didn't really _like_ fighting. Unless he was making the point that he wasn't as tired as the rest of us, which was fair enough.

"Awesome," Iwashi said. "Let's go."

I felt their chakra dart off, in the opposite direction that Mozuku had gone. I hoped they didn't run into any trouble.

I stood and stretched, arching my back and wincing as it '_click-click-click'_ed. Everything felt sore, probably from my impromptu tumble through a tree.

"Hey Hinata," I said softly. "Could you watch Naruto while I patch Kiba up?"

"O-of course," she stammered, and I gave her a quick smile. Team 10 had gravitated together, and Shino looked to be meditating or something in the shade.

I meandered over to Kiba. He didn't move.

"Yo," I said, dropping down next to him.

"Hey," he said, less energetic than usual.

I ran a diagnostic scan over him. "Coming down from the solider pills?" I asked, even though I wasn't sure.

"Nah," he said easily. "It's just… everything. Y'know?"

I pet Akamaru gently on the head and then lifted him off Kiba's chest so I could keep working. I unsealed equipment from my scroll and got to work cleaning the cuts so I could either heal them or apply ointment.

"It's been a crazy day," I agreed.

"Tell me about it. This morning I'm hoping Shino makes Chunin and Neji gets his ass beat… this afternoon…" he trailed off.

_This afternoon we're fighting for our lives in the stadium and then chasing a Jinchuriki through the forest…_ I paused and rewound that thought.

"The stadium?" I guessed. It had all been so fast and crazy, but I'd fought. I'd killed people. And if I thought about it… so had Kiba.

He shrugged. "Yeah."

"You alright?" I asked, a tad pointlessly.

"Hey, you're the one doctoring me up." He grinned cheekily.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Hold still or I'll get out the ointment that stings."

"I'll be good," he promised. The grin faded pretty quickly though.

I activated my Mystical Palm Jutsu and started healing what I could. I had plenty of chakra, thanks to the soldier pill earlier but it took more… concentration to focus it. It was wilder than normal, agitated. It was something I'd never felt in my chakra before and it was very _strange._

"It's just…" Kiba said, shifting awkwardly.

"Just?" I prompted softly.

"Don't get me wrong," he said hastily. "I'm not being all girly about it or anything. But… What makes it different? That we could kill there and not here? That you wanted to let them go?"

_I don't know._

_I killed 13 people today, isn't that enough? _I blinked the number away. Nine in the forest. Four in the stands. _Shit._

"Did you want to kill them?" I asked. 'Them'. The Sand Siblings. Even thinking about them made my stomach twist unpleasantly. I'd made the decision. Whatever repercussions came from it would be on my head. I _knew_ they'd be good allies in future - the Kazekage even - but that wasn't something I could use to explain my decision.

"Not really," Kiba admitted. "That's why we tied Temari up. But… back in the stadium, I didn't _want_ to kill him either. I just did it. I wasn't even thinking about it. I just … had a kunai and stabbed. It didn't even really _click_ until just now. It was so crazy up there that it didn't register."

I hummed. "I wish I had answers for you," I said. I had _reasons_ but that wasn't the same, wasn't what he was asking. "I… They were out of the fight. The guys in the stands… they would have just kept fighting, just kept attacking if we hadn't-" I cut myself off. "I don't, I _can't_ think that mercy is inherently wrong. That killing people is the _only_ answer." Maybe I was just a hypocrite. It didn't matter.

"Out of the fight," Kiba repeated, he looked strange. A little sad. "They just wanted to go home."

"Yeah," I agreed. "They just wanted to go home." I swallowed. Blinked harshly. When said like that… I shoved the thought away. "Here. Let me see what I can do for Akamaru."

I wasn't exactly a vet, but cuts and bruises on a dog had to be pretty similar to cuts and bruises on a human. Anything more serious was another matter, though.

Mozuku came back and agreed to Iwashi's idea to take two of us with him. Kiba jumped on the chance and Shino unfolded himself to go along with them.

"Well," I said blankly to the air.

Yup, being a ninja wasn't all hectic chases, dangerous fights and heart-rending, life-and-death decisions; a great majority of it was sitting around waiting with absolutely no clue what was going on in the village. The Chunin had told us what they could, but they didn't have up to date info either.

How were people fairing? How many enemies were there? How much longer would the fighting last?

We waited. And waited. Iwashi and Mozuku swung by to check on us and it didn't look like patrols were particularly exciting either. It was nearly sundown before we heard the ringing of the bells. Church bells, I would have said, though the local equivalent wasn't the same. But sound carried, so it was an effective way to communicate over a wide area.

"Guess the fighting's over," Ino said, listening.

"They'll be sending out runners, then," I hazarded a guess. "Orders for the outpost shinobi."

"I hope everyone is alright."

The two patrol groups came back just in time to meet the arrival of another Chunin.

"Iwashi, Mozuku," he greeted, seeming to know them. They waved back. "They're dropping the security level back down to 3, so only one of you has to stick around till shift-change."

Briefly, I wondered who was going to be taking the next shift. Surely every able bodied ninja had _been_ fighting.

"There are check-in stations just inside the gates," he continued. "They've got more info about the village status. And new assignments." He smirked briefly.

"Here's hoping my 'new assignment' is eight hours sleep," Mozuku said, stretching.

"You'd be so lucky," the new Chunin returned. "I've got twelve more guard stations to visit."

"Level three, huh?" Iwashi muttered. "That's still pretty tight."

"Just in case there's a second attack, I guess," Mozuku said. "Anyway. I did less fighting than you, so you should take the Genin back to the village."

Iwashi hesitated, then shrugged. "If you're sure. Come on, kids. Time to go home."

Kiba muttered something about 'not a kid', but I just scrambled over to Naruto and tried to wake him. Still out of it. Which was fair enough, I guessed, since it had taken him three days to sleep off his last bout of chakra exhaustion. I pulled his arm over my shoulder with a groan and was thankful when someone took his other side and halved the weight I had to carry.

"Hey, Sasuke," I rasped. "You're being pretty quiet over there."

He shrugged. "Hn."

I sort of wished I knew what he was thinking. Was he relieved we'd survived? Upset that Naruto was the one to manage what the rest of us couldn't? Annoyed that the Exams were disrupted? Worried about the village?

Now wasn't really the time to ask, though.

The Chunin at the check in station took one look at us and shook his head. "If you're exhausted, go home. Everything is mostly covered now. The map shows the areas of high damage, and we have a list of known casualties and evacuation spots if you're looking for people."

We signed in, and I scrambled for a minute trying to remember Naruto's ID code, and reassured everyone that he was just exhausted and not injured.

We glanced at the damage report. The area that contained Naruto's apartment was shaded black - high damage - while Sasuke's was red - moderate damage.

I made the executive decision. "You two are coming home with us. Don't even argue." I couldn't in good conscious just ditch Naruto while he was like this, and I didn't want to let Sasuke go either.

Shikamaru just shrugged and yawned.

"Fine," Sasuke said. We sort of made dinner at my place a tradition after a big mission, and while this wasn't quite the same, I guess it was close enough.

"Alright," I said, and then yawned. "Let's call this day done."

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><p>.<p>

*cough* Yeah, so the pass phrase is a Bleach kido. Those things are weird.

Mozuku and Iwashi are canon characters. So says Narutopedia. XD


	39. Chapter 38

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Summons do tend to show up a lot, so that's where my 'they're common' comes from. And I'm assuming Shippuden Sasuke got his Hawk contract from the Uchiha hideout. I don't know if it was ever stated where that came from.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 38

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><p>.<p>

_A hospital alone shows what war is. ~Erich Maria Remarque_

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"But then I was like 'aww, Boss, there aren't any other toads that are as big and as awesome as you' and he was like 'well, you're right about that, brat' even though I probably didn't have enough chakra to summon any other toads _anyway_ and I've only had the contract for a little while so it's not like I know all the toads, either…"

I listened with half an ear to Naruto's story, even though it was interesting - and _oh god, what if Gamabunta hadn't helped?_ - as I made breakfast. The kitchen door was open, and I could hear the three of them at the table as Naruto enthusiastically regaled us with what had happened during the fight we had missed.

He was still a little low on chakra - for Naruto, anyway - but apart from a few yawns had bounced right back.

"Where'd you get a summoning contract, anyway?" Sasuke asked curiously.

"The pervy sage had it," Naruto replied and I could hear the shrug. "He let me sign it when I got him to teach me for the Exam."

"Most clans have a few summoning scrolls," I chimed in. "They aren't exactly rare." I hesitated, the ploughed onwards. "I'm not sure how organised the Uchiha were, but you've probably got a few hidden away in the compound."

_Assuming they haven't been looted or anything._

"Hn," was all Sasuke replied with. The Uchiha… that was a topic that got tiptoed around and circumvented so obviously it did nothing but highlight the issue. Even I was guilty of it. I _wanted_ to help Sasuke, but how?

I could hardly tell Sasuke the real culprit was Konoha itself. This was just a no-win situation.

But yes, summons are actually pretty common. There are thousands of different scrolls, some large, some small. For example the Great Toad Contract has several thousand summons attached to it, while Kakashi-sensei's dog contract has maybe a dozen. The problem is that it takes such a large amount of chakra to summon, and not all summons are equally good in battle situations. Added to that, summons are individuals. Not all of them are happy to be summoned. I think a prime example of that is Manda the snake boss, who demands a hundred sacrifices each time he is summoned.

"Do you have one?" Naruto asked curiously. "Shikako?"

"Me? Ah, no. I don't have the chakra for it," I said. "I might sign one when I'm older though. They're pretty neat."

I was struck by just how _bizarre _and _domestic_ this scene was. My hand trembled on the counter and I clenched it into a fist to stop the shaking. Yesterday… we were fighting for our lives. We were… _at war._ This morning I'm cooking breakfast and we're chatting like nothing happened.

There was just a sense of … unreality to it.

I breathed in and shook it off.

Of course I was cooking breakfast. We needed to eat before we could go and help the clean up or whatever was going on this morning. Simple. Logical.

I dished up the rice and miso soup - a simple but traditional breakfast - and added an extra bowl since I could feel Mum stirring awake upstairs. She'd come in late last night and I had the vague feeling that Dad had come in even later and left extremely early this morning.

Naruto had gone back to talking and I was glad, as I carried the food out and sat at the table, because it had covered my awkward silence.

"- but Gamabunta couldn't hold onto the sand, because, y'know toads don't have claws, so he was like 'well, we'll have to do a Combination Transformation Jutsu' and I was like 'what?' and he was just 'think of something with teeth and claws' and heck, I couldn't think of anything _but_ then I thought of Kyuubi, so that's what we turned into and hey, he has teeth and claws-"

Sasuke frowned. "Why on earth did you think of the Nine Tailed Fox?"

Naruto _froze._ "Ehehe, well… uh…"

I nodded encouragingly at him. Shikamaru and I knew. I thought it would be a good thing if Sasuke did too, being as how he was our team mate.

"Uh, well…"

"Spit it out, dead last," Sasuke ordered.

Naruto took a deep breath. "Well. Y'know how Gaara was the host of the Ichibi?"

"Obviously," Sasuke said, a touch sarcastically. "Since that's the whole reason we had to fight him."

"I'm the host of the Kyuubi." Naruto said it in such a rush, as though saying it faster would make it easier to get out. Then he looked down at his soup and didn't look back up.

There was silence.

I glanced at Sasuke cautiously. His face was frozen in a combination of confusion and disbelief.

"It's not quite the same, though, is it," I said tentatively, trying to direct the conversation to a safe end. "I mean, you can't do the same… transformation thing, right?" Or not until much, much later anyway.

"Well," Naruto said uncomfortably. "It's not like I've ever really tried. I mean, the only times I've used it were when the pervy sage threw me off a cliff and … in Wave Country when…" he trailed off.

"And in the Forest of Death," Sasuke said, as though adding things up. "When you attacked Orochimaru. Your eyes… they were red. He said something, too… I wasn't paying attention at the time…"

"_When your anger is roused, some of the Nine Tailed Fox's chakra is released. What an interesting childhood you must have had."_

I was kind of surprised _I_ remembered what Orochimaru had said, but his voice had a way of burning itself inside your brain.

"Yeah, so," Naruto coughed, awkwardly, clearing his throat. "I didn't even know about it till after graduation." He shrugged. "It … yeah."

"You two already knew," Sasuke stated, looking from me to Shikamaru and back. It wasn't even a question.

"Remember how I told you about running into Gaara at the hospital?" I asked. "It came out then. I figured that it was up to Naruto to tell you, and we didn't exactly have time what with everything else."

"The adults all know," Shikamaru added. "Most of the kids don't, but I guess some of them will put it together after that."

Naruto shrugged uncomfortably. "Yeah, I guess."

"But it's not such a big deal," Shikamaru went on, a teasing glint in his eyes. "I mean, it's _Naruto._"

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto protested.

"Oh, like you don't know," Shikamaru retorted.

I tuned out their bickering and turned to Sasuke with a raised eyebrow. He gave me a slow nod. "It makes sense," he said.

Right, so that was one drama out of the way.

"Morning, kids," Mum said, coming into the room.

"Morning," I said reflexively as she sat down. I couldn't help but stare, just a little bit.

I _knew _she was a ninja. She trained with us, taught us, and it had never been a secret that she had been a Chunin. But seeing her dressed in blues and flack jacket for the first time that I could remember really make it _real._

It might have even been the first time I had seen her wearing her headband.

My mother, the shinobi.

With Dad, I had always known there was no separation between home and work. He was a shinobi was a shinobi was a shinobi. It wasn't a bad thing, but we talked about shogi and missions and books and morality with no clear distinction between the topics.

But Mum had _always_ been 'home'.

I wasn't really sure I liked this.

She looked up and caught my eye. "In a state of emergency, all able-bodied ninja are expected to be ready for duty. Since you two are out of the house, that includes me," she said by way of explanation.

I nodded silently. I knew the protocols. But the way Mum said it made it sound like she knew from _experience, _not from rules.

"Wait…" Shikamaru drawled. "State of emergency?"

"You haven't heard? No, of course you haven't. The official word went out late last night," Mum said tiredly. "The Hokage… is dead."

"What?" Naruto croaked, looking like the world was falling down around his ears. He shook his head. "No. Nonono…"

Because, while to us the Hokage was a leader and a powerful figure, to Naruto he was a _person_.

I knew him as the guy behind the missions desk, the guy that gave speeches at the Academy every year, important but distant while Naruto knew him as a grandfather that took him out to ramen and told him off for pranking.

I hissed a breath.

"How?" Sasuke asked dully.

"Orochimaru was disguised as the Kazekage and managed to isolate him during the battle. They fought. Hokage-sama used, or attempted to use, a suicide jutsu. Orochimaru was heavily wounded, but managed to escape." Her tone was flat and matter of fact, as though reciting a report. All the important facts were there but…

"Why did it take so long?" I asked. Surely that had happened before we got back. Why hadn't we found out last night? Not that it would have been _better_ but…

"While battle protocols can run perfectly fine without the Hokage, or a lot of the upper ranks, bureaucracy is a little slower _after_ battles. It took a while to sort out who was in charge, what was happening, and what to do about it. A lot of people knew by word of mouth before the official announcement went out," she said.

"Oh. No wonder Dad was out so late," I said.

"Yes. He's going to be very busy for the next few days." Or weeks. Or months, she didn't say, but there was a frown creasing between her eyes that said she knew it.

The rest of breakfast was spent in awkward silence. Naruto was silent, grieving. I wanted to comfort him, but wasn't sure what to say. I hadn't been exactly _surprised_ with the information. I had _hoped_ that enough had changed but…

Well. A suicide jutsu was a suicide jutsu. The clue was in the name.

Outside, one of the first things I noticed was that the flags were all flying half-mast and that they were all the red of 'state of emergency'. After seven, the message system started repeated a blip every half hour of 'Hokage down. State of Emergency in effect. All ninja report to temporary stations'.

Well, at least they'd given us time to sleep. That was unusually kind of them.

Therefore it was unsurprising to see the area around the Hokage Tower flooded with people. The Mission Assignment Desk had been moved outside and there were lines of people in front of it, with flustered Chunin trying to hand out assignments. There were several message boards posted around the area and we meandered over to one.

Like the check in station last night, there was a map of damage, a list of injured and a list of casualties. There was also an announcement sheet.

_State of Emergency Enacted…_

_Death of the Third Hokage…_

…_remain calm… complete duties… _

…_Memorial tomorrow…_

It was cold. I was glad that Naruto hadn't had to find out like this, even if the news hadn't exactly been broken easily.

We joined the queue. They were actually moving pretty fast despite the large number of people involved. You had to give ninja that; they were efficient. I thought about asking Shika if he wanted to wait for Team 10, but there was no guarantee that we would be sent out in teams anyway. Mum got split off from us to go and relieve one of the Chunin patrols and she left us with an admonished 'be good' that made Shika roll his eyes.

"Rank?" The Chunin at the desk said, sounding rushed.

"Genin," we chorused.

His eyes flickered up and took us in before making a snap decision and snagging a scroll. He took down our ID numbers, hastily scribbling them on the assignment sheet before throwing it to us. "Clean up. Sector 9-b. Next!"

We scampered out of the way and unrolled the scroll. It had directions and instructions. What to do, who to report to, where to go.

I almost expected Naruto to protest about being on clean up duty, but he didn't say a word.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru said.

Sasuke shrugged. "Let's go."

Walking through Konoha this morning was a little disturbing. We hadn't noticed it last night, too late and tired, but there were scorch marks, and knife marks and blood splatters on the buildings and streets. There was evidence of fighting.

The worst of the damage was along the wall, where a giant snake had apparently crashed straight through it but the rest of the village wasn't unscathed either. There were destroyed buildings and jutsu damage everywhere.

Like seeing Mum in uniform… it was just _wrong._

We reported in to the Chunin in charge of overseeing Sector 9. He looked tired, like he'd been working for hours already, but apart from being a little gruff accepted us easily. "Alright, you're on clean up duty. That means; picking up loose weaponry, removing them from walls, plastering over holes, cleaning up glass and noting broken windows, and washing away blood splatters. There's buckets, plaster and water over there." He jerked his thumb to the side. "If you see a trap, or think you see a trap, come get me and _I'll_ dismantle it. The boundaries of your area are marked on the map, so you shouldn't have any problems. With the four of you, it should take about an hour, maybe a little longer, which is good. This is a residential area, so we'd like to have it marked 'safe' before the civs get back."

He vanished, presumably to go and repeat the speech to others in other sectors.

There was a reason that this was a job given to Genin rather than civilians. Even though it wasn't dangerous we were still handling weaponry, and also… wall walking made the whole thing about a million times easier. I took an empty bucket and started filling it with discarded weapons, and then as an afterthought grabbed a can of plaster and a trowel so I could fill in the holes while I still knew where they were.

After a bit of boredom, I started using chakra strings to pick up the loose kunai on the ground. I wasn't quite coordinated enough to use them to yank out embedded ones, but it saved me from having to go right down to pick them up.

_Thy name is laziness_.

We found kunai and shuriken and senbon. A few tanto and a tachi and a wakizashi. And, in one memorable case, a dead body that had been missed during last nights clean up.

It wasn't a trap, but we got the Chunin anyway since we had no idea what to do with it. If civilians were going to be coming by, we really didn't want to leave it around.

"You kids never made a body scroll before?" He asked with a sigh. We shook our heads. "Figures. Alright, watch carefully. It's pretty similar to any other kind of storage scroll, in any case." He pulled a blank scroll out of one pocket and a brush and some bottled ink out of another.

He spread the scroll out on top of the body, bleed into the ink and started writing. Given the surety of his movements, I had the feeling he'd made more than a few of these in his time. The symbols were fairly familiar, particularly to the storage seals you used for food, which made sense because bodies were organic and you didn't want them to decompose. There were stabilising seals that helped account for the _size_ since the body was bigger than the paper it was going to be sealed into.

"Seal," the Chunin commanded, clapping his hands down on the scroll. There was a puff of chakra smoke and the body vanished. The ink sort of… _twitched _and _swirled_ before settling with the kanji for 'corpse' appearing in the middle of the sealing circle.

He rolled the scroll up with an expert flick of his wrist, and painted a quick black band around the edges of the scroll. "The black band doesn't do anything," he said, noticing our looks. "But it lets people know there's a body in there, so they don't go around opening it to find out. Sort of a polite thing to do, yeah?"

He chucked it into one of our buckets and told us to get back to work. It didn't actually take us long to finish up. The worst part was trying to scrub the blood off. I'd never found cleaning very fun, and knowing _what_ I was cleaning up wasn't really helping.

But we did it, and the Chunin made a quick check over our sector before nodding and signing off on our mission scroll. "Good work. Thanks."

We trooped back to the Mission's Desk, which wasn't any quieter now than it had been before. I guess that was to be expected. Not only was there increased patrols, and clean up duties, and whatever else had been produced by the invasion, but the village still had to run itself with day to day administration _and_ we were still taking on missions. And, I guess, pacifying the nobles and lords that had come for the Chunin Exam and ended up in the middle of a battle.

This time we were split up. I got assigned to go run supplies for the hospital, while the boys got sent off to haul rubble or something for the construction site.

The hospital actually had sub-basement storage where all the extra supplies were kept (or most of them, anyway. There were probably other supply depots around the village _just in case_) but the hospital staff were so run off their feet that people were needed to transport them from the storage rooms, up the stairs and into the places where the nurses and doctors could get at them.

I reported into the receptionist, who directed me to the Head Nurse, who gave me a code for the doors and a list of things to bring up, all in between snapping someone for messing up … something, giving orders to three more orderlies and drinking her coffee. Now that was multitasking.

I weaved my way through bustling crowds and slid off down the stairs before _I_ gained her ire. Everyone in the halls had the same kind of harried and stressed expression on, like they'd had one cup of coffee too many, one hour of sleep too few and the end of the world was right around the corner.

It took a few moments to orient myself in the huge storage basement, but I did and I started gathering the supplies for the pharmacy, since having the right drugs on hand was kind of crucial. I made doubly sure to check the names on the bottles - long and confusing though they were - to make sure I had the right stuff.

Then I hauled the very heavy box upstairs, unloaded it in the pharmacy under the watchful eye of the on duty nurse who made sure everything went in the right place when she wasn't filling orders for everyone else.

Then I went back downstairs to do it all again.

It was dull, boring work, but it needed to be done and I was a Genin which practically translated to dogsbody or gopher or possibly minion if they were feeling generous. Besides, I wasn't so sure I could handle anything _exciting_ right now.

It was about an hour later when I'd been moved on to transporting bed sheets from the laundry to the linen closet that I ran into Sakura.

"Oh!" She made a little sound of startlement.

"Sakura?" I asked in surprise as I opened the door to the linen closet - that was the size of a small room - and put down the basket of white cloth. "What are you doing here?"

She was wearing her usual red dress, but she had a white smock thrown overtop complete with the red medics mon with the qualifier 'in training' underneath. Her hair was tied back in a low ponytail and I nearly hadn't recognised her.

"Working," she explained, hands fluttering. "Yesterday… all of the trainees were called in to help, even those of us who had just started. I mean, we weren't working with the patients or anything, just doing fetch and carry basically. To free up hands to deal with the serious stuff. Every bit counts, right?"

"Hey, I'm folding laundry. You don't have to convince me." I gave a pointed shake of a white sheet as I creased it together and slid it onto the shelf.

She gave a quick smile. "I'm making beds, so I think we're even." She hesitated. "You know, yesterday… I kept wondering if next time I went past the ER it would be one of you guys. That someone I knew would be brought in…" She gave me a searching look.

I didn't want to think about how badly messed up some of those people would have been, or how very, very easily that could have been us.

I leant forward and gave her a quick hug. "We're all fine. I'm sorry I didn't think to contact you or anything. I can't promise it will never happen… but for now we're all fine."

However close it had been, we were all fine.

Sakura shrugged, but she looked much happier and calmer. "I was here all day, so it'd probably have been hard for you to find me," she excused. "It was pretty crazy in here; everyone was run off their feet all day. I think I'm starting to see why there are four different coffee machines in the nurses lounge."

"Coffee makes the world go round," I said, amused. Not that I tended to drink it here. Twelve year old taste buds _did not like._ I'd give it a few years.

"You'd fit right in," she joked. "But… I better get back to it. I'll catch up with you later, okay?"

"You bet," I said.

I finished up at the hospital and went back to the Missions Desk to get assigned to gopher paperwork around the Hokage Tower. That let me stick my head in Dad's office and wave on my way past, but he looked _way_ too busy for me to stop and chat.

I kept wondering if I was going to be asked to give a debriefing on what had happened in the forest, but other than the brief written report I'd handed in automatically, nothing came of it. Then I had the face smacking realisation.

There were far more important things going on.

It was strange to think that the fight - the decision - that had been life or death for us was barely a sidenote to the rest of the village. They had been focused on the Hokage, on the giant summoned snake that destroyed the east wall, the legions of ninja darting through the village streets. That we had returned alive, and that Gaara had not rejoined the fight seemed to be all that they cared about. If they even registered that it happened at all.

_You are not the centre of the universe._

Right. Like I needed a reminder about _that._

Still, it was good to keep things in perspective, wasn't it?

Shaking my head, I finished my gophering and returned to the Missions Desk, noting that the village was starting to become more lively as civilians were 'un-evacuated', a process that sometimes took as much effort and coordination as the evacuation itself.

It might have seemed cruel and needless to keep them in the evac shelters for what was essentially two days, give or take - I didn't know when they'd gone in, but it was probably the night before the Chunin Exams, so that none of the visitors would notice - but there _had_ been the threat, however vague, of a second attack, or of booby traps or a dozen other things that could have endangered everyone. The evac shelters weren't luxurious, no, but they were designed for worst-case-scenario long term use.

Now that clean up was almost done, barring the more destroyed areas that would need to be rebuilt, and patrols re-established and all the other things that would keep the village safe, it was safe for them to come back out.

Civilians that live in Hidden Villages are a curious bunch. They aren't ninja and it shows; there's a huge divide between the shinobi and the civilians. But they _know_ ninja. Almost everyone has a brother-sister-uncle-best friend-cousin-next door neighbour who is a shinobi. They understand us from the outside. And because of that they have their own kind of courage.

They walk the streets with murderers and they know it. They sell fruit to a guy that can burn down buildings with an exhale, clothes to people that will only rip-tear-shred-_bleed on _them. People race over their rooftops at all hours of the night. And when the call to evacuation goes around, they calmly pick up their emergency bags and go.

And when it's over, they come outside, take stock of the damage, breath a sigh of relief, and move on.

They're not ninja. But they don't let it phase them.

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Given that Shippuden currently feels like 'One Hundred And One Ways To Deal With Zombies' the Third Hokage's choice is a little… meh. They learnt from his experience, perhaps?

Also, its interesting that he sealed the First and Second first and not Orochimaru. It'd be and interesting AU if he managed to kill Orochimaru but then died, leaving immortal zombies to terrorise the village. *ponders* Pre time-skip, who could deal with them?


	40. Chapter 39

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: So, including the prologue, this makes 40 chapters. That's waaay longer than I ever thought this was ever going to be and we're not that far along, plot wise. The real question, therefore, is… do I keep updating under the same title, or eventually break off and have a sequel? It's still going to be the same story continuation, so I'm leaning towards keeping this one and just letting the chapter count build. What do you think?

And eh, I thought Kabuchimaru said something about the jutsu continuing even if he died, but everyone seems to think otherwise. My bad.

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Chapter 39

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_Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death. ~ Sun Tzu_

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The next day was miserably damp, with dark clouds covering the sky that threatened to drizzle rain at any moment.

It was perfect weather for a funeral.

I dressed in the heavy black cotton mourning clothes; black long sleeved shirt and black knee length skirt with black sandals. I even tied my hair with a black ribbon. It was a uniform, even more-so than the blues or flack jackets.

This one was mandatory. We were all the same in mourning.

The ceremony itself was held atop the roof of the Hokage's Tower, with the four stone faces of the Hokage staring down at us. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it was a simplistic affair.

We - the Rookie 9 - had been 'lucky' enough to be invited to the main ceremony, the memorial for the Third Hokage and all that died in the invasion. I don't know if it was because we were the most recent graduating class, or because we were all clan heirs and seconds, or because the Third had taken a liking to us. It could have been any of those reasons or all of them. Not everybody went to the main ceremony, though there were still an impressive number of shinobi there. We were arranged in military rows, two great blocks of black suited mourners that covered half the roof.

There was a square of white cloth spread out on the ground, two burning torches, and a long table, also draped in white. On the table, there were framed photographs displayed. The Third Hokage's was in pride of place in the centre, with three on either side. That _couldn't_ be the total number of dead, so it was possible they were the high ranking ones - Jounin - or those that had otherwise distinguished themselves in this battle. In front of each of the photos there was a scroll with black edging - the death certificate - and a dull coloured book envelope that held either some sort of list of achievements or severance pay. There was a single incense pot in the centre of the table, though it was not lit.

All in all, it seemed very basic, even for someone as important as the Third Hokage. White was the colour of mourning as much as black was, and was supposed to drive off evil spirits. Incense to appease the good ones. I wasn't sure I _believed_ in spirits, but there was a possibility, especially given how everything else seemed to work around here.

The great bells that had announced the end of battle just two days ago began tolling once again, loud peels announcing the beginning of the funeral.

"We are gathered here to remember and honour not only the Third Hokage," Homura Mitokado began, standing at the head of the lines of shinobi with the other elder, Koharu Utatane. "But all those who sacrificed themselves in this battle so our village would survive."

I stood as still and stiff as the rest of the shinobi. Grieving was done stoically here. You didn't cry or shed tears, you bore everything with a stone face. Shinobi rule twenty five wasn't just for missions or battlefield losses. It had wormed its way into the heart of society.

The only one to break the silence was Konohamaru. Undignified, maybe. Against social expectations, maybe. But he was only a child.

Iruka-sensei crouched down beside him, breaking decorum to try and comfort his student.

"It's raining," Kurenai-sensei murmured from the row behind us as rain started drizzling down. It wasn't heavy, but it was noticeable.

Asuma-sensei's voice was low and tired as he replied. "Even the heavens weep."

"… and even though we have suffered a loss, we have survived. We will _keep on_ surviving. Our Will of Fire burns brightly and will continue to burn for as long as we keep fighting…"

I stared at the table with its proudly displayed photographs. The Third Hokage had died sealing the First and Second Hokage who had been brought back with the Impure World Resurrection Jutsu. Everyone had heard that story. He had summoned the Shinigami - the Death God - and forfeited his own soul in exchange.

I could not contest the presence of 'souls'. No, not that.

But… to be able to summon and _bind_ a soul…

The beliefs of this place had that beyond the Impure World where we lived was the Pure World where souls resided after death.

I had never paid much attention to it because I _knew_ that beyond death was reincarnation. But if that had been so… how had those souls been called back? Was it just an imprint? A memory of a soul? Had they been pulled from a new life and all those memories reawakened?

Or was the circle of reincarnation instead a spiral, with this world as the last?

Were there truly gods that judged those that died?

I shivered, feeling very cold.

What had seemed so certain, so _proven_, seemed less so the longer I looked at it.

I did not want to die, could not bear to _lose everything_ ever again, but at least there had been a sense of certainty of what would happen. Fear was the domain of the unknown.

"Why do people do it? Why do they risk their lives for other people?" Naruto asked, voice hoarse, dragging my attention to him. He looked very bleak, even his normal sun bright hair washed out by the black.

"Well," Iruka-sensei said thoughtfully, his voice taking on a much softer version of his normal lecturing tone. "When someone passes away… it's the end. His past and future, all the dreams he once had… they disappear along with him. This is true even if he dies honourably in battle, as so many have. All the ties that bind him to the living are severed except for one, the most important of all. People. And these people, the ones left behind are joined together in a great circle with their shared memories of him. A circle of friendship, trust and sacrifice that grows larger and stronger as time passes. It's hard to explain it." He smiled, a little ruefully.

"So we do it because we have to. Sort of" Naruto said. "Still, I'm sad he's gone."

"Think how sad it would be if he died for nothing," Kakashi-sensei added softly. Sensei had been late, but he'd slid into the ranks with all the stealth of an ex-ANBU captain and no one had batted an eye. "But he left us something priceless. Don't worry. You'll understand one of these days."

"Hey, gimme some credit," Naruto said, a faint hint of a laugh in his voice. "That much I get."

And then the sun came out and started to shine.

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><p>.<p>

Sorry. Very short chapter I know. It's the obligatory funeral scene. I spent ages trying to work out just what the hell that was on the desk in front of the photos. Thus, above is my best guess according to Japanese funeral customs. …


	41. Chapter 40

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: So, massive storm and equally massive power cut. Losses, two walnut trees, the hay barn and my day. Seriously, I don't know what to do with myself when I have no computer.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 40

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_No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear. ~ Edmund Burke_

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After a few more days of clean up duty and extra patrols, we were dropped back down to regular duties, though the Jounin were still caught up in excess meetings and decisions about the village. Naruto, Sasuke and I met up for training as usual, but Sensei never made it.

There was still reconstruction being done around the village, fixing roofs and rebuilding walls, but it was the more permanent kind of reconstruction that needed skills to do and therefore couldn't just be foisted off on the nearest ninja, though there was still plenty for us to do.

"There was a messenger hawk from Sand yesterday," I informed the boys when we arrived at the training fields. "They surrendered, unconditionally."

I was, naturally, the one keeping us updated with what was actually happening. Some of the information I got from Dad, some from Ino (aka gossip) and some from covert intelligence gathering around the village (aka listening in on other peoples conversations. What? If they didn't want people to hear then they wouldn't have been talking about it in public).

"Didn't they already do that?" Naruto asked with a frown, crossing his arms. "When they left?"

"That was a retreat," Sasuke corrected, mostly patiently. "They could have just regrouped and attacked again."

I nodded. "Yeah. Apparently, the body of the Kazekage was found and he'd been killed long before the Chunin Exams. Orochimaru had been impersonating him the whole time. Hidden Sand is scrambling to recover and find someone to run the place. They don't really have any other notable shinobi and the power structure was basically 'do what the Kazekage says'. So they really just rolled over for us."

Sasuke rubbed his neck absently. "That guy… he killed both the Hokage _and_ the Kazekage?"

"Yeah," I said. "I don't know how it went down, but I'm betting it was some kind of ambush. It's possible Orochimaru even set the meeting up himself, since getting a Kage out of the village unnoticed is no easy feat. Of course, that means Sand can claim that it wasn't their policies that lead them to attack us and there's no proof that they were working with him."

"What does _that _mean?" Naruto asked, baffled. At least he was trying to follow the conversation.

"It means, Sand _might_ have been working with Orochimaru willingly and been betrayed, or they might have just been attacked by him and then tricked. They're claiming the later, of course, since that's best for them," I replied. "There's even been mention that since he's a missing-nin from _Konoha_ it's partially our fault."

"But is it true?" Naruto asked.

I shrugged. "Impossible to tell, really."

"So what's it mean for us?" Sasuke asked thoughtfully.

"Well," I said. "Unconditional surrender is the best possible outcome, really. It means there's not going to be any more fighting, like there could have been if they'd tried to insist on stipulations. They lost a lot more than us in the fighting, and they weren't very strong to start with so it's probably the best outcome for them too. I don't know what Konoha will demand from them, since we don't have a Hokage at the moment to finalise all the details. That means," I clarified for Naruto. "that it's up to either the Elders, the Jounin Committee or the Heads of Divisions to try and hash out the treaty. Possibly even the Daimyo since he's here for the selection of the next Hokage."

"They're choosing the next Hokage?" Naruto asked quietly, eyes turning to the Hokage Mountain. It probably seemed fast to him.

"Who do you think it will be?" Sasuke asked as well.

I bit my lip. _Tsunade_. That much I remembered. But I could hardly say that. "Jiraiya-sama, probably," I said, to which Naruto yelped and protested. "He's one of the Sannin, so he's strong and well known. The other Sannin, Tsunade, hasn't been seen in years, though to be fair, this is the first I've heard of Jiraiya being around, either. Hmm. Kakashi-sensei, maybe, though he doesn't seem like he'd want the job."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Really?" There was a mild tone of disbelief. Our chronically late and lazy Sensei could be in the running to be the next Hokage?

"Don't you remember what Zabuza said? About how they used to have kill on sight order for him? Kakashi-sensei is actually pretty famous," I said. "Other than that… Asuma-sensei maybe. He was one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, so he'd have the Daimyo's ear at least." As well as being famous and being the Third's son, I mentally added. There was also Danzo, but no way was I bringing that option up. "My Dad, _maybe_, but he doesn't have that much of a combat reputation. Not compared to the others."

The Third Hokage… They had called him the God of Shinobi when he was younger. If he was, he wasn't the kind, forgiving god that his grandfatherly persona portrayed. He was Old Testament Style, burning hellfire and brimstone and the smiting of sinners. That was the kind of god shinobi would revere. The only kind they would respect.

A Kage needed to have that kind of reputation. They especially needed it after we had been weakened by attack and Hidden Cloud were just _waiting_ for their chance to take advantage of it. While Sand, Rock and Mist were barely threats… Hidden Cloud had only grown stronger and they'd shown they weren't afraid to be impatient.

"That would be really weird," Naruto said, apparently still stuck on the 'Sensei as Hokage' thing.

I made a noise of affirmation.

"Speak of the devil," Sasuke muttered, as a messenger hawk flew overhead. "What does he want?"

I squinted at it, picking up the flight path and leg ribbons and translating that into information. "You, apparently." Briefly I wondered how on earth they trained the messenger birds, since it was absolutely nothing like homing pigeons. Maybe they were nin-birds.

"It was a rhetorical question," Sasuke said drolly, standing and dusting off his shorts. "I'll catch you later."

"Later," I said, waving. I dragged myself to my feet, too. "So, did you want to train?" I asked.

Naruto's stomach rumbled and he grinned sheepishly. "Ramen first? I ran into Konohamaru this morning and didn't have time to eat."

I rolled my eyes. "Lead the way," I said with a sigh. I wasn't hungry, but I could hardly deny Naruto breakfast even if he did insist on having ramen.

There was something niggling the back of my mind. The Fifth Hokage _had_ been Tsunade. Assuming that that much hadn't changed, and she wasn't supposed to be in the village for some reason, that meant that someone had to go get her. That someone would probably be Jiraiya and I did vaguely remember something like that. He'd taken Naruto with him, hadn't he?

It had just been so long ago. The specifics were well and truly lost to me.

If Orochimaru had suffered the same kind of damage, or indeed any damage beyond Kabuto's ability to fix, then he would go after Tsunade as well. That seemed likely.

But there was something else…

My brow furrowed as I tried to work it out. There were no invasions beyond the first attack. There would be no dangerous missions until Naruto got back. Probably.

"Well, hey. I guess they were right. You really do eat ramen all the time," a familiar voice said, as someone ducked under the Ichiraku banner.

"Jiraiya-sama," I greeted, as Naruto spluttered around a mouth full of noodles. "How are you?"

"Busy," he replied cheerfully. "So many places to research, so little time to do it!"

"Don't talk about perverted stuff like that!" Naruto barked, nearly choking on his food. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Well, its funny you should ask that," Jiraiya said. "Because I'm about to go on a research trip and _you_ are going to come with me." He poked a finger at Naruto, who swatted it away.

"No way! Why do I gotta go on some stupid research trip with you?" Naruto protested, annoyed.

"No, no. This isn't just a normal research trip," Jiraiya cajoled. "There's a woman I want to ask some questions, so we have to find her."

"I have no time to waste on your perverted stuff. I have to train." Naruto turned back to his noodles, effectively ignoring Jiraiya. The Sannin seemed only amused by it, so I kept out of the conversation. "I'm going to get Kakashi-sensei to teach me a lot. Like that Chidori move."

Actually, Naruto _had_ asked Kakashi-sensei to teach him that. And, after a lot of prodding and whining, Kakashi-sensei had half-heartedly walked him through the steps. He couldn't _do_ it, but the knowledge was there, and in theory the move was pretty straightforward. It was the 'in practice' bit that was difficult.

"I don't think you can master that move," Jiraiya said doubtfully. Which was fair enough, given that Naruto wasn't lightning natured and didn't the preternatural reflexes of the Sharingan. But _telling_ him that never helped. "More importantly, the woman I was talking about is really hot. You want to see her, right?"

Naruto glowered. "Not at all. I'm not some little kid that can be convinced by a perverted hermit like you."

"Then I have no other choice. What a shame." Jiraiya sighed theatrically. "I know a technique that is more powerful than Chidori. I guess I'll have to take someone else with me. How about _you?_ It's been a long time since I went on a trip with a pretty girl." He giggled.

Naruto was out of his seat in a flash, standing in front of me arms akimbo. "Don't even think about it," he barked. "You leave her alone!" Then he paused, the rest of the sentence registering. "A technique more powerful than Chidori?" he asked.

"That's right," Jiraiya agreed, leaning back. "But you didn't want to come with me, remember?"

"I changed my mind," Naruto decided. "Stay here. I gotta go pack." And he was gone, racing away to go get his gear.

I shook my head. "Hook, line and sinker." With a shinobi like Jiraiya, you were never going to win but to have it be so _obvious_ was a little embarrassing.

Jiraiya chuckled. "Too easy," he agreed.

"So where _are_ you off to?" I asked.

"Hmm? Oh, just to find an old friend, really. We haven't seen each other in a while." His attitude was perfectly laid back, the comment _just_ the right shade of offhand. It _screamed_ 'nothing important'.

"Tsunade, right?" I asked, playing my hunch. "And the question would be 'would you like a new hat'?"

He chuckled. "They always say never play cards with a Nara. Well. Any ninja really." He scratched his chin thoughtfully, as though pondering that piece of wisdom. It wasn't a 'yes', but more importantly, it wasn't a 'no'.

Okay, so Jiraiya and Naruto were going after Tsunade. But that still left a nagging feeling that I was missing something. I drummed my fingers on the table, beside my half eaten ramen, absently.

It was either Naruto or Sasuke. The _world_ didn't revolve around them, no. It was a _world_ with all that entailed. But everything I knew about it from Before did. The story had been about Naruto, about Sasuke, not about great political ramifications, not about mysteries or life, the universe and everything. It had been about a boy.

_Why take Naruto with him anyway?_

"Is Naruto… is he safe?" I asked, haltingly.

There was a _flicker_, something tiny that chased across Jiraiya's face. Almost too small to notice, and certainly too small to understand, but it was something. "Why wouldn't he be?" he replied with a jovial, booming laugh. "What a question!"

"Why wouldn't he be?" I echoed, looking away. Madara. Pein's group - whatever their name had been. But that had all been post time-skip, hadn't it? Unless…

Itachi was such a huge part of Sasuke's story that he _had_ to have shown up at least once.

I hoped not. I really, really hoped not. This wasn't a story, not any more.

I had a sinking feeling that I was hoping in vain.

It was natural that memories faded. I had tried to hold on to the ones that were important, but they had been fading before I'd realised where I was - what I needed to keep. I didn't trust myself to write them down, not coded, not any how. Codes could be broken. And that would leave me in a lot of trouble with information that I shouldn't have had.

"So how are you going to find her, anyhow? If she's been off the map this long, I doubt it's going to be easy," I said, trying to get my mind off the possible outcome. Trying to use 'future knowledge' was so imprecise as to be nearly impossible, even without the extra difficulty of fading memories. How long between this event and that? Which order had these happened in? What caused that?

It was better to just gather as much information about the present as possible, the same as every other ninja did.

Jiraiya sighed. "Oh, alright. Yes, we're looking for Tsunade. And it wont be easy, you're right about that. She might be retired, but she knows how to hide. But Tsunade has one great, honking weakness."

I looked at him curiously.

"She _loves_ to gamble." He chuckled. "It's almost compulsive. You can guarantee, wherever she is right now… there's a gambling hall."

"Follow the money, huh?" I murmured. It was one of the basic tenets of ninja investigations. Because most of the time, money meant a paper trail, even if it was fake.

"That's right. I figure, we'll start in Otafuku-Gai and work our way around depending on what we hear. Don't you go spreading that around now," he cautioned. His tone might have been light, but his eyes were serious.

I shook my head. "I won't."

Naruto should be, _would be_, safe with Jiraiya. It sucked to be so small and weak and have to depend on others to protect you, but it was what it was. We couldn't stand up to those levels of power, not yet. Trusting others to protect us for now was the only way we were going to _get_ strong enough.

"So how are your seals coming along, huh?" Jiraiya asked.

I gracefully allowed the subject change, not about to pass up the chance to pick his brain on the topic of his mastery. There were so many seals that I wanted to create that were currently beyond my limits. Chakra stores to increase my reserves. Something to block the Sharingan, the Rinnegan. To block summons. To negate Time-Space techniques like that intangibility thing Madara had going. All well beyond my current limits, but if I started now maybe…

I waved Naruto and Jiraiya goodbye as they left, but the whole thing left me feeling unsettled.

_Naruto will be safe with Jiraiya._ _He _will_ be._

Jiraiya, for all his tomfoolery, was a legendary ninja for a reason. He had survived two Great Wars. He was S-ranked. He had over forty years experience as a ninja.

He wasn't someone you took on lightly.

Who was I kidding? I was as worried as hell.

I went back to the training field in the hope that Sasuke might have been there, but he wasn't. I ran myself through some kata, the familiar repetitions calming and distracting. I liked kata, the flow of one movement into another, the imaginary opponents that got beat down again and again, the stretch and burn of using fighting moves without the adrenaline spike of an actual fight.

I would probably never be a Taijutsu master, but it wasn't a skill I cared to neglect. Too many mid to long rangers died because the enemy got too close. And sometimes, you really just wanted to hit things.

It was about three when Sasuke came flying into the clearing, completely agitated. He slid to a stop, kicking up dust and dirt at the sudden deceleration. He'd been running at full speed, which was sort of frowned upon within Konoha proper.

"Where's Naruto?" he demanded.

"Sasuke? What-?"

"Itachi's here. He's after Naruto. We have to warn him. Where is he?" Sasuke bit out rapidly, each phrase like a bullet.

The meaning took a second to sink in. _No._

"Itachi-! We have to get Kakashi-sensei!" We didn't stand a chance.

Sasuke looked like he wanted to shake me. "He's already attacked Kakashi. That's how I found out."

"The other sensei then," I floundered. "Gai-sensei-"

He did shake me this time, hands clenching on my shoulders. "They know! They know and they aren't doing anything! Either tell me or I'll find someone else who will!" He was actually shouting. It was so un-Sasuke like.

I swallowed. Sasuke was going to go regardless of what I did. _Shit, shit, shit._ "He's with Jiraiya-sama. They were headed for Otafuku-Gai."

Relief flashed across his face as he dropped me and dashed away. I blinked for half a second before I cursed, released my Weight Seal and ran after him.

"Sasuke," I said as I pulled up alongside him. "We don't stand a _chance_ against him…"

"I know!" he snapped tersely. "We're not going to fight. We just have to warn Naruto."

_Damn, damn, damnit all. _We couldn't match an S-rank ninja for speed. But Naruto and Jiraiya wouldn't be moving quickly.

My fingers tunnelled into my weapons pouch, seeking out the small folds at the back. On another desperate race through the forests, I'd stashed soldier pills in there. I wasn't carrying my missions scroll today, but I still had those.

"Here," I said, passing one to him.

Sasuke glanced at it, then did a double take. He'd clearly been training, since his chakra level was low. "Thanks," he murmured, biting into it.

We poured on the speed.

_Damnit all._ I'd just thought about Itachi _this morning._ I should have… I should have planned something or _known_ or … or…

_Focus,_ I snapped at myself. _Mission now; Pity party later._

I couldn't stop Sasuke. Not without attacking him and knocking him out and he would _never forgive me._ No matter how it worked out, he would _never _trust me again. I knew that much about Sasuke.

We couldn't take on Itachi. That much was obvious and I was grateful that Sasuke appeared to realise it too. I wasn't entirely sure it would hold up if we ran into the man himself, but at least he _knew._

If you can't stop and can't go back, the only choice is to go on. The only option was to get to Jiraiya. To pass on the warning before they got there and attacked. Regardless of whether Jiraiya needed the warning or not, it was all _we_ could do.

We bleed chakra for speed, pushing on at a punishing pace. It was a level of speed we couldn't have held long, but Otafuku-Gai wasn't that far away.

We hit the village at a run, screeching to a stop in the middle of the crowded road. There was some kind of festival on here, crowding the place with civilian level chakra signals.

"Where?" Sasuke panted, eyes darting around.

"I'm trying!" I snapped, casting my senses out for the bright sunshine of Naruto's chakra or the placid calm of Jiraiya's. "They aren't together!" I felt like cursing, like pulling my hair out. "I'll go for Naruto. Jiraiya is in that direction, somewhere. I can't get a lock on him." It was lucky I could sense him at all, frankly. "Tall, white haired, red haori. His forehead protector has the kanji for 'oil' on it. Find him. I'll get Naruto."

Sasuke wavered. "You know who he is. You'll have better luck finding him."

"Itachi will know who you are, Sasuke! If you go for Naruto -" I cut myself off. "I'm an unknown. Go! We're wasting time!"

I darted away, homing in on Naruto before he could protest. Damn, I was being far too snippy with him. But we were both strung out with worry and fear. _Stupid, stupid, stupid…_

I pulled my chakra in close, hiding it like it was the middle of the night and I was terrified of the monsters in my sleep. It wasn't midnight but I _was_ terrified and the monsters were _real._

I found the right hotel, and dashed up the stairs past the bewildered receptionist who didn't even have time to protest. Locating the right room was a little harder, but the place wasn't exactly a maze.

"Naruto!" I shouted, banging on the locked door. I could have broken it, but we weren't that pressed, yet.

He opened it, looking puzzled. "Shikako? Why are you here? Did something happen?"

"Yes," I said. "Where's Jiraiya?" Hoping against hope that he would actually know.

He blinked, face morphing into a disgusted look. "Out there. He found some _lady._" He 'harrumph'ed. "Left me here all alone."

I cast a glance down the hallway, out the window there. _Wait or go?_ I couldn't sense any other ninja, but I didn't kid myself into thinking that I'd be able to sense Itachi if he was truly trying to hide.

Would we be safer inside or out?

"Listen. Itachi Uchiha is after you," I said. "You need to stick with Jiraiya. He's already hurt Kakashi-sensei."

"W-what?" Naruto stammered. "Kakashi-sensei is hurt? How?"

"I don't know," I said anxiously. "Look. Sasuke is out there looking for Jiraiya. We _really_ need to get you to him."

Sasuke's chakra was zigzagging through the streets, desperate and hurried.

_Stay or go? Stayorgo?_

"Let's get outside, there's more space there," I said. Usually I liked enclosed spaces. It made me feel safe to be able to put my back to something solid. But right now all I felt was trapped. "Through the window." I nudged him back into the room.

If they were watching the front entrance, they might not see us leave through the window. "Remember Kakashi-sensei's escape and evasion lessons?" I asked.

Naruto glanced at me, at once confused and perceptive. "You're really scared."

"Yes." I didn't even try and deny it. "Let's go."

"I'll leave a clone," he decided. "If he expects me to be here…" Another Naruto popped into existence and flopped on the bed, while the real Naruto wiggled out the window.

"Good idea," I praised. It was good thinking. Something _I_ should have thought of. I was letting my fear get to me.

The window was to the side of the building, and overlooked a small alleyway. We scampered up the side of the building, leaping agilely across the gap and onto the opposite rooftop. We kept low, crouching and slinking and trying not to draw attention. Given that there was no _obvious_ threat, it would have felt silly except for the feeling of looming doom. Naruto must have felt it too, or at least felt like humouring me, because he was being _quiet._

We headed in the general direction of Jiraiya and Sasuke. We crossed rooftops, dropping soundlessly to the ground in an alleyway, ready to blend into the mass of people on the road. For a ninja, other people were the best disguise.

For a moment, I really thought it was going to work.

Then, with a flicker of speed so fast I didn't even register it, a pair of feet was blocking our way. Slowly, resigned to what I knew I'd see, I looked up. Beside me, Naruto froze.

"Hello, Naruto."

_Well, fuck._

Sometimes I wished I knew better curse words.

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So I'm not entirely happy with this chapter - isn't that always the case? - but here it is anyway.


	42. Chapter 41

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: You know, Itachi is one of my favourite characters. But he is _difficult_ to write. So many layers. Like an ogre. XD

And I've started a second fic called Sunshine Sidestories… which is what it says on the tin. It wont be updated much and you don't _need_ to read them to get what's going on here but eh, you might want to. Who knows?

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Chapter 41

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_The pain of the mind is worse than the pain of the body ~ Publilius Syrus_

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I flared my chakra high in a signal of panic. It would bring Sasuke running like a beacon - which I didn't want - but hopefully it would also bring Jiraiya.

_Hopefully._

There was someone behind us, trapping us in the alley, and I forced Naruto behind me, standing us back to back. I kept my eyes on Itachi's neckline, the simple three looped necklace that he wore. It was too high, too close to those deadly Sharingan eyes, but I wasn't skilled enough to be able to ignore his arms.

Not that it would matter, in the end.

We didn't stand a chance.

On the other hand… we weren't dead yet.

I had no doubt that Itachi could have killed us before we'd even been aware that he was there. The fact that he hadn't…

Well. It was like Zabuza all over again, wasn't it?

He wanted something. But the thing he wanted wasn't what he said he wanted. Wasn't the outcome he seemed to be trying to achieve.

That wasn't _that_ unique among ninja.

I knew the truth about the massacre. That Itachi had done it on orders. That he was a pacifist - if a ninja could be so.

That didn't change the fact that he was the type of person _who had killed his family on orders._

If he thought it was necessary, if he thought it would protect Sasuke, motivate him, to maintain his cover, whatever, he would kill us. He might not want to, might regret it, but he would do it. Mercilessly.

He was still so very dangerous.

"Naruto. You're coming with us." It wasn't threatening or commanding. Itachi didn't need to be. He just said it softly, like a statement of undeniable fact.

No one moved.

_Stall. Come on, Naruto, you're good at this! Get them talking!_

The wind blew.

"What do you want with Naruto?" I asked, swallowing and trying to sound non-confrontational. It was late afternoon, so there was a decent amount of shade in the alleyway, but I doubted I would be able to hold Kisame even if I could catch him. His chakra was like a tsunami, looming overhead and threatening to crash down on us and crush us beneath it. Itachi… I wouldn't be able to catch at all.

"Our mission is to capture the Nine Tailed Fox," Itachi replied, perfectly smoothly. I was surprised he even answered.

"For what purpose?" He had to know I was stalling. Was he going to play the game?

"I cannot tell you that."

I swallowed again, abandoning that line of questioning. "Just the Kyuubi?" I asked, knowing perfectly well they were after all the Jinchuriki. It was risky to ask, it might make them decide I knew _too_ much, might raise suspicions. Might, might, might…

There might have been the barest hint of a smile on Itachi's lips. "Clever. You are correct, we are also after the other Bijuu."

_Keep stalling!_

I could feel my heart racing, the slide of sweat across my forehead. There was the murmur of voices from the festival just meters away. We were so close, yet separated in a completely different world. The seconds ticked by agonisingly slowly.

"We? Are there more of you?" This was an informational goldmine. I hoped that Naruto was listening. He was steady against my back, but silent. I didn't dare take my eyes off of Itachi to check on him.

Behind me, Kisame shuffled, the sound of rustling cloth. "Come on, Itachi. There's no need to play nice with her."

"To be able to deduce so much from so little," Itachi mused.

"Yeah, well," I said, stumbling over the words. "You're wearing a uniform. That implies an organisation."

"You are correct," he said. "Have you ever heard of the Akatsuki?"

"_Akatsuki_," I echoed. "The red dawn." The red clouds on their cloaks… it fit. "If you're a member, I'm surprised that everyone doesn't know that name."

It was flattery, but also the cold hard truth. An organisation of S-ranked missing-nin should have been infamous. The fact that they weren't… was a little terrifying.

"In time," Itachi said. "In time they will."

I swallowed again, compulsively. That certainly sounded _ominous. _

_Where are you, Jiraiya?_

But it wasn't Jiraiya that came.

It was Sasuke.

He stood at the mouth of the alleyway, staring at Itachi. When he spoke, his voice was thick with anger and hatred. "Itachi."

_No. You should have kept looking for Jiraiya,_ I thought with despair.

Itachi didn't move, didn't turn around. "Sasuke. It's been a long time."

"Well, that's interesting," Kisame said. "He has the Sharingan as well. Who is he, Itachi?" I wondered if he truly didn't know, or if he was just forcing Itachi to say it.

"My younger brother." There was no emotion in the statement. None at all.

"That's strange. Because the way I heard it, the whole Uchiha clan was wiped out." There was a drawn out pause. "By you."

Naruto gasped. Sasuke _growled_.

All I could hear was his voice saying _"I lost everything once. I don't ever want to have to say that again. My trusted comrades falling, right in front of me…"_

I knew he was going to do something stupid.

There wasn't anything _left_ to do but stupid actions.

"I hope you're ready to die. It's just as you said. I fostered my hatred for you all this time. I lived my life for one single purpose. _To see you die. _It ends here." Sasuke snarled and leapt forward _dragging _the Chidori along the side of the building, the friction with the concrete helping to build up the charge and power.

I lashed out with my shadow, forwards and backwards, hoping to snare at least one of them. It was a futile hope, but Sasuke had initiated the fight and I couldn't do _nothing._ Behind me, Naruto was flaring chakra, clones popping into existence and being extinguished.

"Sorry, kid," I could hear Kisame say, just as Naruto's chakra cut off and I felt an extreme drain through my shadow. I killed the tendril reflexively, before it could drain me completely. It just happened so _fast._ "My blade, Samehada, cuts through chakra and _devours_ it."

Sasuke darted forward, Chidori thrust out. There wasn't much space for a run up but it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Itachi pivoted neatly, moving around my darting shadow, grabbing Sasuke's arm by the wrist and twisting. The Chidori imploded into the wall with a deafening boom.

Out in the street, people started screaming.

Sasuke twisted, tried to use Itachi's grip as leverage to kick him.

There was an awful crack. Sasuke gasped a broken scream, stumbling back clutching his arm.

"Foolish little brother," Itachi tsked.

I hurled kunai, desperate to do _something_ to help. Itachi avoided them all without even looking. He was so close to Sasuke that I couldn't use exploding tags without getting my team mate too.

"You're still too weak," Itachi said conversationally, throwing Sasuke to the ground with a brutal kick. "You don't have enough hate. And you know something? _You never will_."

Sasuke screamed defiance, hurling himself back to his feet and at Itachi. There was no strategy anymore, no plans, just suicidal fury.

Itachi lashed out, efficient and brutal. A sweep of the leg knocked Sasuke off balance, a punch to the solar plexus left him retching and gasping, a pale hand curled around his throat and pinned him to the wall.

I knew, with sudden, blinding clarity what would come next.

There wasn't time to think. Only the split second _now_ of combat. My fingers made the seals. My chakra surged.

_Replacement!_

Then I was staring into Itachi Uchiha's wide, Magenkyo eyes. Tugging, pulling, sucking me in…

I screamed.

I half expected it to be sharp and tearing, the clawing of crows feet maybe, but Itachi's chakra slid through my system like hot oil, slick and black and impossible to grasp. I flailed, trying to grab it and disperse it, but every move I made only spread it, only smeared it further, flushing my system with bitter and tainted chakra. My eyes burned, the site of the onslaught and it was still coming and I was _drowning in it…_

Then I could see, _had to see_, the wrong, wrong, wrong red sky with it's black clouds and the buildings that were white on black and too sharp and overexposed to be real. My eyes ached from the excess clarity and I tried to shut them, tried to block it out but I couldn't, _I couldn't_, because it wasn't my eyes…

This wasn't the kind of genjutsu that tried to fool you into thinking it was real. If that was a subtle knife of agony, this was a sledgehammer of torture.

_In the world of Tsukiyomi, time and space are mine to command…_

The world wavered, and I was in a dojo. There were two people kneeling on the ground. And Itachi was there, geared in ANBU armour, sword held ready.

"No. Oh, no," I whimpered, trying to spin away. But the world moved with me, turning around me like I was the sun. I ran, but the ground didn't move under my feet and I covered my eyes, my ears, but it didn't work because this _wasn't _coming through my eyes, it was being piped straight into my brain and I _couldn't look away…_

_To test the limits of my ability…_

The world moved. I struggled in the grip of this madness, chakra flaring and pushing and _trying_, but it was smothered, covered in oil and drowning like a poor, bedraggled seabird in an oil slick.

Person by person, he showed me the massacre of the Uchiha clan.

I didn't know these people and I wanted to be sick. Was screaming and crying and trying _everything_ I could to escape. I bit my lip, clawed fingers across my wrists, tried jutsu, tried seals, anything, anything I could think of.

Nothing worked.

What would it have been like for Sasuke? To see this, these people he _knew_, had loved and lived with, to see them cut down like this? This had been _intended_ for him.

There were over three hundred people in the Uchiha clan. Ninja. Civilians. Elderly. Children. Babies.

All dead. All brutally murdered.

I fought futilely; weak, exhausted struggles. I gasped for breath, broken shuddering sobs.

_If you wish to kill me, despise me. Foster your hatred. By all means, flee. Cling to your wretched life…_

Then.

The world wavered, and I was in a dojo. There were two people kneeling on the ground. And Itachi was there, geared in ANBU armour, sword held ready.

_Seventy one hours, fifty nine minutes and fifty nine seconds left…_

"Oh, god, no."


	43. Chapter 42

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: The meaning of life, the universe and everything: 42

About Tsukiyomi: Given the repetitive nature of it, it's my theory that Tsukiyomi is very much pre-recorded. Itachi set the scene, hit the target with it and walked away. He's not actually _in_ there with them. Which is why the genjutsu was still set up for Sasuke and it couldn't get cancelled after he hit the wrong person. Make sense?

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Chapter 42

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_The snow of yesterday _

_that fell like cherry petals _

_is water once again. _

_~Gozan_

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I blinked awake slowly, every thought and movement sluggish. My head felt clouded, stuffed full of cotton wool that nothing quite managed to penetrate.

There was white in front of me. Squares of it, all stacked together. I stared at it for a while, uncomprehending. The visual input was there, it just wasn't _clicking._

A lady leant forward, blonde hair and dark golden eyes. She looked familiar in a distant way, not someone I knew but maybe someone whose picture I had seen before.

I blinked. The white shuttered out, the woman vanishing, as darkness took over, then was back just as quickly. How odd.

But there was something important about that.

Visual input. Light stimulating rods and cones on the back of the retina which send nerve impulses through the optic tract … light blocked from entering the eyes by the lowering of the eyelids…

_But the genjutsu isn't transmitted through my eyes…_

I hadn't been able to block it out by closing my eyes, it had been much more direct than that. Impossible to ignore.

I pondered that for a while, feeling like I was on the edge of something important. Something obvious. The fog was slowly clearing away and my brain _hurt_ like a migraine or a bruise, which was wrong because the brain didn't have nociceptors. The cavity lining the cranium did, of course, but still, this was an ache that I felt everywhere inside my head, everything stressed and strained and overworked.

"_Baa-chan? Why isn't she waking up?"_

My chakra hurt too which was a little more worrying. That didn't have nociceptors either. Using chakra could hurt sometimes, particularly if the body was injured, but I _wasn't_ using it, it was simply there. And hurting.

_Hurting… causing pain or in pain?_

Because Itachi initiating the genjutsu had _hurt._ Had felt like drowning and boiling and suffocating. And that was chakra.

I blinked again, slowly. White, dark, white.

There was no sudden change. No red sky. No reverse black and white buildings. No movement. No death.

Itachi had not attempted to fool me. It had just been repetition after repetition of the exact same scenario. Again and again and again. _(On and on into infinity foreverandeverandever)_

It took a while for the thought to sink in. It took even longer for the conclusion to form.

If this was not Tsukiyomi, and Itachi had not changed it's state… then what I was seeing was not genjutsu. I was awake_._

Someone sighed. "She might not wake up. Your sensei has his Sharingan to protect him, at least a bit, but she has no such advantages. Against injuries like this there is only so much even _I_ can do."

"But-" Naruto protested.

_Naruto!_

I was _awake_.

I bolted upright.

"_Naruto! Sasuke!"_ I tried to shout. Nothing came out. Tentatively, I raised a hand to my throat.

Strong hands caught my shoulders, stopping my movement. "Or she might be fine," she said, amused. "Calm down. You screamed yourself raw, you know. They coated your voice box with chakra to protect it."

I heard the words, understood and could even feel the chakra that she mentioned, but it wasn't important.

_Team?_ I signed insistently. The fight _had not been over _when I had fallen. The boys…

She smirked, eyes crinkling easily. One long finger touched my cheek and pushed. My head tilted, turning sideways.

Oh.

There was Naruto. A little dirty, a little worried, but unhurt with the biggest, stupidest grin on his face. That tight little knot of worry eased, just a bit.

"Oh, sweetheart," Mum breathed, from my other side, voice strangely quiet. "You're awake."

I turned. _Quiet_ was not a normal reaction from my mother. She was sitting beside the desk - covered in flowers and cards and gifts - looking like she had been there for quite some time. The non-standard issue chair with the jacket draped over the back, the half read book, the bag on the floor… they told a story too. I realised, with a pang of guilt, that she had probably been sitting here every day for however long it took Naruto and Tsunade to return. She had sat there and watched me and I had failed to wake.

She had come to terms with it. The angry worry that led to her shouting at us so often, to the bossiness and pushiness, had faded away to resignation. I had no doubt people had gotten an ear full earlier, but right now there was only the joy of an event so unexpected as to be a miracle.

She hugged me tightly, and I felt wet tears dripping onto my shoulder.

"Come on, Baa-chan," I heard Naruto mutter. "You've still got other people to heal, you know."

I wanted to talk to him, to thank him and assure him that I was fine, and maybe ask how Sasuke was and what was going on, but there was something so fundamentally reassuring about being held by _Mummy_ that I didn't want to let go.

Whether I was twelve, whether I was an _adult_ in my own right… I felt like a child.

"Don't you ever do that again, you hear?" Mum choked out. "What on earth were you _thinking, _you silly girl?"

I couldn't have answered her even if I'd wanted to.

Dad and Shika came by not too much later. It seemed that Naruto really _had_ dragged Tsunade straight to the hospital, instead of letting her sign in and whatever else a newly returned Hokage to be had to do, much to the annoyance of most of the administrators. By Dad's telling, the Elders were particularly unimpressed.

He didn't sound very bothered by that statement.

He looked tired and drawn. Really drawn. But there was a relieved smile touching his lips, that mirrored the one Mum was still wearing.

Shikamaru snorted, hands deep in his pockets. "It's about time you woke up. Mum's been making me do all your chores." The complaint was so _Shikamaru _that I smiled. There was deep relief in his eyes, but there was no need to say all the other things that were twisting through his mind. _You're awake. I'm glad._ _We were worried._ That was all that needed to be said.

"It's good for you," Dad said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Builds character."

"That's not what you say when she's on _your_ case," Shikamaru grumbled, but subsided because Mum was _right there._

"Oh, hush, you two," she said. "Don't you start that."

We weren't a particularly demonstrative family but we were all here and it was _so obvious_ to all of us that we loved each other.

And that was enough.

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Later, when it started getting dark and the nurses began to make clucking noises every time they came into the room, they eventually had to go. I hugged everyone goodbye and waved them off with a smile… then dropped back to the bed feeling strangely exhausted. I was tired, the kind of tired that feels like emptiness but I wasn't sleepy. It was an obnoxious state to be in, I discovered, as I lay there.

Someone had helpfully installed a clock on the wall and it's ticking _irritated_ me.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

_Three hours, forty nine minutes and twelve seconds to go…_

I scowled at the ceiling.

_That's just not going to work, is it?_

I didn't _regret_ taking Sasuke's place. Whatever I was going through, it would be a thousand times worse for him. But I did wish, quietly, that neither of us had had to go through it. Maybe if I hadn't told him where… but then Naruto… but Itachi clearly wasn't trying…

I couldn't guess what would have happened. I hadn't been able to before we went, and I wasn't able to now.

You couldn't change the past, but being able to identify your mistakes helped you stop making them. Maybe if we hadn't tried to sneak away and just run for it, spammed clones, done _something _else…

_I don't want to think about this,_ I thought, casting my mind around for something to distract me. I swept my chakra sense out, 'watching' the people wandering around the hospital for a while. That one was Lee, and there was Sakura - still helping out? - and, oh, there was Kakashi-sensei. Of course, he would still be here too.

I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and tapped them thoughtfully on the ground. For someone who had been in a coma for the last month, I seemed to have retained a fair amount of muscle tone. Did the medic nin have some kind of jutsu that stimulated the muscles? Did my chakra do it? It was something to look into.

I stood carefully, just in case my assessment had been wrong, but I didn't immediately topple over and collapse, so it just left me feeling a little silly standing around like it was a big deal. I shrugged the feeling off with odd humour.

_And lo, then the great ninja warrior sets forth towards the far and distant door, accompanied by her trusty IV pole …_

I even tried to hum a little only to find that that didn't work either.

Kakashi-sensei's room wasn't far away, but I didn't hurry since the whole point was to be _doing_ something and walking counted.

Kakashi-sensei was sitting up, talking in a low voice to Gai-sensei when I knocked softly on the door. He looked _tired_, his usual slouch more of a slump, with one eye barely open at all. There was just something _defeated_ looking about him.

_Hi_, I signed tentatively, hoping I hadn't interrupted anything.

"Shikako?" Sensei asked baffled. "What happened to you?"

Oh. I hadn't considered that Sensei wouldn't _know. _He'd been awake all afternoon, the same as I had. Then again, I hadn't been caught up on very much that had happened over the past month, either, and I didn't know how long Gai-sensei had been here. He had gone to see Lee, after all.

I saw Gai-sensei wince. "Ah, My Eternal Rival, I was just about to tell you…"

_Not hurt,_ I signed cheerfully. Well, I wasn't, anymore. I was awake. I was _fine. _Honestly.

"And your silence is a protest against unfair hospital conditions?" he said dubiously.

I shrugged and dragged my IV pole in closer so I could hug him. He patted me awkwardly on the shoulder which is probably the best result any of us had got out of him yet. Gai-sensei was occupying the rooms only chair, so I scooted myself onto the bed next to Sensei.

"Hey, this is my hospital bed. Get your own," Kakashi-sensei protested half-heartedly.

I blinked at him with as much faux innocence as I could. He huffed in amusement, before casting a look at Gai-sensei that clearly said 'explain. Now.'

It was much more lively than he'd been when I opened the door, though he could have just been faking it for my benefit.

Gai-sensei sighed, and when he spoke, his voice was serious. "Shortly after I arrived at the scene, Itachi and Kisame fled. You were right in your assumption that they were after Naruto, it seems, because they headed after Jiraiya." He took a deep breath and sighed. "Sasuke Uchiha came looking for you and overheard information to that effect."

Kakashi-sensei closed his eye.

"At first we believed that letting him calm down on his own would be of greater benefit. Unfortunately," there was a note of grim humour in his voice. "Your _other_ student knew how to locate Naruto and the two of them left the village post haste. I received notification on your behalf from the gate guards and went after them."

"And they ran into Itachi," Kakashi-sensei finished heavily, looking at me.

I wobbled my hand back and forth in a '_not quite' _movement.

"They managed to locate Naruto, by all accounts. He had been separated from Jiraiya, and they were attempting to find him. _Then_ they ran into Itachi." It was funny how so much could be conveyed by such a small sentence. "It's amazing that they got away with as few injuries as they did."

Kakashi-sensei looked at me, a serious one over, trying to find signs of injury. "Tell me."

Gai-sensei hesitated. I nodded encouragingly. "Sasuke had a broken arm, several broken ribs and mild contusions. Naruto was unharmed. Shikako… as far as we could tell, she was hit with the same technique you were."

Kakashi-sensei _flinched._

I patted his hand, reassuringly. _Not hurt,_ I signed again. It was awful, yes, horrifying, traumatising, viscous and brutal, but apart from the feeling of invading chakra, there had been no pain. I had an inclination that Itachi had not been nearly so … kind to Kakashi-sensei.

"And your voice?" he asked.

I touched my throat. I could feel the chakra coating it, not actually in my cells just lining the surface. They hadn't taken it off, so it was probably supposed to remain there but it didn't seem to be doing anything. _Healing, _I signed.

He gave me a dubious look.

I patted his hand again. _Okay,_ I insisted.

I don't think he bought it, which was fair enough. _I_ didn't buy it.

"Sasuke will be relieved to hear that you are both awake," Gai-sensei said, breaking the awkward silence. "He has been working with Neji and Tenten and while they are all individually competent, their team work leaves much to be desired."

I could see that, actually, especially if Sasuke wasn't in the mood to make an _attempt._ Individually, Team Gai was much more specialised than we were and likely had rigid roles for who did what. Team 7 was far more jack-of-all trades and whoever did whatever. I didn't know Tenten very well, but even if Neji had started to change, I expect he and Sasuke butted heads. A lot.

I sank back and listened to the chatter.

Yeah. This was better than my silent room.

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I don't think I slept, exactly, but I likely zoned out because there was a distinct feeling of coming back to myself when I sensed another chakra signature. Gai-sensei was gone, and the room was quiet.

"Hey, kiddo," Jiraiya said, jumping down from the windowsill ledge. "And it looks like you've got a limpet with you."

Kakashi-sensei shifted. "Jiraiya. What brings you here?"

"Just checking up on you. I didn't expect them to be moving so fast. I would have warned you, if I knew."

I sharpened to attention. _Warning?_ I signed.

Jiraiya's eyes flickered. "It's a bit late for any sort of warning now," he said, and chuckled. It was a clear deflection.

How frustrating. I wanted - _needed_ - to talk to Jiraiya. Sign language was good, but it had been designed for field work and holding full conversations was difficult. Added to that, it was much easier to ignore.

I reached up, touched my throat, destabilised the chakra and released the jutsu. Oh. _Ow._

"You're… talking about Akatsuki, aren't you?" I rasped. And, oh. My voice sounded _ruined_, wrecked, like a pack a day smoker. It could have been from damage, or from not being used for so long or both. I hoped it wasn't permanent.

There was a quick snap of unspoken conversation - Jiraiya glancing at Sensei _did you_, the denial - that I was surprised to even be able to pick up on.

"How do you know that name?" Jiraiya asked, faux casually, leaning on the wall.

"Itachi told me," I responded. "Didn't Naruto tell you what he said?"

Jiraiya snorted. "That's brat… Wouldn't remember his own head if it wasn't so loud." He shook his head, half exasperation half drama. That didn't necessarily mean Naruto _hadn't_ told him. "What else did the Uchiha say?"

_In the world of Tsukiyomi, time and space are mine to command…_

I blinked it away, focusing on the important information. "That he belonged to an organisation called Akatsuki. That they were there after the Kyuubi and they're after the other Bijuu as well…" I faltered. Was that really all that I had gained? It had seemed so much _more… _"There are more of them, not just him and Kisame… he called it a 'mission' like a proper…" Like a ninja village, like there was someone giving _orders_.

"He specifically said they're after the Bijuu?" Kakashi-sensei asked, then glanced at Jiraiya. Confirmation for something they had merely suspected?

I nodded.

Jiraiya scratched his chin. "Hmm. Awful chatty of him. Still, that works in our favour."

Did Jiraiya know Itachi's truth? He was an intelligence expert, he might have. At the very least, he probably had suspicions.

"You… know more about them, don't you?" I rasped.

"That's not something you want to get yourself messed up in, kid," Jiraiya said. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

"I already am," I pointed out.

"You've just had an abject lesson in how _out of your league_ you are. You should be jumping at the chance to get to safety."

I shrugged, uncomfortable at the reminder. It was so very, very true. "Naruto is my team mate. If they come after him again, I'm going to _be there_. It involves us."

'_I'm going to be there', _literally_,_ because we would go on the same missions and '_I'm going to be there'_ because he was my friend and I wouldn't abandon him.

"Look at your sensei there. At your age, he was already a Jounin. And he went down just as fast as you did. There are very, very few people who can stand up against that level of enemy." Jiraiya's voice was serious, a direct contrast from his usual joking manner.

Sensei's hands clenched on the sheets, but he didn't offer any comment.

Something about Jiraiya's rant struck me. "You're going to take Naruto away."

He blinked, caught off guard. Yes, I _knew_ he was going to. Time-skip. That much was… so obvious. I just… hadn't considered that… Oh.

"Yes," he said guardedly. "Not right now, but soon."

"You'll take him away, because you're the only one that can protect him," I ploughed on. "But you're also going to be teaching him how to fight back, aren't you? How to match up against opponents of that level. And eventually… you'll bring him back. So we'll learn too. We're his _team._"

I might not have had the _right_ to speak for all of us, but I did it anyway. Sasuke would learn because of Itachi and I would learn because I knew what was coming and Kakashi-sensei would because he was a survivor.

"He also has advantages you don't," Jiraiya pointed out. "Look. It's great that you want to help your team mate. It really is. I bet your sensei is proud of you. But it doesn't change the fact that there's nothing you can do."

"I know," I said. "_I know. _I know we're too young, too weak. I know we have to rely on you to-" to protect us, to save us. "I _know._ But we can learn, can get stronger, can…" I faltered. "At least we'd know when to run."

I stared at him, frustrated, tears pricking my eyes because he was _right_ and we were in over our heads here and _he wasn't going to tell me anything-_

I bit them back because I wasn't going to cry. I wasn't. It didn't matter if he didn't tell me anything. I knew _some_ things. I could find out the rest. It would take _a lot_ of digging, but I could do it.

Jiraiya sighed. He was looking at Kakashi-sensei, not at me.

"Save me from Genin with no self preservation," he sighed. "Alright, alright. You're going to be disappointed though, because what Itachi handed you is close to our sum total knowledge."

"You said Orochimaru used to be part of the organisation," Kakashi-sensei said.

"Yeah," Jiraiya said grimly. "Which is close to the only reason I know about them at all."

_In time you will._

"I asked him that," I rasped. "Why we didn't know about them if it was people like him. He said we would, in time."

"Well, that doesn't sound good," Kakashi-sensei muttered.

"No. There are nine shinobi involved, as far as I can tell. All S-rank. So far they've been keeping pretty quiet, gathering information, keeping to the shadows, the kind of thing. There's Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki, obviously. Orochimaru left a while ago but there were some murmurings he'd been sighted with Sasori of the Red Sand. One of them is a bounty hunter, since we've been getting a lot of reports from the bounty offices. That's really about all we know."

I blinked. I doubted he had told me _everything_ but still. That was all?

He chuckled. "Told ya, kid."

_Pein, Konan, Itachi, Kisame, Kakuzu, Hidan, Sasori, Deidara, Zetsu, Tobi…_

I still remembered all the names. Now I just had to link them to Akatsuki. Looked like I would be doing research anyway.


	44. Chapter 43

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Rating has been bumped up to T. A few people have mentioned it, so better safe than sorry, I guess.

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Chapter 43

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_It is not so much our friends' help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us. ~ Epicurus _

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I had barely finished eating breakfast the next morning - _hospital food, not the greatest cuisine ever invented_ - when Sasuke barrelled into my room.

There was an agitation to his movements, an 'is it true?', and I was glad that I _was_ awake. I wasn't entirely sure what his reaction would have been if I'd slept late this morning.

"Good morning," I said lightly, blinking at him. My voice was still a little rougher than it used to be but, though the medic nin had frowned at my removal of the block, they had healed the damage. Medical chakra felt strange, and though I knew it was helpful, I still had to focus to _not_ shut it out.

He swallowed. "I… only just heard. Gai-sensei told me you were awake."

When they met up, for training or missions or whatever Gai-sensei got the three of them together for, I guessed. Sasuke did look a bit battered, like he had already been training today.

"I woke up yesterday," I said.

Sasuke replied with a wordless 'ah' moving to stand by the window instead of taking a seat. He folded his arms across his chest, the movement seeming defensive.

_Not good._

I'd expected that Sasuke would have had a hard time. I'd expected it. But this looked to be worse than I'd thought.

"You've been training with Gai-sensei?" I asked, prodding for conversation. It seemed like a safe topic.

He nodded, jerkily. "He offered, while…" He cleared his throat. "They needed a third man for their squad while Lee was in the hospital." He sounded utterly professional. Easier to say that one of _their_ team mates was in the hospital than his own were gone.

I 'hmm'ed. "Any interesting missions?"

"Just some border patrol. Rock has been scouting out the northern border. There have been a couple of attacks."

"Rock? Not Cloud? Interesting," I mused. Rock did despise us, quite a lot, but they were hardly at peak strength themselves. Like Sand, they hardly had the manpower to attack us. Then again…

Sasuke shrugged. "I haven't heard of any. So, soon, probably." He smirked a little, at the small joke.

_If it hasn't happened yet, it's probably about to._ One of the unofficial laws of ninja life, right up there with Murphy's.

I smiled back.

The moment of levity didn't last long. The smirk faded and Sasuke turned to stare out the window instead of looking at me. The line of his shoulders was tense.

I stared at him worriedly. How to bring this up? What should I say?

It turned out that I didn't have to, because Sasuke broke the ice a minute later. "I'm sorry."

"I- what?" I blinked in surprised. That… wasn't what I expected at all.

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "I- that's _twice_ you've gotten hurt pulling me out of danger. It _shouldn't_ _have happened._ I should be better than this."

"No, no, Sasuke. It's not your fault," I said, hastily, reassuring him. I slid out of bed and moved over to him. The guilt, I'd almost expected that. But the sheer _misery_ in his eyes threw me. "Its okay."

"It's not okay!" he snapped. He was shaking. "Don't say that. I heard you. You were screaming like… like…. They knocked you out and you _still kept screaming._ Don't even try to tell me it's okay."

I … hadn't known that. A wry smile touched my lips.

"It's still not your fault."

He sneered. "Oh, so you were saving someone else from getting attacked?"

"I used the jutsu," I said firmly, not letting myself waver in face of his anger. He wasn't angry at _me._ "I used the jutsu and I _don't regret it._" I emphasised that as much as I could. "And you know what? I'd do it again. Because it would have been worse to watch you go through that. I would willingly put myself between you and danger, no matter what."

"You shouldn't," he said tiredly, anger fading. His shoulder slumped. "You'll get hurt."

"So could you," I replied. "You went to warn Naruto because you couldn't stand him getting hurt and I went with you because I couldn't stand _either_ of you getting hurt."

He flexed his hands. "I don't want either of you to get hurt either. I was trying to help Naruto and you got hurt. It wasn't… it wasn't meant to be like that."

_It wasn't a fair trade. _

_Everything I do turns to ash._

"I know," I said as gently as I could.

"Next time… I'll go alone. Then you wont get hurt." He sounded so earnest, like this was the perfect solution.

"We're not going to just let you push us away, Sasuke," I said.

There was relief and despair warring on his face. "He's just going to come back," he said. "I have to kill him. Or he's just going to keep coming _back_."

_And destroying everything I have_ went unsaid. Knowing Itachi was after Naruto in his own right might have softened some of the blow, but it couldn't stop it completely. Itachi was Sasuke's nightmare in the same way that the Kyuubi was mine. Worse maybe, since I had never had to face Kyuubi, I didn't matter to it, it had never _touched_ me.

His fists were clenched helplessly. "I'm just not strong enough."

I slipped my arms around his waist. "We'll train," I promised. "And we'll be ready next time." Not for a long while yet, but sometime.

I didn't really expect him to hug me back but he did, with a fierceness that was a little surprising. That alone would have told me how badly he was taking this all.

If I thought that I had been clingy in Wave Country when Sasuke had been injured, it really had nothing on Sasuke's overprotective tendencies. I'd had a glimpse of that in the Second Exam but it must have slipped my mind, because I was surprised by it all over again.

Still, I'd been in a coma for a month. People were allowed to be worried. I could deal.

That didn't mean I wasn't relieved when Naruto showed up.

"Hey Shikako! Oh, whoa. Sasuke? You're here?" His voice climbed a few decibels in aggravation. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

Sasuke looked like he was on the verge of smirking in amusement. "Hn."

Naruto scoffed. "That is not even cool."

"Hey, Naruto," I said. "You vanished pretty quick yesterday. Didn't even give me a hug." I pouted exaggeratedly and opened my arms. Hey, I'd given everyone else a hug.

Naruto stepped forward so I could reach him. "Hehe, sorry. But Baa-chan still had to look at Lee and you were with your Mum so…" he trailed off.

Yeah, I could see his point. Being with my family had been _nice_.

"Thank you," I said, and meant it.

Like a lot of things, Naruto didn't seem to know how to handle gratitude. "Ah, it's okay," he said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head before flopping down into the chair. "So you're, like, better now, right?" he asked anxiously.

I nodded. "I'm fine," I said easily. I had a feeling I was going to get a lot of practice saying that. "So, I guess I missed out on a lot, right? Why don't you guys tell me what happened after I was knocked out?"

"Jiraiya showed up," Sasuke said concisely. "Those two fled. Then Gai-sensei brought us back to Konoha."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, the pervy sage…" he shivered. "It was pretty scary. You just kept screaming the whole time; we didn't know what he'd done to you. The pervy sage looked really angry when he showed up. I thought there was going to be a huge fight or something, but they just took one look at him and ran. Then Bushy Brows-sensei showed up but he was too late to help."

There was a joke there about spending too much time with Kakashi-sensei. I took the high ground and didn't voice it.

"I see," I said. "So then you went and found Tsunade?"

"Yeah." Naruto brightened. "Yeah. And pervy sage did end up teaching me that jutsu that he said he would, you know, the one he said was 'better than Chidori'?" he bounced in his seat. "It totally is. I'll show you… I mean later, when you're not in the hospital or anything. It's awesome."

"Yeah, right," Sasuke muttered. "Better than Chidori." His scoff was only a shadow of its former self.

"It is so," Naruto said, indignant. "It's the Fourth Hokage's jutsu, so there." Childishly he stuck out his tongue.

"Settle down, settle down," I said, amused. "We can all show off our super cool jutsu later. Why don't you tell us about the rest of the trip. I bet _some_ interesting things had to have happened."

Naruto subsided for a second, before launching into the tale of just how his trip with Jiraiya had gone. Apparently, I hadn't been too far off the mark with my assumption that Orochimaru would also be searching for Tsunade and both he and Kabuto had been there. That was a shame. I had half held out hope that Kabuto would have been caught or killed during the invasion. He certainly hadn't seemed to be doing too well against Gai-sensei when I left.

"He offered to revive her brother?" Sasuke asked quietly, staring out the window.

Naruto shrugged uncomfortably. "Something like that, yeah. I think it was the same jutsu he used against the old man. It's not… It's not the same as _actually_ bringing them back." His tone was awkward. "She told him to stuff it because they wouldn't have wanted to be used against Konoha like that. Baa-chan is pretty cool for an old lady, you know?"

"If he brought them back, he could probably control them," I added, thoughtfully. "It would be pretty awful it he used them to attack."

Naruto shivered. "Yeah. That'd be… awful," he agreed.

Of course, the fact that Naruto had challenged her to a fight was another sticking point.

"Well you don't lack for courage," I said, sharing a glance with Sasuke.

"Just brains," he added.

"Yea- hey!" Naruto yelped. "I wasn't going to let her get away with that. And besides," he pointed out, eyes glinting. "It worked."

He might not have won the fight, exactly, but Tsunade had become the Fifth Hokage and returned to Konoha, so it might have been a case of lost the battle, won the war.

"So it did," I mused. "So it did."

They stayed for a while, but neither of the boys were exactly the type for long hospital visits. They just weren't made for it. I didn't hold it against them.

"Err, Sasuke…" I muttered, just as Naruto left.

Sasuke paused at the door. "Yeah?"

I hopped out of bed and found the clock that I'd taken off the wall, shoved in the closet and smothered with spare linens. "Could you hand this in to the reception, or something?"

Sasuke blinked.

"The ticking just _bothers _me," I said, aware that it wasn't a very good explanation. It was only when the room was silent that it mattered, when I had nothing else to focus on but the constant ticking. This _was not_ my first step to becoming Sensei.

Sasuke, bless his heart, took the clock and said nothing.

I spent a few minutes checking over the flowers and cards. There were quite a few of them, from my family, friends, the rest of rookie nine, from various Akimichi and Yamanaka and even one from Iruka-sensei. There was also a stack of basic medical books beside the table that I hadn't noticed before. I had no idea whose they were, or why they were here but I pinched one to read. My room, my rules.

The mystery was laid to rest when Ino came bustling in, hands full of snapdragons. "Hello, sleeping beauty," she sang cheerfully.

"Morning, Ino," I replied with a smile.

"It's quiet in here, I figured you'd be swamped in visitors," she commented, arranging the flowers on the desk in some mystical arrangement that suited her sensibilities. My ikebana skills were very basic.

"The boys were in here this morning, they've already come and gone. The family was here all yesterday, so they're excused. Sakura is probably either working or in lessons. Hmm. Chouji probably wont show till after lunch. Am I missing anyone?"

"Hinata usually stops by every couple of days," Ino said, surprising me a little. "She brings her team sometimes." It shouldn't have surprised me, of course, since I had visited Hinata semi-frequently and she seemed the type to remember that. I did consider myself friends with Kiba, but like Naruto and Sasuke he wasn't the type for hospital visits.

"That's nice of her," I said absently.

Ino nodded. "So Sasuke was here? How was he?"

I nearly teased her, until I saw her worried frown. "Better, I think," I murmured. "We talked. I don't know, I'll have to see if it sunk in."

"I hope so," she said. "He's been working himself into the ground. Every spare moment, just training. I think Gai-sensei made them take so many missions because it forced him to take a break."

"You've really been looking out for him, haven't you?" I asked, studying her. "Thanks, Ino."

"It's never a hassle to spend time with Sasuke," she said brightly, then wilted a little under my continued stare. She shrugged. "We've been getting along better. He even said 'thanks' for helping out against Gaara." She laughed a little, but it was more wry than amused. "A few months ago, I'd have been ecstatic. I still was, a little but… no one knew if you were ever going to wake up."

I nodded. "I know, Ino. I'm sorry. But even if I didn't… it would have been okay, y'know, for you to be happy…"

She smiled. "Oh, don't start with that. I've been doing more than just moping about you know." She scooped one of the medical books up and showed it to me. "I guess I'm going to have to find another place to study. That's a shame; it's usually pretty quiet in here."

"I didn't think you were that interested in medical jutsu," I said. "You never said anything."

"What?" she asked defensively. "You think that I'm just going to let you and Sakura do this without me? No way. Ino Yamanaka does not lose to _anybody_ at _anything._"

And maybe not, but she'd still picked the time I was laid up in hospital to start. It was the first time any of us had been in serious 'might never recover' danger. The first dawning realisation that 'this is dangerous' and 'we might die'. Dangerous fights were one thing. Injuries were another.

I smiled and shook my head. "Whatever you say, Ino."

She huffed. "I do say."

"Maybe we should get a study group together," I suggested. "You, me, Sakura. Hinata does herbal salves, I know…"

"Sounds like a good idea," she said. "Funny how it's just us girls, though."

"Well, Shikamaru knows more than he'd be willing to admit," I said. "And I bet Kiba's been wrangled into helping at the Inuzuka clinic a few times. But no, I don't think any of the boys are that interested."

"That's just like that lazy toad," she said. "He made some mumbling about how girls should be good at it when I said I was learning."

I snickered. "One day he's going to learn how to phrase things in a way that _isn't_ insulting."

"Oh, please. He does it on purpose and you know it. Chivalry, my ass." But she looked mostly amused.

We chattered back and forth, sometimes exchanging gossip - or rather, Ino filling me in on what I'd missed - and just sometimes silent and reading, until about eleven when the door slid open.

I watched in bemusement as Sakura peered around the doorframe, checking the room out before she came in.

"Looking for someone?" I asked.

She blushed. "Lee's been in here a lot," she confessed, voice hushed like someone might overhear. "Whenever I try to visit…"

"Lee?" I repeated, blinking. I had visited him a few times, sure, but we weren't exactly _close._

She looked miserable. "I think he's stalking me."

Ino snickered, hand over her mouth trying to keep silent.

I couldn't stop the smile that kicked up the corner of my lip, but I hastily squashed it before she saw. "Lee is… very enthusiastic," I said diplomatically.

She gave me a horrified look. "He keeps asking me out on dates! He's worse than _Naruto_. At least I don't see him very much anymore."

"Hey, no dissing my team mates," I said, wiggling my finger at her.

She looked abashed. "Sorry, sorry. But still, it's the truth."

Ino managed to straighten her face, though it seemed to take a lot of effort. "Ah, Lee's not so bad. If it wasn't for the eyebrows…"

Sakura shivered, then gave her a reproachful look. "You wouldn't find it so funny if he was after you."

"I wouldn't, of course… you beautiful flower of springtime." Ino wheezed, cackling with laughter.

Sakura glowered. I felt like I was missing part of the joke, but I could guess.

"_Anyway_," Sakura said heavily. "Speaking of Lee, have you heard about the surgery?"

I shook my head. "Surgery?"

"Mmm," she pulled the chair over and sat down. "Tsunade-sama looked at him. She said that she could fix whatever was wrong with him - I don't have the details - but that the surgery had only a 50% chance of success."

Ino stopped laughed. "Oh, ouch."

"Yeah. I mean, there's no way that anyone would go through with that, right?"

I considered. "If it's his only chance… yeah, I think he would."

"What?" Sakura gasped.

"It's got to be pretty serious if he's still in hospital after a whole month," I said. "And if Tsunade herself has to look at him. Stands to reason then that his shinobi career would be over if he didn't take it."

"But… it's only … he could _die._"

"He did seem pretty determined to be a shinobi," Ino said slowly. "I mean, he could have forfeited the match, and he never did. Should have, probably."

"That's crazy," Sakura whispered, looking a little shaken.

"Hey, medical treatments aren't _pure_ chance, you know," I said, trying to reassure her. "They might say fifty percent, but you're stacking the deck in your favour simply by having Tsunade here. And you can't underestimate the healing factor of sheer willpower."

Sakura smiled weakly. "I guess."

Ino closed her book with finality. "Right. Well, Sakura and I usually meet up for lunch," she said.

I got the hint. "Don't let me keep you," I said, waving. "Go. Eat."

They both sent me smiles. "Don't worry. A few days and you'll be out of here," Ino said. "Then we'll all get lunch together."

"I'm looking forward to it."

I expected to be fed hospital food again for lunch, but it was barely twenty minutes later that Chouji arrived, carrying possibly the biggest basket of food that I'd ever seen. Shika followed behind him with a slightly smaller but still impressive basket.

"Are you expecting an army?" I asked, amused, even as I crossed my legs and flattened the bed sheets out so we could turn my bed into a picnic table. I wasn't on a restricted diet like I would be if my gastrointestinal tract hadn't been in use, and I totally didn't want to think about how I'd been fed while I was out of it. I was very thankful all such tubing had been removed before I'd been woken.

"Mum cooked," Chouji said, a little sheepishly. "She thought that you'd need some energy after sleeping for so long."

"This wasn't even all of it," Shika complained. "Just what we could carry."

"I'm sorry you had to go to so much effort," I consoled, patting him on the shoulder.

He snorted. "Itadakimasu."

I echoed him, eating with pleasure. Setsuko Akimichi was a wonderful cook and even though there was a ridiculous amount of food, Chouji was making a damn good attempt to get through it all.

After lunch, we all lounged around in various states of 'ooh, I ate too much'. Shikamaru set up a shogi board after a while and he and I traded pieces back and forth.

"So?" I asked.

"So?" he drawled back lazily.

"You're not going to fill me in on what you've been up to this month?" I asked archly.

He shrugged. "Same as what normally happens." He yawned. "Training, missions, Mum hassling me…"

I rolled my eyes, but considered him. He was focusing on the shogi game which, well, it wasn't our best game in ever.

"Talk to Sasuke much?" I asked, taking a stab in the dark.

"A bit," he said casually. "It's been hard to pin him down."

Okay, that settled it. "You've spent the last month interrogating him for details, haven't you?" I asked.

Chouji laughed. "I told you she'd know," he said to Shikamaru.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

I sighed. I had a feeling I knew where this was going. "Shika…"

"Relax," he said, voice still sounding bored. "I haven't been giving him a hard time about it. Even though he was the one to drag you out there, it wasn't really his fault. I know that." But there was a deep and strangely calculating look in his eyes, because he knew _exactly_ whose fault it was.

"I know. I'm just saying… If you're planning to take down Itachi…" I began.

He stiffened. Yeah, that was _exactly _what he was planning, wasn't it?

"You better start planning long term, got it?" I finished.

He relaxed, just a fraction. "Troublesome."

I snorted weakly. "You're troublesome. He's an S-rank that _other_ S-ranks avoid. I know you're a tactical genius and all, but that doesn't guarantee anything."

"I know," he said.

"And you better include _me_ in whatever you're planning. And Sasuke and Naruto are going to want to be involved." They would not stand to be left out, Sasuke especially. And well, Naruto… "Hey. If you're going to use my team mates as bait, at least do them the decency of telling them."

"I wasn't-" he protested, then paused. "Bait is a harsh way of putting it."

_But true._

"And not until we're sure of victory. Don't go all hot headed on me," I cautioned.

"Me? Hot headed?" He snorted. "Maybe I should get the doctor. You've clearly damaged something."

"You don't fool me," I scoffed. "It might take a lot to get to you, but you're not going to let this go."

He shrugged, but didn't deny it.

_Oi vey. _And like Jiraiya had said, _save me from Genin with no sense of self preservation. _

Irony, you work quickly.


	45. Chapter 44

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Okay, so I found this fantastic essay on Tsunade on the net. It's called Before Hokage and After; A Tsunade Analysis and makes some excellent points. Hence the Tsunade love. XD

And just something that I was pondering: its generally accepted that Kakashi activated his Mangekyo with residual guilt over Obito… but it's entirely possible he actually fulfilled the requirements. I know they say 'best friend' but the line between friends and best friend is pretty thin. There are a few ways, an old comrade turned missing nin; friendship with ninja from another nation that ended on the battlefield; even deliberately going undercover, making friends, then killing them. Admittedly, it seems far more _Kakashi_ to hold onto undeserved guilt for ages…

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Chapter 44

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_Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over. ~Gloria Naylor _

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I was released from hospital in time for the inauguration of the Fifth Hokage. The streets were packed as we watched Tsunade, standing tall and strong with the vibrant red of the Hokage's hat on her head, being sworn in.

"And from this day on, I shall protect the Hidden Leaf Village as the Fifth Hokage!" She finished, sweeping the hat from her head dramatically.

We cheered.

There was very much a sense of moving on, of starting anew and beginning again in the air.

Tsunade is a legend in Konoha, more so than either of her team mates. Oh, the Sanin were considered the peak of combat ability and strength as a shinobi but we had a lot of them - the White Fang, the Yellow Flash, the First Hokage - heck, the Third's father, Sasuke Sarutobi was a legend from _before_ ninja villages existed.

Tsunade, though. She changed things.

Konoha is the only village with an entire medical sector and it is entirely due to her. She was possibly the first person to _ever _be worried about the safety and well being of both ninja and civilians; the first person to treat them like people and not tools. She championed the inclusion of medics on ninja teams, not just in the hospital for when - and if - they returned. Although it wasn't implemented during the Second Great Shinobi War when she proposed it, it was during the Third, and some people regard it as the sole reason we survived. Her system for detecting and countering poisons is considered to be the reason that we were victorious in the Second Great Shinobi War.

The Konoha we know today… is almost entirely her creation.

She was the people's champion, if there was such a thing.

But for all that, from the point of view of a Kunoichi, there is one technique that we practically revere her for. A contraceptive and hormone suppressant. Using progesterone and estrogen, the technique prevents follicles in the ovum from developing. It goes further than that, and more effectively than any contraceptive I remember from Before, completely removes menstrual cycles. Not only did she invent it, but instead of calling it a day and keeping it to herself, she refined it until every single Academy aged Kunoichi could use it. It was constant; we learnt to apply it in the Academy and it would last until we decided to remove it to start a family. It made field missions easier and safer. When there are enemy ninja that can smell a drop of blood from a kilometre away, menstruation was one of the most dangerous things that could happen to a kunoichi. Not only that, but no cramps, no headaches, no need for specialised supplies. No risk of unwanted pregnancy.

Her lineage was only half the reason we called Tsunade 'Princess'.

No one protested her promotion to Hokage. Didn't mention that she'd left the village, that she was a renowned gambler and drunk.

Not that things like that _mattered_, in the end. This was a ninja village.

It seemed a little weird to me, to put someone in charge who had such obvious, unrepentant flaws, but at the same time it was straightforward and reassuring.

It was interesting how we'd all grouped into our teams as we stood here, and no one seemed to notice. It was just so natural.

"Now, that's a historic event," I murmured.

"The start of a new era," Kakashi-sensei agreed. His voice was a little subdued though, and out of all of us, Kakashi-sensei was the only one who would have seen the coronation of a Hokage before.

"We should celebrate," I suggested. Not just about the Fifth Hokage, but the fact that we were all together again.

"Ichiraku?" Naruto perked up.

And it was just so Naruto that I laughed.

The next few days, Sensei and I were still officially on 'medical leave' to give us time to retrain. The boys came and went, apparently being slotted into other teams for missions. To hear him tell it, none of Naruto's missions ever went_ smoothly._

I fully intended on training, as well as a whole other list of things, but first there was something I needed to do.

I went to the Archives and signed into the Registry.

The Archive Library is built into the Hokage Mountain. They say that there's files on every ninja in the village in here, past and present, as well as pretty much every piece of secret information ever gathered. I wouldn't know, as a Genin my clearance level is too low to access any of that stuff.

But I only needed low clearance, anyway.

Because we're a ninja village, Konoha keeps a pretty strict eye on who lives inside the village. That does translate to a pretty unholy amount of paper work and census taking and so forth, but it also means there's a complete list of Konoha citizens. Birth certificates, death certificates… they're filed and _kept_ because that's how you prove your identity.

Which meant they were in the Archives.

I made a beeline for the death certificates. Funnily enough, I didn't know the exact date of the massacre, only the year and maybe the month. That didn't matter, though, because all I had to look for was the huge stack of Uchiha names.

I pulled out the stack of certificates, carried them to one of the worktables at the side of room, and began arranging them in an unholy jigsaw.

_Now, who died first?_

The quality of the certificates varied. They all had names and dates of birth and death of course. Some had occupations. Some, mostly the ninja, had photos attached.

The causes of death didn't help as much as they should have. Some were the same as what Itachi had shown me and some… weren't. That meant two things, either he'd shown me the wrong things on purpose because a) it made him look better or more terrifying b) it made a bigger impact on Sasuke that way c) there was something there he was hiding d) the details were fuzzy after so long or … he hadn't done it on purpose. He'd done it because he _hadn't known. _

Which made sense. There had been many gifted shinobi in the Uchiha clan, and at the end of the day, Itachi had been one man. One thirteen year old boy.

Regardless, that really wasn't why I was here. Memories from a genjutsu attack was no proof at all.

It took a long time and a lot of guess work. I was only maybe half done when someone interrupted me.

"New hobby?" Dad asked, sliding into the seat across the table.

I blinked at him, jolted from my working trance. "Huh?"

He gestured at the papers spread out over the table.

I ran a hand through my hair, distracted. "What are you doing here?"

Dad gave me an amused look. "You've been in here all afternoon. I got a message from one of the overseers asking if I knew what you were doing."

I blinked again, this time in actual confusion. On the surface it sounded fine but why would anyone be bothered about what a mere Genin was doing in the low level Archives? Even to either find out who I was and who my parents were, or worse, bother the Jounin Commander?

Then it clicked. I had just had a run in with Uchiha Itachi. I was now looking at files about the Uchiha Massacre. There were secrets here that people wanted kept. Dad had either been informed, or intercepted a message.

I was really, ridiculously lucky that my Dad was who he was.

And also. I was _really stupid._

I swallowed. "I just… I felt like I should know their names," I said distantly. "He was aiming for Sasuke, to show him…" I gestured at the files. "To show him how his family died."

I hadn't told anyone what I'd seen. No one had asked. Unless they had some way of telling what a genjutsu was showing, they couldn't have known.

"Even though they're already dead, it was still like… still like I was there. Seeing it. I thought, maybe, if I knew their names it would be…" I struggled for a word. "Better."

Not better. Nothing would really make it _better._ Easier to deal with maybe. Easier to compartmentalise. To mourn or _something_…

"I just… I feel like I should know their names." I shrugged. It felt inadequate.

Dad's face was carefully calm. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. It was very rare when I _could_.

"I see," he said, humming. "Do you need help?"

My shoulders sagged, tension escaping. No judgement or recrimination or even questions about what had happened. Just… _do you need help?_

"I only know what they look like," I admitted. "But not all these have photos."

Dad considered, finger tapping his chin for a second, before rising and fetching what looked like a heavy leather-bound book. "This might help," he said, opening it to the back.

I took it gingerly. It looked rather like a yearbook, with grids of small photos. It was pretty much _exactly_ what I needed. "Yeah," I said. "Thank you."

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* * *

><p>.<p>

There were a lot of things I _wanted_ to do. Practice my jutsu. Make sure my taijutsu was up to scratch. Research the Akatsuki. Get the set time on my explosive seal down so it was actually combat applicable. Possibly name the damn thing, since names helped with focusing.

I managed some. Naruto and Sasuke were more than willing to spar - when they were around - and Shikamaru would with only _half_ the usual amount of prodding. Dad started up my clan training again and I found I was leaps and bounds behind Shikamaru, who was nearly capable of using Shadow Stitching Jutsu.

Not that I was going to rush to catch up. Been there. Learnt _that_ lesson.

It made me feel a little left behind, particularly when Naruto showed off his Rasengan and Sasuke proved that a month of frantic, don't-care-if-I-hurt-myself training could move you along tremendously - as long as there was someone around to make sure you didn't _actually_ hurt yourself.

A month was both a very short time and a very long time. I felt a little out of step, trying to catch up with everything that had happened while I had been out of it.

I wanted to research Akatsuki, but in order of priority making sure I was fit to fight was much more important. I did crack out the books every night though.

I could have just started with the bingo book. I was pretty sure I knew who was involved. But explaining how I knew that, proving it… I couldn't do it. But I had another avenue to pursue.

Akatsuki had been around _before_ it became an organisation of megalomaniacs. I was a little fuzzy on the details, but I knew that. Jiraiya's trio of orphans had formed it during the war, until they had been betrayed by Danzo and Hanzo.

So. An organisation of ninja, during the war. Important or visible enough to bother Hanzo the Salamander himself. There _had_ to be a mention of them. All I needed was a single throwaway line. The name. That was it. That would link them to the Land of Rain.

Easier said than done, of course. But I was hopeful.

Our leave didn't last for very long. All too soon Team 7 was arrayed before the Mission Assignment Desk.

"If I could give you more time off, I would," Tsunade said, looking at us. "Unfortunately, we're pushed for ninja at the moment. You're all physically healthy so you should have no problems." She paused for a second, as if seeing if we would protest. "That said, I _can_ ease you back into things. Here's a C-rank. Search and Rescue. Should be an easy mission."

"Easy mission?" Naruto almost shouted in protest. "Ah, come on! I can totally -" he paused. Looked at me. Looked at Sensei. Then nodded solemnly and tucked his hands behind his head. "Oh. I get it. Sure. No problem."

Tsunade's lips twitched. "I'm glad," she said.

Considering she had basically explained her reasoning…

"You can count on us, Baa-chan," he continued.

"Don't call me that!" she snapped, mood turning irritated in a heartbeat. She biffed the mission scroll at his head. "Go on, get out of here!"

Kakashi-sensei grabbed the scroll with one hand and Naruto's collar with the other, effectively dragging him out of the room before he could make things worse. Sasuke and I exchanged amused looks and followed.

"Alright," Kakashi-sensei said, unrolling the scroll once we were outside. "Go grab your mission gear and meet me at the gate ASAP. This one is time critical."

Which made sense, if it was a search and rescue. The longer you took, the less chance of finding them alive.

"Yes, Sensei," we chorused, darting off to do just that.

We met up at the gate in due haste and were well on our way when Kakashi-sensei started the briefing. It wasn't uncommon to do this on the run, since tree hopping was close to second nature for us.

"We're looking for a missing person," Kakashi-sensei started, flicking a photo over to us. "Genmai of Inaho Village. He vanished into the hills around the village yesterday morning. When he didn't come back overnight, they sent a messenger bird to us."

That was a much faster way of contacting Konoha than sending a civilian to the village. There was probably a ninja outpost nearby somewhere that had birds, or the village was a reasonably large and well connected one.

"There have been reports of bandits in the area," Kakashi-sensei continued. "So it might even be an abduction, though if that's the case there hasn't been any ransom demands made yet."

"Are there any more details on him?" I asked curiously. "Is he an important figure? And why was he in the hills?"

"Mm. He's the manager of the lumber mill, apparently," Kakashi-sensei said. "He was looking for a new location for wood, or something like that. Presumably, he's familiar with the area, which is why his disappearance is suspicious, but if it is bandits, it's more likely to be a crime of opportunity than a selected target."

There was little more detail than that. We stopped by the village, a small but reasonably wealthy looking place, and met Genmai's family. We ran through the usual missing person questions; when did you last see him, where was he, where did he intend to go, did he say when he'd be back, was he acting oddly, and so forth. It didn't garner us any more information than we already had, apart from the location of the lumber mill.

That was our next destination, and we took in the bustling building and rushing river.

_Dangerous hazard,_ I mentally noted. It wouldn't have taken much for someone to slip in and be swept away by it.

The mill workers didn't have much more information than anyone else, though the site overseer _did _know the general location that Genmai was supposed to be scouting.

"Alright," Kakashi-sensei said, tapping the local map. "We'll start with this area then spiral out from there. It's well away from the river, but if we cover the entire area and don't turn up anything we'll start searching downstream. Let's go. Keep your eyes open as we travel."

We shouldered our packs and took off through the trees. This close to the mill, there was too much activity for any sort of track to stand out. Well. Kakashi-sensei might have been able to but I couldn't.

"Okay, we'll make this our reconnaissance point," Kakashi-sensei said as we all landed in a clearing. "First we'll-" he cut himself off, head snapping up.

I cast my chakra sense out, but I felt nothing. But there were more signs that something was wrong than just chakra.

"Stay here," Kakashi-sensei ordered tersely, jumping up into the branches.

"What was that?" Naruto wondered.

I shook my head. "No idea. But we best do as he says." Kakashi-sensei's chakra was moving fast, and before long he was out of my range. It did make me a little uneasy though.

"We should be alert," Sasuke said quietly, dark eyes regarding the surrounding forest.

I could see his reasoning. Whatever had caught Kakashi-sensei's attention might not be the only danger in the forest.

Minutes later, he was proven grimly correct. A huge chakra flare went off somewhere nearby, with bright light and loud sound. Birds scattered into the sky. And…

"Three incoming. North-east. Chunin or Jounin level," I said, readying my kunai.

"Enemies?" Sasuke asked.

I didn't have time to answer, because one shot forward with extreme speed and we barely had time to move before the ground was destroyed where we had been standing.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted at the man now standing in the middle of the clearing. He was reasonably tall, dressed in pale blues with a hood designed to resemble a sharks head. Tentatively, I tagged him as a water type since anybody who dressed that obviously to theme tended to do so to their specialisations. "What was that for?"

Two others joined him, a portly male with a fuuma shuriken strapped to his back, and a woman dressed in purple.

"Are these the ones, Kajika-sama?" the portly one asked.

Sharkhead - Kajika - nodded. "I would say so," he said, flicking his chin at us. "You're the ones with Kakashi, aren't you?"

"So what if we are?" Sasuke demanded.

Kajika _grinned._ "We were wondering if you'd like to play."

They launched forward. I had time to see the lady unsheathe two short handled sickles, before she was on me. Naruto engaged the fat one, barely managing to dodge his surprising speed, while the leader went for Sasuke.

I dodged, wove, deflected attacks. She was _fast._ I dropped my Resistance Seal and surprised her with an increase in speed, slamming a rapid two kick combo into her stomach and nearly scoring her across the neck with my kunai. It didn't last, though, because she amped up her speed to match.

_They're toying with us,_ I realised.

"Ten Thousand Fists!" I called up my chakra, blurring the air around me with overlapping images. She couldn't know if it was real or fake, or which attack to block, so she did the sensible thing and got clear.

I back flipped down to the ground, where Naruto had been thrown a second earlier. Sasuke, seeing us, managed to disengage and regroup.

"Hmm," Kajika mused. "You're better than I expected."

"Little bitch," Lady cursed.

"Now, now. If we finish too soon, we'll be disobeying orders."

That, coupled with the mention of Kakashi-sensei, did _not_ sound good. Were they trying to distract us or something? Then again, we had been outmatched in that little fight. Without us stepping up to bigger techniques, they could have taken us out.

"You're starting to piss me off!" Naruto declared. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

More Naruto's shimmered into existence. They coiled, like they were about to leap.

Kajika chuckled, and then faded out of view. He hadn't moved…

"They vanished?" Naruto said, confused.

"No," Sasuke said, eyes darting back and forth. "They're still around."

I could still sense them. That didn't mean my team mates could. If we didn't do something, they'd just pick us off.

"Naruto," I hissed. "Please tell me you learnt how to sense in your Mist…"

"Yeah, kinda," he said back. "Oh. Oh!" His hand fumbled for his water canteen.

"Sasuke?" I questioned.

He grimaced. "I haven't really…" he said. "But we can't see them anyway, so I'll deal."

I nodded. There wasn't much I could do about it now. And having two of us being mostly able to spot them beat having just me.

"Running and hiding already?" Kajika's voice echoed through the chakra charged mist. "How …_typical_ of a Leaf shinobi."

The three of us angled so that we were facing the same opponents as before. Kajika's taunts enabling Sasuke to find him.

On cue, we hurled kunai towards them, disappointed to hear the clinking of deflection, before _moving._

"Water Release: Cold Sky Water Attack!" Kajika shouted, before rapid fire bullets slammed into the ground where we had just been. Ice, my mind catalogued quickly.

"The fat guy is in the mist," Naruto murmured. "Should we?"

"Pick _them_ off, one by one," Sasuke finished grimly.

"I'll snare him, you two take him out?" I suggested.

They nodded.

I darted away, circling around the spot where I _knew_ he was. He was still using whatever invisibility technique they had - and wasn't that cool? I so wanted to learn that - but I could sense him.

I harnessed my shadow and lashed out. He never even noticed it. "Shadow Possession Complete," I murmured.

Sasuke flickered away, appearing where my shadow ended and lashing out with a knife hand strike at the height where a neck should be. He apparently struck successfully, because the jutsu faded and the man sagged in my hold.

A quick twist of ninja wire to tie him up and we were fading away back into the mist.

"The other two are staying out of the mist," Naruto said quietly, sounding put out.

"Can we draw them in?" Sasuke asked.

"If they're clever enough to get distance, they're probably clever enough to stay there," I said.

"So what are we going to do?" Sasuke asked, frustrated. "I can't see them, and Naruto can't sense them outside the Mist…"

I bit my lip. "I'll take the lady. If I give you a general location… you use area of effect jutsu? They haven't been attacking, so I assume they can't hold that invisibility and fight at the same time. Radiating Shockwave, Great Fireball… that'll give you enough chances to hit him and disrupt the jutsu."

Naruto grinned. "I'm on it."

"You'll be okay by yourself?" Sasuke asked.

I nodded. "Of course." I'd have to be. I took out a kunai and wrapped an explosive tag around the handle. "On my signal."

We crept forward. There was something eerie about the way the forest was completely silent. I crouched, located the two chakra signals and sorted plans in my mind. I placed on hand on the ground, ink blooming under my fingers.

_Countdown, start._

With an explosive burst of chakra I leapt, crossing the distance to the first person in the blink of an eye. At the apex of my jump, I twisted, hurling the kunai with full force to the second. I kept turning, using the momentum of my spin to bring my leg around, for a kick with my full weight and power behind it. It struck something that didn't budge, and the invisibility jutsu faded to reveal Lady's arms crossed in a block. I used them as leverage to leap up, somersaulting over her head to land on the branch beside her, kunai out to block her sickles.

I could see the flares of light, feel the chakra surges, as the boys attacked, but I was more focused on my own opponent. They would be fine. The mist was fading as Naruto ceased the jutsu, water falling to dampen the ground. It would make footing more treacherous on the lower branches, but these two had stayed well out of range.

I blocked and twisted, deflecting her blades, but she was brutal, hammering blow after blow down on me. I tried to retreat, but she pursued me ruthlessly.

I swung down and she was there. I jumped backwards and she was there.

"Not so cocky now, are we?" she smirked.

_That's it,_ I thought. _Just a little more. _

I inched backwards along the branch, like a tightrope. She stalked forward, so convinced I was trapped and harmless. She lashed out and I rolled sideways, hitting the ground in a crouch. She followed, sandals squelching in the mud.

_Three… _

"Shadow Possession Complete," I said with a sign, hands folded into the rat seal.

_Two… _

"Why you-" she struggled, unable to move. "I'm going to kill you."

_One…_

And then, right beneath her feet, the ink seal I had placed before went off.

I panted a bit, at the sudden end to the fight, but I was hardly exhausted. Naruto and Sasuke had been drawn quite a distance away. I recognised it as the direction that the river was in. If Kajika _was_ a water type, then we hardly wanted him getting near a huge source of it. That boded ill for us.

I dashed off, dampening my chakra to circle around the fight. Naruto and Sasuke were doing quite well, working in tandem against Kajika. They weren't _unscathed_ but they weren't injured enough to hamper them. Kajika was fighting back with impressive taijutsu and a range of water release ninjutsu. It was clearly taxing him, though, to use it so much when there wasn't a ready source of water about.

I picked an ambush position and sat in wait. As expected, he was trying to make a break for the river. Naruto and Sasuke were hardly _letting_ him though.

With so many trees about, it was easy enough to extend my shadow through them and wait until he crossed it's path.

"Shadow Possession Complete," I announced.

"Ha!" Naruto said, a glint in his eye. "Take this! Rasengan!" A clone helped him form it and he shoved it forward, straight into Kajika's stomach.

I stumbled backwards at the sheer _force_ of the jutsu, releasing my Shadow Possession. One of the downsides of the jutsu was that when the victim was moved by outside forces, that tended to reverberate back to the user. The Rasengan clearly wasn't just a drill, it had tremendous pushing power.

Kajika flew backwards, smacking into a tree.

I sighed, standing up straight, feeling like a heavy weight was settling on my shoulders.

"We should find Sensei," Sasuke started, then cut himself off.

Because Kajika stood back up.

I couldn't help the small sound of surprise I made, almost in unison with Naruto's "what the?"

He stood and he was radiating foul, rancid, purple chakra that was vaguely familiar to me. It was the same chakra Sasuke had had after Orochimaru had marked him.

_Not good._

"You fight well, Sasuke," he rasped, stepping forward in such a way that it was clear there was something _wrong._ His eyes, when he looked up, were slitted yellow.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked warily. "What do you want?"

"That creepy chakra," Naruto muttered. "It's not even the same guy…"

"I would commend you on beating a stronger foe," he said, ignoring Sasuke questions. "But if you need friends to help you… you can forget about beating Itachi."

Sasuke stiffened. "You know of Itachi?" he demanded.

"He is strong. Much stronger than you'll ever be," the-thing-that-was-Kajika continued.

"What's your point?" Sasuke growled.

"How can you be content with this?"

"I'll take my revenge on him one way or another," Sasuke barked, hands clenching into fists. Naruto looked apprehensive.

"That's the spirit," Kajika said and chuckled. I shivered. Oh yes, that was Orochimaru's laugh.

Then I felt the chakra surge. "Get back!" I shouted, leaping backwards, as the body exploded, toppling forwards.

There was a moment of silence.

"Just what the hell was that?" Naruto shouted. "With the - then he-!" His arms flailed about.

"I don't know," Sasuke said, eyes trained on the charred body.

"That chakra…" I said. "It felt like… your curse mark."

His eyes lifted to me. "Orochimaru?"

I shrugged, helplessly.

Naruto scoffed. "That stupid snake freak. I should have figured. He was wrong, anyway," he said blithely. "If all three of us can take down his stupid puppet, then the three of us can _totally_ take down Itachi. You better believe it!"

Sasuke was silent for a second. "We better find Kakashi-sensei," was all he said.

Kakashi-sensei wasn't hard to find, but what we saw when we did find him made us pause in the trees.

"That doesn't look good," Naruto said, stating the obvious.

"Don't touch it," I said, taking in the seal that lit up the entire pathway. It spiralled out around the body of a man that looked an awful lot like it might be Genmai. Kakashi-sensei was kneeling next to him, writing something on the ground and gave absolutely no indication that he could hear us.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked.

"A seal trap," I squinted at it. "Activated by contact… I guess when he touched Genmai? It seems to be centred on him. Containment… chakra…" I tried to read what the specifications were, but it was difficult. I wasn't a _master_ at this. Studying was one thing, actually applying it was another. "He can't leave the circle, I think."

"Should we help?" Naruto asked anxiously.

"Sensei looks like he knows what he's doing," Sasuke answered. "Look. He must know how to get out."

I nodded. "Maybe if we keep a perimeter? In case anyone else is around?"

It didn't take Kakashi-sensei much longer to diffuse the trap, and when it faded away, he blinked up at us, taking in our scruffy, semi-exhausted appearance.

"Sensei," Naruto said, very seriously. "You're late."

Sasuke snorted.

"Mah, sorry," Kakashi-sensei said, eye curving into a smile. "Something came up."

The man lying on the dirt groaned, waking up. "What… what's going on?"

"Ah, let's get you back to the village, Genmai-san," Kakashi-sensei said, offering him a hand.

_Well,_ I thought. _At least the mission was a success._

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><p>.<p>

So, this mission comes from the OVA: The Cross Roads. I think it's technically supposed to take place earlier, but with the whole Orochimaru tempting thing, I think it fits here just as well.

The Chunin promotions haven't been forgotten, don't worry. They don't actually take place till after the Land of Tea arc in the anime, which makes sense since I think that Tsunade has bigger things to worry about. Still, they'll be along soon.


	46. Chapter 45

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Nemesis Jedi - I think Kakashi was far more _worried. _His Genin have proven that they can get in serious trouble the minute he takes his eyes off them. XD

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 45

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><p>.<p>

_The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become.~ Harold Taylor_

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><p>.<p>

We took Genmai back to his village and watched him reunite with his son first, because he _really_ didn't need to hear this.

Then, we filled Kakashi-sensei in on just what had happened. He listened grimly, especially when I mentioned Orochimaru. Now, post battle, and having to sort my thoughts out to report to Kakashi-sensei, I could see things that troubled me.

Orochimaru was after Sasuke. That much was obvious. But they hadn't tried to _take _him. He had used them to try and convince him.

"But," Naruto said, puzzled. "How did he know we were going to be here?"

Yeah. And that.

"A very good question," Kakashi-sensei said heavily.

Because that _seriously_ implied a level of information about and/or _control over_ Konoha administration that he shouldn't have had.

"Where did you fight?" Sensei asked.

"Where you left us," Sasuke answered, hands in his pockets. "At the reconnaissance point."

We went back there. Kakashi-sensei only paid cursory attention to the two sidekicks - dead and tied up - before turning his attention to Kajika.

"Kajika Futodoki," he said. "Jounin missing-nin from Mist." He glanced at us and shook his head.

I was a little surprised, too. He'd been strong, no doubt about that, but B-rank or low A-rank rather than what I considered _Jounin._ Maybe I'd just had too much contact with the elite.

Kakashi-sensei knelt and peeled away the strange hood. "One of Orochimaru's alright," he said.

I peered over his shoulder. Oh. Curse mark.

"It looks different," Sasuke observed quietly.

"Mm," Sensei said. "I've seen those ones before." That was _interesting._ Just how much experience had Kakashi-sensei had with curse marks? He _had_ known how to seal up Sasuke's…

"They're one of the prototype stages," he continued. "Control… or maybe a better word would be 'possession'."

The chakra but no attack. The yellow eyes. The voice and laugh. "That wasn't a self-destruct jutsu," I realised. "It was done by Orochimaru."

"Most likely," Kakashi-sensei agreed.

I swallowed. "Talk about a guy that doesn't value his subordinates."

Sensei pulled out a scroll and started drawing up the seal to store the body away. Well, yeah. I guess we couldn't just _leave _them here. I went to seal up the other body to save time.

Then we dropped the prisoner off at the nearby outpost, which was a little out of our way but still better than trying to carry him all the way back to Konoha. The outpost was big enough to have cells, and there'd be a specialised prisoner retrieval team dispatched to pick him up.

We got back to Konoha fairly late in the afternoon, which was still impressive timing considering, and headed for the Hokage Tower.

"Err," Naruto said. "Aren't we going to the Missions Desk?"

Kakashi-sensei smiled. "Ah, sometimes you just need to go straight to the Hokage. Although, you generally need to be a Jounin before you get to _decide _if you need to…"

Translation; if Kakashi Hatake decided he needed to see the Hokage, he got to see the Hokage.

We did still need to check in with the secretary that managed her appointments, but luckily for us Tsunade was free. She didn't necessarily look too impressed with us though.

"I gave you a C-rank mission," she stated. "You can't _possibly_ need to see me."

"Ah," Kakashi-sensei said. "About that."

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><p>.<p>

We didn't really hear more about it after that, and to be honest, I didn't really expect to. Genin weren't exactly in on confidential information, especially if they were trying to keep the whole thing quiet and take the infiltrators by surprise.

We had another couple of days off that we filled with team training. Kakashi-sensei drilled us through a series of team work exercises that were surprisingly difficult, but it was good to be working together again.

Then we got called up to see Tsunade again.

"To be honest with you, I don't know what to do," Tsunade said, eyes sweeping over us.

Well that was a promising start. She'd called all three rookie teams into her office, complete with sensei, without any explanation for _why._ I had an inkling, though, because we weren't the only ones here. Ibiki, Anko, Hayate, several Chunin dressed in Intelligence Division greys including Kotetsu and Izumo… clearly this had to do with the Chunin Exams.

Her next statement clinched it. "With the Final Exam being suspended, it was the opinion of many that none of the students should pass this time around." She paused, but I very much doubted she had called us all here just to say no one was getting promoted. For starters, Team Gai wasn't here. If all she was saying was 'sorry, but no' then Neji would have been here too.

"However," she continued. "I hear that the Third Hokage had nothing but the highest praise for a number of you. Indeed," she cast a faintly annoyed look over her shoulder. "The Proctors of the Exam have argued heavily in favour of promoting several of you. So, in this case, my opinion doesn't really matter. Would the following people please step forward."

She picked up a piece of paper. It was entirely unnecessary, and I'm sure she was just doing it to increase the tension.

"Shino Aburame. Shikamaru Nara and," she smiled faintly. "Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto froze. I elbowed him in the side but he didn't move until Kakashi-sensei put a firm hand on his shoulder and shoved him forward to stand beside the other two.

"From this day forth, I hope you will strive to achieve a level of excellence worthy of that headband. Congratulations, as of this moment you stand a Chunin."

"Me?" Naruto blurted out, overwhelmed with shock.

"Yes, you," Tsunade said. "The Third Hokage had you slated for guaranteed promotion, and the Proctors were all in agreement on that case. I guess you really impressed them, brat." She was really smiling now, eyes crinkling with good humour.

"Way to go, you guys!" Kiba crowed, apparently having decided that was the end of the formal stuff. "I knew you could do it, Shino!" Kurenai didn't scold him; she was practically beaming with pride.

Shino adjusted his glasses, which seemed to be some kind of nervous tick of his. "I am surprised. Why? Because I lost the match."

Hayate coughed. "It's as the Third Hokage said before the Exam. Winning is not the criteria by which promotion is judged. You managed to show the qualities of a Chunin during your match - one of which was the good judgement to resign when cornered."

If Shino hadn't resigned, and Shikamaru had thrown those kunai, he would have taken serious damage for no benefit because he _still_ would have lost the match.

"These are the only three of the promotions that all the Proctors were in complete agreement on," Tsunade cut in. "Still, for an Exam that didn't get past the first round, I'd say it's a pretty good sweep. Congratulations."

Ino looked disappointed but resigned. She'd had a good match, but the way Temari had managed to take her out had pointed out a critical flaw in her planning. That wasn't really something that could be overlooked, and she knew it.

Sasuke just nodded curtly. His match had been interrupted, true, but even before then he hadn't shown much in the way of tactics. An impressive mastery of Taijutsu and Ninjutsu, yes, but more of the 'hit it until it stops moving' kind. Granted, facing Gaara didn't leave him with many options, but still.

"Con-congratulations, Naruto," Hinata said softly.

"Heh, thanks Hinata," Naruto replied, tucking his hands behind his head. "I wasn't really even thinking about being promoted. I just wanted to show Neji that he was wrong, y'know, about people like us."

A faint pink spread across her face probably from the 'like us' comment.

The shinobi behind Tsunade had broken away to mingle. Izumo and Kotetsu made a beeline for us.

"Who would have thought, huh?" Kotetsu said, clapping Naruto on the shoulder. "You sure surprised us, you know."

Naruto chuckled sheepishly. "Well, Kaka-sensei does say I'm the most unpredictable ninja."

"I can believe that," Izumo said with a smirk. He nodded at me. "Sorry you didn't get through, kid. We recommended you be reconsidered and a couple of the guys agreed with us, but the Hokage put her foot down on anything less than complete agreement."

I blinked, startled. "I didn't even make it to the Final Exam," I protested.

"You impressed a few people anyway," Kotetsu said with a shrug. "The first two exams aren't _just_ to get the numbers down, you know. And technically anything within the exam period counts…"

So, they'd not only been _listening_ to us in the stands, they'd been _judging_ too. Well. That was embarrassing.

"Oh," I said faintly. "Thank you, then." Given that I hadn't been expecting anything, it was easy to shrug off.

"Alright, everyone," Tsunade barked. "Out of my office. I've got work to do!"

The three new Chunin had to go down to Requestions to get their new vests. The flack jackets weren't _compulsory_ to wear, but most Chunin and Jounin did anyway as marks of their rank and simply because they were _handy,_ with moderate padding for armour and a decent array of pockets.

While the other two didn't seem too fussed, apart from some extra pride in Shino's case and extra slouching in Shikamaru's, Naruto had apparently decided that his new Chunin vest was the _coolest thing ever._

Which was fair enough. It was one of the first symbols of actual _recognition_ he'd received, right up there with his Konoha headband.

That didn't mean it wasn't annoying.

"Oh, man, this is so cool! Can you believe it?" Naruto asked for about the twelfth time. I think Sasuke was starting to develop a twitch.

"Yes, Naruto," I repeated. Again. "We should…" I was about to say 'celebrate' except I _knew_ he'd want to go to Ichiraku and we'd only just had lunch. I didn't think I could stomach a bowl of ramen like now. "Keep training. We've got a lot to do," I finished, if a little weakly.

"You're right!" Naruto declared. "Just because I became a Chunin doesn't mean I can slack off! There's people out there that are way stronger." He clenched a fist and raised it high. "Let's go!"

I rolled my eyes. Whatever worked.

Then Naruto paused. "Hey, if I'm a Chunin… does that mean you guys have to listen to me?"

Sasuke snorted. "In your dreams, dead last."

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><p>.<p>

After training, I met up with Ino outside the Hokage Tower and we meandered to the nearby park, claiming one of the picnic tables for our own. Ino had been really keen on the 'study group' idea, and given that we were all currently in Konoha, had decided it was time for the first meeting. If we kept this up, we'd have to come up with a better meeting place - particularly when the weather turned - but for now, with warm afternoon sunshine and no wind to speak of, outside was fine.

"So Hinata was absolutely delighted," Ino said, cracking open one of her books. "You'd have thought I'd invited her to a party or something."

"I guess she doesn't get many excuses to hang out," I said. "Sakura should be finishing soon, right?"

"Yeah. She might stop to grab something to eat though." Ino frowned slightly. "You know, I'm not that informed on the whole medic training thing, but they don't normally work at the hospital, do they?"

"No," I agreed. "Not till much later anyway. But they're hardly going to turn away people that volunteer and it does earn her major kudos. Unofficially, anyway. I'd say it was a sneaky way to ingrate herself, if I thought she was doing it on purpose."

Even though Konoha _tried_ to be fair, there was still a very large degree of 'who you know'. Once training had been completed, the new med-nin still had to be assigned jobs. Typically, whoever was in charge of those assignments was more likely to recognise clan names (particularly their own) and accept that those people had adequate training. Considering that they typically got extra instruction that the rest didn't, it wasn't an incorrect assumption, just unfair. Thus, those clan kids typically got the best postings. That wasn't even going into how head of departments could request specific people be assigned to them, usually relatives. Sakura, by making herself known at the hospital, was circumventing that.

And while it was taking time away from studying, Sakura had always been an excellent student.

Ino snickered. "Sounds about right."

"Hey, there's Hinata," I said, catching sight of her familiar jacket.

Ino stood on the seat, waving her arms. "Hey Hinata!" she shouted. "Over here!"

There weren't that many people around, so it was pretty unnecessary. Then again, Ino had never felt _any_ shame for being loud and the centre of attention.

"Hi," Hinata said with a pretty flush. "I'm not late?"

"Nah," I said easily. "We're still waiting on Sakura. How are you?"

We chatted until Sakura got there, not too long after.

"Sorry, sorry," she panted, dropping a stack of books on the table. "I tried to hurry."

"Don't worry about it," Ino said, brushing it off. "We haven't been here long."

"Right," Sakura said. "So how are we going to do this?"

Ino paused. "No idea, actually," she admitted cheerfully. "I call getting us all in one place a minor miracle. Didn't think much beyond that."

I snickered. "Maybe if we work out what each of us knows, first. Then we can figure out where to go from there."

It was pretty much as expected. Ino was fairly well grounded on the medicinal properties of plants, but only beginning to learn about the human body itself.

Sakura had a surprising wealth of information, far beyond what her classes covered. Apparently she'd been reading ahead, and the other med-nin and nurses had been more than willing to part with tip and tricks during the hospital day. She was pretty good at forming Yin medical chakra, though hadn't actually used it for anything yet.

Hinata also had a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the body, probably augmented by her Byakugan, but stuck solely to making salves and ointments.

"You don't know any medical jutsu?" I asked curiously.

She shook her head. "I c-can't use them," she stammered. "Because of the Jyuuken."

I paused, remembering how I'd tried to make chakra blocks, only to have them fade away when I disconnected. For Jyuuken to continue to affect people _after_ being hit, there must have been something making it… solid. It might have been a natural extension of their Bloodlimit or it might have been harnessed through training. Something so attack based would be difficult to change to _healing_ chakra.

"Because you make those chakra plugs," I expanded. "It means you can't form Yin natured chakra. Or if you could, it would set your Jyuuken back, a lot." There were Hyuuga medics, after all. But Hinata was the clan heiress, and she was expected to fight.

Hinata nodded, a little miserable.

"That's okay," Ino cut in, brightly. "There's plenty that can be done without medical jutsu."

"She's right," Sakura agreed. "Why don't you tell us about your ointments? How effective are they?"

Hinata brightened.

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><p>.<p>

So there's the promotions. XD Congrats to everyone who guessed right.


	47. Chapter 46

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: I've seen a couple of variations on where Snow Country is _actually_ located, so there seems to be no official word. I'm placing it to the south, past the Land of Tea, since they needed to take a boat and going east through Land of Water seems pretty dangerous.

Nemesis Jedi - Tenten hasn't been forgotten, don't worry. XD It's just that she doesn't move in the same social circles as the rest of them so it's hard to justify it. IIRC Tenten did want to be a med nin at one stage. Will have to look up that episode. And Naruto has never shown much fashion sense… red sage coat over orange, anyone?

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 46

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><p>.<p>

_You cannot run away from weakness; you must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand? ~Robert Louis Stevenson_

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><p>.<p>

"Hey, Baa-chan!" Naruto called, slamming the doors to the Mission Assignment Desk room open. "Got anything good for us?"

I felt like face palming.

Tsunade twitched. "Don't call me that, brat!" Then her face took on a sly look. "Well, if you're going to be so rude, then I might not give you this mission. That would be a shame, wouldn't it? It's A-rank, long term and I've had _quite a few_ people asking about it…"

Naruto practically vibrated on the spot.

She sighed theatrically. "But maybe I can find a nice D-rank for you instead. I think we have a Tora mission here somewhere…"

"No! Baa-chan!" Naruto practically wailed. "I mean, Tsunade the Most Awesomest Hokage Ever." He abruptly changed to at her raised eyebrow. "Please, please give us the cool mission! Don't make me face the demon cat again!"

There were quite a few snickers in the room.

"Cool mission indeed," she murmured quietly. "Alright, brat, your flattery needs work but I'll let it slide this time. Like I said, it's an A-rank mission. Body guarding. Mission specs include a fair amount of travel, so hopefully that should keep you out of trouble." Her eyes flicked to Sasuke, just for a second.

_So, somewhere to get Sasuke away from Orochimaru?_ I wondered. Was that even possible?

"I'll let your sensei fill you in on the rest," she said, throwing the mission scroll to Kakashi. "There's no point in me rehashing the details."

It was interesting that Tsunade was personally selecting our missions, but if she really was trying to help protect Sasuke from her old team mate then it made sense. And, well, everyone knew she had an interest in Naruto.

Sensei took the scroll and we crashed in one of the briefing rooms while he read over it.

"Ahuh," he murmured, nodding. "Oh, I see. How very interesting…"

Naruto was practically bouncing on the spot. "What? What? What is it, Sensei?"

Sasuke was glaring at him every time he spoke, a very impatient 'get on with it already' glare.

I _knew_ the only reason he was doing it was to wind them up.

"Sennnnseiiii," Naruto whined, dragging the syllables out.

"Mah, mah, Chunin need to be patient, you know," Kakashi-sensei said. "It's a good quality."

Naruto's face was priceless.

Sensei let him suffer for a moment, before starting. "The client is Sandayuu Asama. We're being hired to protect his company as they take a tour of the Land of Snow." There was a slight pause before the word 'company'.

"Land of Snow?" Naruto parroted. "Where's that?"

"It's on a separate continent, to the south," I said, frowning. "We don't usually have much contact with them." I didn't actually know all that much about the place. Like I said, there wasn't much contact.

"Very rarely," Kakashi-sensei confirmed. "Most of the countries there have their own ninja villages. The Land of Snow has the Village Hidden in the Snow, for example. None of them are really a match for the Five Great Nations, though. They're more akin to the minor villages like Hidden Waterfall or Grass."

"How long will we be gone?" Sasuke wanted to know. "Hokage-sama said it was a long term mission."

Kakashi-sensei hummed. "It depends. It might take a week to sail there, depending on currents and winds, and the tour is listed as between a month and two with the potential to extend further."

Two to three months wasn't exactly 'long term' for most ninja, but it was still the longest mission that we'd been sent on. And the furtherest.

"We'll be meeting them at the Port City and it'll probably take us three days to get there. If we leave tomorrow morning, that gives us plenty of travel time, as well as giving you kids time to put cold weather mission gear together. Land of Snow lives up to its name, trust me on that one."

That meant we'd have to bring two sets of gear, one for travelling there and one for when we arrived. If I didn't know how to make sealing scrolls, that would mean things would start getting bulky. As it was, well, sealing scrolls did take up space too; the more you put in them the bigger they had to be.

Given that we'd been Genin for about four months, we didn't even _have_ cold weather gear yet.

Sensei hadn't given us many details on the whole thing, but we also hadn't met the client so I guess it could be saved for then.

I went home and found Mum, who fussed about me being sent away on a long mission so _soon_, and then proceeded to drag me all around town gathering the gear I'd need. One of the good things about shopping in a ninja town was that you could get things even when they were ridiculously out of season. I made a mental list of what we were getting, so I could make sure the boys had everything, because while there was the obvious stuff - thermals, insulated sleeping bag, heavy gloves, closed shoes _thank the gods_, Konoha standard wrap around cloaks - there were also things I never would have thought of - winter issue double walled canteens so your water didn't freeze.

"We would have had to get most of this anyway," she murmured at one point. "This is just a bit earlier than I expected."

Eventually, she decided enough was enough and I staggered home under a load of shopping.

It took me a while to organise everything and seal it away, but I was being pedantic. I didn't particularly want to get all the way to the Land of Snow and realise I'd forgotten to pack socks or something. You could use chakra to regulate your temperature to a certain extent - and most ninja did - but in snowing climates, proper gear was a must.

Then I went to assist the boys and found that Kakashi-sensei had actually taken it on himself to help them pack - separately, of course.

Then, since I actually had time, I went and said goodbye to everyone. Ino was jealous that we always seemed to get the _interesting_ missions, but I told her that I doubted freezing for two months in a place optimistically called the Land of Snow was _interesting._

So bright and early the next morning - ish, we had to wait for Sensei to show up - we left Konoha and headed east of the Port City where we'd meet our client.

Travelling together, being together twenty four hours a day, meant that I noticed the unsettled undercurrent to our interactions, subtle and uncomfortable like stone grinding on stone. It didn't affect our fighting, and we'd already displayed that we could work well together still, but our equilibrium had been unsettled and we didn't know how to react. Naruto being promoted just upset the makeup of the squad even further.

I would have said Kakashi-sensei was completely unaffected by our drama, except… except… it was just little things. An extra sweep of the campsite at night. Not letting us stray too far away. Given that Sasuke seemed to have a bullseye on his back, it might have even been justified. Except it kinda seemed like _hovering._

We arrived with no trouble at all, having made the trip easily.

"Well, we made good time," Kakashi-sensei said cheerfully, looking up and down the street. People were giving us a wide berth, but that was probably because he had just jumped down from the rooftops. "It's a few hours before we need to meet the client, so why don't you kids go and amuse yourselves?" He glanced behind us. "Oh, look. There's a cinema. They're showing the new Unlucky Princess film right now. You should watch that."

He shoved something into Sasuke's hands, then up and vanished.

I stared at the empty spot where he had been, absolutely mystified.

"Uh," Naruto said. "What?"

Why on earth did Kakashi-sensei want us to go watch a movie, and that one in particular?

Sasuke looked equally bewildered. "I don't know." His hands opened, revaluing a set of crumbled notes.

Okay, and Sensei had even given us the money for it. That was… unusual.

"I guess we better," I said. "There's _probably_ a reason for it."

We shrugged. There wasn't really any reason _not_ to.

The acting was very good, though some of the lines were a bit corny. Actually having a working knowledge of how fights went meant that the fight scenes were slightly less dramatic than intended and the use of chakra… well, I wont say it's _impossible_ since there's probably a blood limit or special technique out there _somewhere_ like that, but it certainly wasn't standard.

Apart from that, with a bit of suspension of disbelief, it was actually a good movie.

Naruto seemed to enjoy it anyway. I think that was because Princess Fuun's catchphrase was 'I wont give up'.

The cinema itself was next to the film studio, and there was a good bit of space out front, so we decided to wait there for Kakashi-sensei to show up.

"That," Naruto declared. "Was an _awesome_ movie. I wonder if there are princesses like Fuun around."

"Well, I guess daughters of Daimyos can be called princesses," I said. "But I doubt there are any sword wielding, chakra using princesses on a quest to defeat an evil sorcerer." Or whatever the quest had been. Having not seen the previous Unlucky Princess films I was a bit hazy on that.

"It's just a story," Sasuke added.

Naruto was about to argue when he was cut off by a horse jumping over the wall to the film studio. We blinked, startled, and then darted aside as the gates swung open and a set of armour clad riders charged out.

"Wha- hey!" Naruto shouted. "That's Princess Fuun! We have to stop them!" He jumped up and darted after them.

A group of men chasing a single woman was the kind of situation that we involved ourselves in automatically, mission or no. And generally, the person fleeing was the victim, particularly when the pursuers were so obviously intimidating. But, not _always._

And it was the times when it _wasn't_ true that it came back to bite you.

So first step; information gathering. Finding out who and _why_ and just what, exactly, was going on. Sometimes it could be done observationally, but sometimes you just had to _ask._

"Wait! Naruto," I called after him, exchanging a glance with Sasuke. He looked ready to act. "If I pin them with Shadow Jutsu, you surround them with clones and then we can ask what's going on."

We darted after them, taking to the rooftops to cut across in front of them. I waited till they entered the shadow cast by a tall building before dropping down, and lashing out. It was tricky work, but I'd always been better at the fiddly things like timing and multiple capture than straight out power. A single fleeing woman and at least ten pursuers, all of them on horses? Tricky, but not impossible.

Naruto, obligingly created clones to surround everyone, cutting Fuun off from the rest protectively.

"Just what is going on here?" Sasuke demanded, standing with arms crossed and ready to spring into action, on a cart that had been overturned during the chase. It gave him extra height and a vantage point

"Pretty obvious…" Naruto muttered lowly. It was in Naruto's nature to jump straight into things head first, but I did prefer to be cautious when possible.

But, what the leader of the gang had to say _wasn't _at all obvious. "Ah, you must be the ninja from Konoha. What excellent timing." He had a polite and cultured voice and seemed pleased about it.

"What?" Sasuke asked, thrown.

"Yes, I am Sandayuu Asama. The lady behind you is Yukie Fujikaze, who you will be protecting for this mission. Yukie," he said, addressing her instead. "Please come back to the studio."

She glared at him sullenly, pretty face pulled into an unattractive scowl. "I don't want to."

Oh dear. Well, at least it didn't look like I had to keep everyone immobile. I dropped the shadow jutsu, but the only reactions was that some of the horses tossed their heads and jittered nervously in place.

"I apologise for this," Sandayuu said, with a bow. "Yukie is a wonderful actor, but she has been… difficult during this last film."

"So, wait," Naruto frowned. "What happened? You were chasing her… and who are these guys?"

"Ah, places that house famous people are often targets, so the film studio has its own security guards. We also have several body guards who work as stuntmen for the film," Sandayuu explained. He gave a nod to the guards who moved to surround Yukie. She gave no reaction. "Please, if we return to the studio, we will be much more comfortable."

I shrugged. Naruto was still frowning, but he acquiesced with a 'sure, I guess.'

Kakashi-sensei arrived just as we were returning. His eye roved over the whole group of us, apparently trying to determine what had happened. "Well," he drawled, "I see you've all met each other."

"Yes, indeed," Sandayuu said. "And they were a wonderful help." He shook his head. "Managing to stop all of us at once, just what one would expect from a Konoha ninja."

"I see," Kakashi-sensei said, because he might not have known what happened, but the client wasn't upset about it so it was fine. "I'm Kakashi Hatake and this is my squad."

'Genin Team' was only two thirds accurate now, so squad or team were actually the correct terminology. Usually, when promotions happened, the Chunin was placed with a Chunin squad and another Genin was placed, or the teams were rearranged. It hadn't happened with us, or any of the other rookie nine. It could have been because we _were_ rookies and had only been ninja for a few months and they thought we needed the experience we'd gain under a Jounin-sensei still.

"Sandayuu Asama," he introduced again. "Please, come with me and I'll take you to the Director."

The guards took the horses away and went around the side of the building where I glimpsed outdoor sets and stables while we went inside. It was a flurry of activity in there too, with people moving backdrops and lights and chattering busily.

"Sensei," I asked lowly, as we moved inside. "What _exactly _is our mission?" I should have asked for details earlier, really. I had thought Kakashi-sensei would tell us before we needed to know. But we'd had a whole three days to get here and I hadn't asked once.

Sensei sighed. "Our mission is to protect the actress who plays Princess Fuun, Fujikaze Yukie. We're her escorts for the duration of the filming."

A man with blond hair carrying a megaphone overheard and nodded eagerly. "This is the first time The Unlucky Princess will be filmed overseas. But Fujikaze Yukie plays the most critical role."

"And all the way to Snow Country, too," another man said. I thought he might also have been one of the actors. Kin? "Everyone is really excited. Well, apart from Yukie."

"The Rainbow Glaciers," someone else confirmed. "It's said that in spring, they glow with seven colours."

I probably should have been more excited to meet famous actors than I really was. But I'd never really been the type to follow celebrities, or even really watch movies and much less so since I'd arrived here.

"That's nothing more than a myth," Kakashi-sensei said. "In the real Snow Country, there is no such thing as spring."

"Kakashi, was it?" the Director asked. "I've heard that you've been to Snow Country before…"

"A long time ago," Kakashi-sensei confirmed, clearly not wanting to expand on that. I didn't know if I should be surprised or not; Kakashi had been a ninja for a long time, there were probably few places he _hadn't_ been.

"Snow Country is quite a poor nation, I heard," the actor continued. "The economy collapsed several years ago and it never recovered. They have a lot of technology though."

"I hope they have a heater," the other one joked. "I don't really like the cold."

"Are you going to just run off like Yukie then?"

"Hey! Give me a break."

I tuned them out, turning to Sandayuu. "About Yukie…" I said. If we were supposed to be protecting her, that could prove to be a problem, if it was as bad as people were hinting at.

"She really doesn't know the meaning of the words 'motivation' or 'ambition'," the guy with the megaphone said, shrugging. "She's really quite helpless."

"But she doesn't slack off when it comes to work," the Director cut in. "I don't care about an actors private life. As long as she gives a great performance when the camera is on, I'm not going to complain. She was born to be an actress." He paused. "Thinking about it she started trying to run away when she was told she was going to Snow Country."

_Ninja senses tingling,_ I thought drolly.

"Does she have a history with the place?" Sasuke asked.

Sandayuu shuffled, but didn't answer.

The Director shrugged. "I wouldn't have a clue. You'd have to ask her. In fact, please do. Maybe you can get this nonsense sorted out."

The discussion went on longer, sorting out the details of the trip and so forth until it was interrupted by one of the stage hands running up to us.

"Director, Sandayuu-san," he panted. "It's Yukie. She's gone!"

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><p>.<p>

Also, apparently 'furtherest' is only considered a word in New Zealand. Wikitionary tells me so.

Usually, I take Team 7 not knowing about their mission until ridiculously late as film artistic licence to cut down on the number of scenes or whatever. But here, I thought, Kakashi would probably _like_ mystifying his team. Just a little. He probably planned to do a big reveal of 'FAMOUS ACTRESS' that got completely ruined by team trouble magnet.


	48. Chapter 47

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: A few questions from reviewers that I can't answer by PM:_ When's the time skip?_ Time skip is actually pretty far away, content wise. We've got this movie, some more filler stuff including another OVA, Sasuke Retrieval, more filler stuff including two movies and so forth. Canonically, it started when Naruto left on his trip with Jiraiya and finished when he came back. I may or may not write a time skip that may or may not be quite as long. I haven't quite decided yet, but I'm leaning towards the not.

_Is there going to be romance?_ I answered this a few chapters ago, and my stance on that really hasn't changed much. There wont be any for a long while. They're twelve, and that's not really an age for serious romance. Especially since Shikako is mentally a lot older, there would be a serious imbalance there.

And to Albatross Aoba - I'm sorry you feel that way. I think the Chunin Exam Arc has a lot more going for it than simply who gets promoted, especially considering that canonically the only one to get through was Shikamaru. I do believe that it was an in character decision, and that, by the way the pairs were chosen, it was a matchup that would have happened.

Nemesis Jedi - Rainbow Rasengan. Rainbow Rasengan. Nope, no matter how many times I say it, it doesn't sound any _less_ hilarious.

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Chapter 47

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><p>.<p>

_Running away will never make you free. ~ Kenny Loggins_

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><p>.<p>

We tracked Yukie down to a small, rundown and empty bar. It didn't take long to find her, and Sandayuu himself would have probably managed without too much trouble. He didn't look surprised to find her there, that was for sure.

The way she was tipping back sake… yeah, this probably wasn't the first time.

"Gee, Nee-chan," Naruto said brightly. "There you are! Why'd you leave? You made everyone worried."

She stared at him blankly, swaying a little.

"You know, I really liked your movie," Naruto continued, either not noticing the disinterest or ignoring it. "It was so cool. "Never give up." That's almost like my motto. I won't ever give up, either. One day, I'm going to be Hokage and that's not someone who can just quit." He beamed at her. "So, Princess Fuun-"

"I'm not Princess Fuun," she cut him off, swinging her cup of sake to her mouth and nearly missing. Her muscles had the lax, uncoordinated quality of too much alcohol.

"I know," Naruto said patiently. "You're Yukie Fujikaze, the greatest actress in the Land of Fire."

She snorted. "Actress? Great?" she mocked, starting to laugh. "Being an actress is the worst job ever. It's a job for the worst kind of people. You have to follow other peoples scripts, act, live in a world full of lies… Truly stupid."

At least you _know_ they're lies, I thought. You can stop playing make pretend the second the camera's are off.

I shook the thought off. That sounded surprisingly bitter.

"Are you drunk?" Naruto asked, a little disbelieving. "It's not even that late." He frowned, putting his hands on his hips.

"You are so annoying!" She said, mood turning snappish rather than maudlin. "Go away!"

"Ah, Yukie," Sandayuu said carefully, seeing that Naruto was having no luck. "Please, come with us. The ship is leaving soon and we have to get everything organised."

"That's okay." She shrugged, pouring herself another cup from the sake bottle. It sloshed heavily, thunking hollowly as she put it down - half gone, maybe. "I'm not going to board."

Sandayuu gasped. "What are you saying? Yukie…"

"It'll be okay. It happens all the time," she swayed, gesturing with her hand. "Something goes wrong… the main character gets replaced, the director gets replaced -"

"Be quiet!" he snapped, sounding forceful for the first time. "The part of Princess Fuun can only be played by you. If you don't come, you wont be able to work in this business again." He didn't say it as a threat, but like a warning. If she broke her contract with this movie, no one would trust her to hold to theirs.

"It's alright," she said indifferently. "It doesn't matter."

"Yukie…" Sandayuu said helplessly.

I felt awkward watching their drama while not really being a part of it. I wasn't entirely sure what we were supposed to do. She wasn't our client, but we'd been hired to escort her. In some cases that could include an 'against her will' clause. I looked at Sensei.

"I guess it can't be helped," he said, sliding his headband up with one hand.

Yukie turned to look at him, either curious about what he was saying, or simply because he was talking. She caught his gaze and her eyes went glassy before sliding closed. He caught her easily as she tumbled forward, returning his headband down to cover his Sharingan.

I stared at the sleeping actress feeling bemused. "Wasn't that overkill, sensei?" Surely he had other ways of knocking someone out without using his Sharingan. Heck, I knew other ways of knocking people out.

"A little, yes," Kakashi-sensei said, lifting her up. "But at least this way I'm guaranteed that she won't wake up again until the morning. Otherwise she could cause trouble or try to run away again… both of which we don't need."

That was a valid point.

I dropped back to walk next to Naruto as we made our way back to the studio. His fists were clenched and he was glaring aimlessly at the ground.

I bumped shoulders with him, questioning.

"I can't believe her," he huffed. "She's so…" he flailed his hands, searching for a word before settling on "mean".

"She's an actress," Sasuke said, slowing down to match pace with us. "She was never going to be exactly like Princess Fuun." Considering how thrilled Naruto had been during the movie, he was probably feeling a little cheated about that. Still, there wasn't anything that could be _done_ about it.

"I know," Naruto said. "But 'it's the worst job' and getting drunk at a time like this! Gah, it's like Baa-chan all over again."

I smirked. "I don't think Tsunade-sama would be too impressed by the comparison."

He snickered. "I'll tell her, when we get home. I really will." He tucked his hands behind his head and grinned cheekily, in anticipation of mischief.

I exchanged looks with Sasuke. _Only Naruto_.

"We didn't get a chance to ask her about Snow Country," I realised. I didn't actually know much about Snow Country, future knowledge wise. Was it something that hadn't been shown, like our D-ranks? Or was it simply something that I had paid no attention to? Had I just forgotten? That happened, but usually I had _something._

"There's definitely something there," Sasuke confirmed. "That guy - Sandayuu - he seems to know. I guess we'll have to ask him."

"I wonder what it could be," Naruto mused. "It seems weird that someone would want to avoid a whole country." That was a good point, actually. Avoiding a person, or a specific location was one thing, avoiding a whole country was another. It said that whatever was going on was something _big_.

"We're probably going to find out," I said dryly. That seemed to be how things worked. Then again, no one ever expected an A-rank mission to be _easy_.

Back at the studio, the place was a hive of activity as the film crew were busily loading everything they were going to take with them. The ship was leaving early tomorrow morning, which meant that everything needed to be packed tonight. Sandayuu, as Yukie's manager, wasn't involved in that much, apart from making sure that all her gear was ready, which meant we had an excellent chance to question him.

"So what's her deal with Snow Country?" Naruto asked bluntly, after we'd tucked her up into her room and found an out of the way room that still had some chairs in it.

I winced. It was a good question, but it could have been asked with a little more finesse. Still, it got the point across.

"Ah, well," Sandayuu said nervously, glancing at us.

"Please," Kakashi-sensei said calmly. "You did hire us to protect her. We can do that more effectively if we know what's going on."

"Yes, that is true," he said, nodding. "Very well. Where shall I start? Ah. My name is Sandayuu Asama. I used to be a member of Snow Country's 50th Brigade; Samurai who protected the previous Daimyo, Sousetsu Kazahana."

Naruto shifted awkwardly, obviously wondering where this was going, but didn't say anything. The rest of us just listened.

"At that time, the Land of Snow was a peaceful place. Sousetsu was a good man. The economy went downhill in the last years of his reign but he did his best for his people. There are rumours that say he spent the money of battle puppets and such, but I don't believe them. Sousetsu was a gentle man, he never believed in war. He always said he would have been an engineer if he was not a Daimyo." He shook himself, obviously aware that he was drifting off course. "Ah, but the Daimyo had a young daughter, Princess-"

"Koyuki," Kakashi-sensei finished, eye wide. He looked like he had just put the pieces together to solve a puzzle.

I had a sinking feeling that I knew what was coming next.

"Yes," Sandayuu confirmed. "Princess Koyuki. When Sousetsu's brother Dotou revolted and burned the castle down, we believed that she had died. Our Daimyo was dead, his house in ruins, his loyal samurai scattered and lost… it was a dark day." His eyes started tearing up. "When I came here… when I found her acting on stage… I was so _happy._"

"Her?" Naruto muttered, puzzled. "Yukie?"

"Yukie Fujikaze is a fake name," Kakashi-sensei said wearily. He rubbed his face. "She's really Koyuki Kazahana, isn't she?"

"Yes," Sandayuu said. "She is our princess. Our _hope._"

"Your hope?" I repeated. That was a strange thing to say.

"I've been keeping in touch with my old friends from the brigade, and things are… restless in the Land of Snow. They're more than ready to start a rebellion, but they're scattered. If they had a figurehead, a rallying point…" He looked up at us, to see if we were following.

"The Princess," Sasuke stated.

"Yes." Sandayuu said. "Sousetsu was a good man. The people loved him. And they loved the princess. Dotou is the opposite. He's like the stereotypical evil lord, feasting while the country starves, hording whatever little wealth there is… It can't go on. One way or another, it has to change."

His conviction was obvious. Given that we hadn't seen it ourselves, I couldn't judge how truthful it was, but he _believed _it.

"And what does the princess think of this?" I asked, because I could see a _major_ sticking point, there.

He faltered. "I had hoped…" he said, trailing off. "Ever since I became her manager, I have been looking for a way to return her home. Convincing the Director to film at the Rainbow Glaciers… that was a victory."

"She doesn't seem to want to go," Sasuke pointed out. From Yukie's point of view the entire situation was stressful - not wanting to go back to Snow Country because of bad memories or danger, but being unable to explain _why_ without admitting who she was… No wonder she was trying to run.

"She is unhappy here," Sandayuu insisted. "Wherever we go, she is unhappy. I believe that she truly wishes to return home. She is just afraid…."

Of course she was afraid. Her home was ransacked and her family killed. She wasn't a ninja, couldn't fight back the way we could. There was more to courage than physical skills, but I would be the first to admit that they helped.

"This isn't a whim on my part," Sandayuu said. "There are plans, alliances… I even hired ninja." He gestured at us. "I do not wish to put the Princess in any danger."

There was danger inherent in being part of a rebellion, in returning to a place where she was an usurper to the throne, but he did seem to be trying to negate it.

"Well, it's all within our contract," Kakashi-sensei said, neutrally. I wondered if the contract had been specifically written like that. It was highly likely, actually, if Sandayuu had planned it out. "We have been hired to escort Yukie around Snow Country. But I would suggest convincing her of her role before we arrive."

"Thank you," he said, sighing gratefully. "Thank you."

_What a mess. _

It certainly gave _us_ a lot to consider.

"Why would some one who was trying to hide their identity become an actress?" Sasuke asked. "Doesn't that… seem strange?"

"Maybe she didn't realise there was still danger," I offered. "She's a long way from home. Or maybe she was hiding in plain sight. If it had happened ten years ago, she would have been very young. It's not always easy to know what people look like at different ages. Unless she bears a strong resemblance to a family member, looks alone wouldn't have been enough to find her. And by then she would have been famous _as_ Yukie Fujikaze, which is it's own kind of cover."

She might not have had much of a choice, depending on what happened after she left Snow Country. One would expect a young princess to be fostered by a neighbouring Daimyo either as a hostage or in preparation for future succession issues… there were probably a lot of reasons that it would benefit them to do so.

On the other hand, if she had _not_ been placed, she would have been a young girl with good education but few practical skills, traumatised and alone, and a long way from everything she knew.

Or it could have been a mix of the two or anything in between.

Or maybe she just wanted to be an actress. Granted, she didn't seem too enthused about the job now but maybe she had when she started.

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><p>.<p>

We all boarded the ship just after dawn, and by the time the light had saturated the harbour we were moving. I'm not much of a boat person, so I didn't know too much about the ship itself. It had two masts, above and below decks as well as a front and rear cabins (fore and aft? Something like that anyway). It was fairly crowded on board, with the ship crew, film crew, actors and all the props and scenery that had to be brought with us…

Initially, it wasn't too bad, as everyone hung about on the deck watching as we left the port. There was oohing and ahhing about finally going out to sea, and how everything looked and passing ships and so forth. But by mid morning, the deck was a hive of activity. Apparently, there was filming to be done while on the ship, not just in the Land of Snow.

I leant over the railings, half to keep myself out of the way, and half because I was starting to feel _really_ queasy. Before, I'd had a severe case of motion sickness that had been the bane of my childhood. Car trips of over half an hour could make me sick and buses were even worse. That had gotten better with age, but the real horror, and the one I'd never got over, had been boats.

I hadn't even considered that that might have followed me here. I'd never had cause to step on a boat before apart from a very brief and quiet trip to the Land of Waves. Given that this _wasn't even_ _the same body_ it was just blatantly unfair.

The cold air helped some, but I foresaw a miserable week ahead of me.

It was a shame, because there was so much interesting stuff going on. The most I knew about filming came from the extra's on DVD's. I would have liked to find out more.

"Not going to watch the filming?" Sasuke asked, leaning next to me.

"Maybe later," I said. "Naruto's over there, anyway, if anything happens."

Yukie had been most displeased to find herself waking up on a boat, and the hangover probably didn't help much either. She seemed to be coldly resigned to it now, though we hadn't been able to corner her and talk to her. I thought it would probably be wise to give Sandayuu a chance first, before we tried to convince her.

He hesitated, dark eyes watching me. "Do you think she'll do it?" He asked instead. It wasn't what he had been _going_ to say, but I didn't push.

"Hard to say," I replied. "We haven't really talked to her about _why_ so we don't have much information. But," I shrugged on shoulder. "Naruto's proven to be pretty good at talking people into things in the past."

Sasuke snorted. "I guess that's true." He looked over at where Naruto and Kakashi-sensei were standing. "Things are going to be different now, aren't they?"

"Because Naruto got promoted?" I guessed. "Maybe. But things are always changing. Look at how much we've changed since graduation." I made a listless gesture with my hand, trying to encompass us all. "The team will work how the team works. I don't think Naruto getting a flack jacket will change all _that _much. Maybe if Kakashi-sensei weren't here…" I shrugged. Technically, if Kakashi-sensei weren't here, or if we split up into groups, Naruto would be in charge. Only time would tell if that was going to be an issue. I didn't think it would be, but who knew?

Sasuke made a noncommittal sound. "It's not…" he said slowly. "It's not really about the promotion…"

"It's that he's grown so strong, so fast?" I finished.

His shoulders hunched forward, just a little. He looked… a little ashamed. Maybe because he was jealous, or maybe because he felt he hadn't.

"So have you," I pointed out gently. "Sharingan, Chidori, your taijutsu… you've come a long way. It's just hard to see in yourself."

"I guess," he said, which didn't tell me if he believed me or not. Still, it was better than outright rejection and hostility and I don't think he was really upset at Naruto. It was just that for every battle we won there seemed to be another where we got slapped down by opponents well above our skill level and he was frustrated. Thinking about it, Naruto had come out of those fights better off than the rest of us, even managing to beat Gaara.

That probably contributed a lot.

I sighed. "Do you think they'll mind if I jump down and run on the water?" I asked, changing the subject.

He blinked. "What?"

"It's just the rocking…" I waved my hand and grimaced."You're seasick," he said, dawning realisation. "I could ask Kakashi-sensei," he said after a pause. "See what he says."

"Thanks," I said quietly.

Kakashi-sensei wandered over casually in his 'I'm only moving in this direction because I feel like it' manner after Sasuke spoke with him.

"Alright?" He asked, pressing the backs of his fingers to my forehead in a very parental temperature check. It was a legitimate way to check for fever, of course, but it still amused me.

"Just wondered if they'd kick up a fuss if I went over the side," I said. Probably best not to give the crew heart attacks by just diving off the edge without warning. Civilians generally weren't used to people capable of running over water.

"Should be fine," Sensei said, shrugging and opening his book in a way that said he really didn't care what they thought. "Just don't stray too far from the ship."

I was crouched on the railings, just about to jump off when he spoke again.

"Oh. And watch out for the sharks." His one visible eye crinkled into a smile.

I rolled my eyes and jumped, landing without a splash, but with a fairly decent sized ripple. Once, like anyone else who'd seen Jaws, that warning would have freaked me out. But when you were a chakra powered ninja, local wildlife wasn't the threat it used to be. Oh, sure, if you were injured, low on chakra or taken by surprise you might be in trouble, or if it was a particularly vicious species like those that lived in the Forest of Death but in general it wasn't something to consider.

Sharks, for instance, were deadly to humans because we lacked manoeuvrability in the water and could neither escape nor avoid them. When you were capable of removing yourself from their kingdom simply by _standing on top of it_, that ceased to be an issue.

That didn't mean I _didn't_ keep an eye out, but I wasn't going to mention that.

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><p>.<p>

Night time brought it's own difficulties. I'd already noticed that there were a lot of people on board and not very much space, a fact which was highlighted when it came to finding somewhere to sleep. There were a few cabins - Yukie got a private one - but not enough for everyone. Those of importance got the beds, while the rest of us were given canvas hammocks to string up below decks.

"We actually get the better deal," one of the sailors confided. "The hammocks move in concert with the ship, so you don't get thrown out like you sometimes do with berths or the pipe racks. If you hang them properly, they'll cocoon around you, so it's not cold either."

I really had no idea what he was talking about, but I nodded anyway. It was nice of him to say so.

"I think it's kind of neat. Maybe we should put hammocks on our equipment list." It would probably work in Fire Country, what with the huge forests everywhere, though maybe not everywhere else.

"In some places it is," Kakashi-sensei said. "Like if you're headed to Land of Rainforests, they have a huge range of biting insects - fire ants, that kind of thing - and you're advised _not_ to sleep on the ground. That necessitates people getting, ah… inventive with their sleeping arrangements. In ANBU, I had one team mate who would rig himself an ankle snare and hang from a tree branch. We got ambushed once, and they thought he was our prisoner and tried to get him down. It gave us time to deal with them." He shrugged and scratched his cheek. "He was a little weird."

Setting aside the issues with sleeping upside down, like blood flow to the head, it was a funny story. Something I could see a ninja potentially doing.

Naruto apparently thought so, because he latched onto Kakashi-sensei and stared up at him. "I bet you have a lot of cool stories to tell, ne Kaka-sensei?" he asked. "Tell us another one. Please?"

I snickered. "Now you've done it. You let Naruto know you've done interesting things. He's never going to leave you alone now."

Kakashi-sensei looked a little flustered and pushed Naruto back onto his hammock, which promptly spun around and dumped him on the floor.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You didn't tie it tightly enough," he said, getting up to help.

"Personally," I continued. "I kinda want to hear the one Gai-sensei mentioned about you cutting a lightning bolt in half. That sounds epic."

Kakashi-sensei shrugged. "Ah, it's probably not as great as you were thinking."

But even Sasuke was giving him an interested look.

He sighed. "I was fighting a ninja from the Storm Squad, that's a Hidden Cloud ninja that uses storms to boost their lightning jutsu," he clarified. "I was attacking her with Chidori when she called a lightning strike down. Our jutsu clashed and mine won." He shrugged. "That's it."

Short, but I could picture it happening - Kakashi-sensei with Sharingan eye spinning leaping forward, chidori crackling, under the dark and stormy sky, at a lady, standing tall, hand raised to call the lightning down… the clash of lightning versus lightning…

"Still sounds pretty epic," I decided.

"So cool," Naruto breathed, eyes shining.

Kakashi-sensei looked half amused, half exasperated. "Well, if you really want a story," he said slyly. "I'll read you one by a real _master._" He whipped out his orange book.

"No!" Naruto shrieked, hands clapping over his ears. "I don't wanna hear it!"

I couldn't help but laugh.


	49. Chapter 48

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: 1000 reviews? You guys rock.

Valerie - I don't wanna give away too much about that. It's certainly going to be _different_, so there's no need to feel disappointed. And, well, yes. I kind of do like making fun of Kakashi. XD In the best possible way, of course.

NobodyInParticular - Yeah, I kinda assumed it would come up in one training session or another. It just seems to be one of those _things._

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 48

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><p>.<p>

_Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. ~ Ronald Reagan_

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><p>.<p>

"Your turn to convince me, is it?" Yukie muttered as I landed on the deck next to her. The ship crew had mostly gotten used to us jumping on and off the ship at whim and climbing up the mast and rigging without a safety harness.

"Would you like me too?" I asked practically. She hadn't listened to Sandayuu and he probably had a better understanding of the situation than the rest of us.

Didn't mean I wasn't going to _try_, just meant that the obvious route wasn't the one I was going to use.

She snorted. "It doesn't matter. Whatever you say, whatever you do, it wont matter in the end. You'll see."

"Why wont it matter?" I asked idly, leaning on the railings. I took out a kunai and flipped it, end over end, like I used to do with pens. Only, then I'd been more likely to drop it or catch the wrong end, and now I could do it with barely a thought. Hand eye coordination, muscle control, whatever it was that made the difference.

She lifted her chin. "You know the story. You heard what he did. He isn't a man that can be beaten."

"Everyone can be beaten," I said, because it was true. There was _always_ someone stronger out there. It didn't do to forget that. "It's just a matter of finding out how. Why does he scare you so much?"

Because she _was._ So scared that she'd avoid an entire country, would drop her name and past… so very, very scared.

Her breath caught, jerkily. Then she laughed mockingly. "He killed my father himself, did you know that?" her voice hissed out, almost venomously. "I saw it. He just struck him down like it was _nothing_. The castle was burning, everyone was screaming… You can't possibly _imagine…_" she scoffed. "And you ask me why I'm scared."

I considered my kunai for a second. It was… well, fair enough reasoning I guess. But by all accounts, her father had been untrained in any sort of fighting ability. Didn't make it any less terrifying to a child's eyes, of course, and the impression of _power_ was a lasting one.

"We can probably imagine better than you think," I said evenly. I'd been on the other side, getting struck down. But even Itachi Uchiha wasn't invincible… just _almost._ _Kyuubi_ wasn't invincible, either, or he never would have been sealed. "But that kind of fear… you can't run away from it. It followed you this far, and it'll keep following you for a good long time. Even if we never go to Snow Country… that fear is still going to be there."

"And if we go there, we'll die," she retorted. "This isn't a movie. The hero doesn't win. There are no happy endings just because you _try._"

"No happy endings?" I echoed. "There are no endings at all. Things keep going. Day after day. If you want happiness, you have to make it happen. If yesterday didn't go your way, plan today and make tomorrow better." I shrugged one shoulder. "You've got to make a decision sometime, princess. Running only helps when you've got somewhere to go."

She turned away and left. I let her. That conversation wasn't really going anywhere.

The problem with Yukie was that she was lashing out blindly, with no real idea of what she wanted or didn't want. She was bitter, angry and afraid … and lost and confused. She had no goals, nothing to keep her moving on, nothing to aim for. Frankly, I was surprised that she'd managed to come this far, and it probably said more about the people around her than it did about her personally.

"What a mess," I said out loud. Maybe Naruto's personal brand of 'I don't care, I'll make it happen' would get through to her. Heck, maybe Sasuke could sympathise over their similar circumstances. Not that I expected Sasuke to share that, actually.

Things would go much more smoothly if she cooperated. You couldn't crown an unwilling queen.

Well, I reconsidered, you probably could. But it certainly wouldn't be a nice situation for anyone involved, and it really wasn't an outcome that I was looking forward too.

That second day on the water blurred into the third, and the weather started getting colder.

"There's so much empty space out here," Naruto said, standing on top the horizontal post of the mast. "I didn't realise just how ..." He gestured.

I stood beside him, cloak billowing dramatically in the wind, but failing to fulfil it's actual role in keeping me warm. "Just you, me and the wide blue sea," I singsonged.

"It's like you could keep sailing _forever,_" he said, a little in awe of the sheer _freedom_ of it.

I grinned. "Going to give up being a ninja to become a pirate?" I teased. "Kakashi-sensei already has an eye patch, and I think Sasuke would look spiffing in the hat, so me and you get to fight it out for the peg leg and hook hand."

Not that I would be particularly enthused about such a thing. This was a smooth and quiet trip and I _still_ couldn't wait to get to land. If there had been any kind of storm… you could forget it.

Naruto laughed. "I'll never give up being a ninja," he said. "Not even to be a pirate."

"Didn't think you would," I admitted. "Have you talked to Yukie?"

"Yeah," he said with a sigh. "Even _Sasuke_ has tried to talk to her. But I don't think she was even _listening_ to me."

Sasuke had tried? Maybe I should ask him how it went.

"Maybe she'll change her mind once we actually get there." I shrugged. "You know, see the place, see the people and all that."

"I'll keep trying, anyway," Naruto said, determined.

I smirked. "You do that," I said before leaning back, past the point of balance, feeling gravity snag me, and cut the chakra to my feet. I fell and flipped over gracefully in the air, landing lightly on the deck. So it might have been a needlessly showy way of getting down, but it was fast, and sometimes, when you _could_ do something like that, you just had to.

Sasuke was perched at the back of the ship, feet dangling over the sides and staring out at the water. Given that there was only so much space on the ship, trying to find a place to sit by yourself took a bit of skill.

"Hey," I said, dropping down next to him. "Heard you've been talking to Yukie."

He snorted. "I don't think talking is the right way to put it."

"That bad, huh?" I asked.

"I can't understand," Sasuke said softly, looking away. "How can she just… let him get away with it?"

I considered it. "Because it's easier than trying to fight? Because he's strong and in power and she's just one girl? Because she's scared? Because no one else did anything?" I shrugged. I was only guessing, but they were reasons.

He snorted. "If he's stronger, then you just need to work harder. If no one else will do it then you do it yourself."

I wondered if we were even talking about Yukie anymore.

I bumped my shoulder against his. "Or you find people like the amazing Team 7 to help you."

He smirked. "I guess that works too."

By late afternoon we were starting to pass small icefloes, and the next morning there were icebergs. One of them, a gigantic ice _shelf_ right smack bang in our path.

"We'll have to go right around it," the captain said. "There's no telling how big that thing is underneath the water."

Yeah, we really didn't want to run into it Titanic style.

The Director stared at it for a long moment. "It's perfect!" He enthused. "It's the ideal location. We'll film here!"

Several people stared at him.

"Are you… sure?" the ship captain asked slowly.

"When the god of movies arrives you don't ask 'are you sure?'" he scoffed. "You have to take the chances that are given! Everyone, get ready to land!"

The captain turned away, shaking his head. I caught a mutter of 'crazy old nutters' but he did turn the ship to land on the iceberg itself.

It took sometime to get everyone organised, and the props together and the actors up to date on which scenes they were filming. There was a lot of equipment that had to be offloaded, and people were scurrying around everywhere. But there were heaters set up, so it wasn't completely unbearable.

The Director was seated in his foldable camp chair, which I was starting to notice he never went anywhere _without_, smoking on his long pipe and surveying the set up like a king to his kingdom.

I snorted in amusement at the thought and turned back to surveying the iceberg. It was flat on this side, with a rising cliff at the back, with huge spires jutting out of the ground. I couldn't see why this was any better location than what probably awaited us at the Land of Snow, but what did I know?

They were halfway through filming the first scene when I felt it. I jerked my head up in surprise.

We were in the middle of the freaking ocean. How the hell were there other ninja here?

"Sensei?" I whispered urgently. "Three chakra signals just landed on the ice. The other side of that cliff." Given the way the iceshelf was formed, we couldn't see the other side of it. If there was a boat, or if they'd run from a nearby location…

His eye widened, just a fraction, before scanning the surroundings. I had no doubt he would have noticed them too, because a second later he nodded. "Hidden Snow ninja, I expect. We'll see what they want." He looked at us all seriously. "If it comes down to fighting, your job is to protect the princess and make sure that everyone gets onto the boat."

We nodded, firmly.

They could have been scouting. Spying to see what we were up to. They could have been there for a lot of reasons. But it was safest to assume they were probably after the princess.

We spread out, moving away from the heaters to cover all the directions. I knew where the chakra was, but you should never get sloppy, because _that_ was when there would be a secret attack from the direction you didn't cover.

The chakra itself was … odd. I would have almost said it had two _layers_ but that was even more mystifying. How could chakra be layered? Some special jutsu or technique was more likely then.

They knew we were here. And we knew they were here. Now it was just a matter of who made the first move.

It was them, of course. Body guarding was mostly reactionary. You protected and you deflected, but you didn't usually go out of your way to strike at a threat.

On some cue that we neither saw nor heard, the three of them appeared in the open. They weren't _close_, not yet, but they had taken the high ground where they could attack easily from.

We darted into action, repositioning ourselves in front of the group. Kakashi-sensei took point, stepping out in front of the actors, facing a man with long blue hair. The leader, probably.

"Get back," Sensei said gruffly, and the actors wasted no time following his suggestion, scurrying out of the way.

"Welcome to the Land of Snow," the first ninja said. There was a mocking lit to his voice but at least we were starting with dialogue. That was a good sign.

"We welcome you, Princess Koyuki," the second said, a female with pink hair. At first glance, she appeared to be wearing a pale blue cheongsam but it appeared remarkably _solid_ looking.

_Sakura will be pleased to hear she isn't the only one with hair like that,_ I thought idly.

"Do you have the Hexagonal Crystal?" she asked.

I had no idea what a Hexagonal Crystal was, or why she thought Yukie would have it but it seemed they _were _here for Yukie in some form or another.

Yukie didn't say anything. In fact, she was looking remarkably weak kneed. Under the heavy stage makeup, she was incredibly pale.

"Get everyone back on the boat," Kakashi-sensei ordered in a low voice. He didn't take his eyes off the enemy ninja, but I could tell he was slightly worried. Depending on how willing they were to hurt random people, having the civilians here could hamper us enormously.

We nodded, dropping back a step to usher the crew away. Naruto brought out several dozen shadow clones to help move them off, which let us keep an eye on the enemies.

"Are you going to run away again, Kakashi Hatake?" the leader called tauntingly. "Like last time?"

They knew each other. Well. That could either be good or bad. There were a lot reasons that someone might disengage from a fight, because they were losing, because their objective was to _get away_, or simply because they gained nothing from fighting. He was attempting to imply it was the first, of course, but it might not be so.

And even if it was, well, losing a fight could still gain you valuable information for the rematch.

"Nadare Rouga," Sensei replied, identifying the man. He offered no other response though.

"Fubuki, Mizore," Nadare ordered, after the silence drew out for a few more seconds. "Get the Princess."

They leapt down from their positions, heading for us. I cast an eye around the crowd looking for their target, and found her. Struggling weakly against one of Naruto's clones and _not_ heading back to the boat.

"No, no," she was whimpering. She looked _terrified._ I would have felt sorry for her, if she wasn't just putting herself in more danger.

Sasuke intercepted the second man - Mizore - with a barrage of kunai, only to have them and his fuuma shuriken _shatter_ against his metal arm coverings.

_Note to self; Don't get hit with that._

I intercepted the woman while Naruto went for Yukie, to try and get her moving. So far, everyone else was moving fine, and the other clones were herding everyone successfully back to the ship. The Hidden Snow ninja didn't seem interested in them at all, which was good.

"Don't worry," I heard him say. "I'll protect you, princess, just like in the movies." Hopefully he'd get her moving, even if he had to carry her.

My thrown kunai were batted away contemptuously and Fubuki raced through a quick hand seal.

"Ice Release: Swallow Snow Storm Jutsu!" she cried.

_Ice?_ I thought, then had to twist sharply and flip away as dozens of bird shaped ice needles flew towards me. I evaded, darting away, and they curved through the air following me. _Oh, that's not fair. _It wasn't just a straight line jutsu, then. It was controllable.

I couldn't bring up an earth wall, because there was no earth. I rolled again, underneath the jutsu and tried to keep an eye on her. If she kept me occupied with dodging this, then she had a free line to the Princess. It had a fairly wide turn radius and had to arc around, and I was plotting how I needed to move to force it to dive into the ice and when I ducked and found that I crossed paths with Sasuke. We shared a look, instant battlefield communication and switched opponents.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!" he called, breathing out and blasting the ice with fire. There was a sizzling sound of ice melting, and a gust of hot air blew across my back.

I took a moment to assess my new opponent. Tall, thickly built. Heavy metal amour capable of shattering weaponry on his arms. I didn't want to get in close. He was moving fast, some kind of snowboard stuck to his feet.

I threw an explosive note in his path, disturbing the ice and knocking him from his board. He tumbled backwards from the force of it, but it hadn't been strong enough to damage him.

I spent the time he was down gathering the chakra, and he was only just back on his feet by the time I was ready. "Lightning Release: Striking Bolt!" Electricity leapt from my fingers, flying across the space between us. Ice didn't conduct electricity the same way water did, but it didn't hamper it either. That was good enough for me.

But the lightning bolt seemed to strike something _before_ it hit him, fizzling out in thin air.

_Not good._

He charged straight through the lightning, not even fazed by it. I dodged the first heavy punch, from an arm that looked like it had a cannon welded to it, and it shattered the ice where it landed. I flipped out of the way, not wanting to fight on unstable ground, hands running through the seals for a genjutsu, only to find that it had no effect.

_The hell?_

It wasn't unusual for a ninja to be unaffected by genjutsu. Even if you did get them, a simple 'Kai' was enough to break it, unless the caster was _really_ good. I wasn't. But. But. That double layered chakra had _flared, _when my genjutsu failed. Probably when my lightning jutsu had failed, too.

_Okay. So?_ It meant something. The trouble was working out what.

I lashed out with my shadow, intending to snare him the second he was in close enough. He either didn't see it or didn't care, because he didn't even try to dodge. I found out why the instant I connected.

I _staggered._

It was draining my chakra at an alarming rate. I cut the connection, dropping the jutsu as fast as I could. It hadn't even made him _pause._

My heart was pounding from the sudden surge and I could hear it thundering in my ears. I was gulping air and my throat _burned_ from dryness and the absolutely frigid temperature.

There was a burst of heat and light behind us, as Sasuke used another fire jutsu. It was difficult keeping track of how his fight was going while still paying attention to my own, just in case we needed to switch again or _they_ switched, or I needed to dodge something… Sensei was somewhere up above us, fighting Nadare.

I ducked under an attack, aware that I was fighting on the defensive and not liking it, and rolled across the ice again, slapping an explosive tag on the ice and got free, just before it blew, sending chunks of ice and steam into the air.

I wasn't out of options, not by a long shot, but I _was _cautious. There was some kind of absorbing property to their armour, most likely. It certainly had drained my of chakra when I had established an open connection between us. Genjutsu was ineffective. Ninjutsu was … limited.

I hadn't tried Taijutsu, but he was obviously able to _dish out_ the damage and I wasn't sure I wanted to get in range of that. I'd been lucky so far, but he was faster than he seemed.

Something blurred at me out of the steam thrown up by the explosive tag. I blocked it with two kunai crossed together, prepared for sudden force, only to find them entangled in some kind of sticky string, fingers and all.

_Shit._

I rolled as well as I could without stabbing myself, as a heavily armoured leg scythed through the air where I had just been. I needed to get some distance and get my hands free.

"Hey!" someone shouted and an orange blur roared past me, slamming full body into Mizore. Naruto.

I took the opportunity given and twisted the kunai around to free my hands. The string wasn't strong, and it cut easily now that I had a second to _try._

I glanced up, taking a brief snapshot look at the other fights. Their was ice prisms pulled up in lines around Sasuke and smoke billowing into the air. Fubuki was … flying? There were wings stretched out on her back.

Kakashi-sensei and Nadare were further away. I was glad of that, because even as I watched, a huge whale made of ice burst forth and slammed down where Sensei had been. I felt a brief flash of worry, but his chakra was still strong, and of all of us, he was probably in the least danger.

The civilians were back on the boat, or almost. _Good_.

I blinked back to my fight and leapt forward with a sweeping low kick even as Naruto attacked high. We hit in tandem, blows raining down on surprisingly tough armour. But it wasn't negating them the same way it had my jutsu earlier.

_Taijutsu, then._

But it was tricky. There was solid metal on his arms and shoulders and he was thickset and strong underneath that. The part of our hits that the armour didn't absorb hardly seemed to affect him at all.

It took only the briefest of missteps and Naruto took that solid metal arm straight to the chest. He _flew_ backwards, slamming into the ice wall, slamming_ through it_, disappearing from my sight.

_Ouch. That had to hurt._

"Naruto!" Kakashi-sensei shouted, and it sounded slightly panicked.

I rebounded high off a spire, and lashed out, foot catching Mizore straight in the face, with as much force as I could manage. He stumbled.

I didn't back off, touching down and leaping back up into the air with a single quick movement before stomping _down._ The face makes a good target, sometimes. It's packed with sensitive nerves, delicate organs, and breakable cartilage. No one likes being hit in the face. I stomped down, again and again, using the downwards force to lift my other leg back up for the next kick.

Cascading Heaven Kick, it's called, if you're in to knowing the names of Taijutsu attacks, and it's hell on the thighs. Not exactly safe or stable, either, but if the circumstances are right, it works.

He reached up blindly, trying to grab my feet and throw me off and I decided it was enough, planting both feet firmly and flipping off. He slammed into the ground, blood gushing from what looked to be a horrifically broken nose. He was a ninja though, and it would take more than that to stop him.

"Everyone get to the boat!" Sensei shouted. Since the civilians were already there, I assumed he was talking to us.

Mizore was down but not out yet. He was staggering back to his feet. I chanced looking away for a second and found Naruto pulling himself out of the ice that he'd slammed into.

I darted towards him and grabbed his arm. "Come on!"

He nodded. I checked on Sasuke as we ran, and found him sending a parting fireball to Fubuki. It passed underneath her, but the sudden warm air currents made her spiral erratically about. It wasn't enough to take her out, but it gave him a second to disengage and head for the boat.

I felt the huge surge of chakra and checked over my shoulder to see _two_ of the giant ice whales rising out of the ice.

"Faster is better," I decided, nervously. I was pretty sure that Kakashi-sensei had a plan to get us out of here, since he'd called the retreat and all. I just wasn't sure I was going to _like_ it.

Naruto checked over his shoulder and almost stumbled. I shoved him along.

We barely made it to the boat before the two of them crashed into each other, then into the iceberg itself. There was a horrible rending crash and the water surged furiously, violent waves and swells battering us away from the iceberg. The boat listed and tilted and tilted back the other way. People started screaming, clinging to whatever stable surface was available. There hadn't been time to load things properly or tie them down and crates slid across the deck, clattering and clanging. More than one went off the side.

I really thought we were going to capsize.

"Well, that was interesting," Kakashi-sensei said, sliding his headband back down over his Sharingan and leaning heavily on the cabin wall.

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><p>.<p>

… because Sasuke needs a hat to go with his gay pirate outfit. You _know_ what I'm talking about.

Heavenly Cascading Kick (Tenro Kyaku) - some of you might recognise from Kasumi out of Dead or Alive. Just a little shout out there.


	50. Chapter 49

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: So I took one throw away line by the actors at the start of the movie and spun it into a plot explaining why ANBU Kakashi was there and just why he decided to switcheroo the crystal. Since, y'know, that never got explained.

Anemos - Thanks for reviewing! The chakra armour has a pretty high threshold, since the only jutsu that really damage it are Chidori and Rasengan. Konjirushi? Is that a translation of something? The sealing will show up more eventually, but it's a new skill that she hasn't mastered yet, which is me trying to bring in a little realism instead of 'one training session and I mastered it'.

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Chapter 49

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_Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope ~ Anonymous _

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The ship rocked violently underfoot and I stared at the chaos on board, feeling completely exhausted. My chakra levels were lower than I expected, having been drained by that usurped shadow jutsu.

I wasn't the only one fighting chakra exhaustion, either. Kakashi-sensei's chakra levels were low and flickering and he was leaning heavily against the wall.

_Just what we need._

"Let's go inside," Kakashi-sensei murmured. "I suspect people are going to want an explanation for what just happened."

"Shouldn't we… keep watch?" I asked hesitantly. We weren't all that far away from the iceberg, after all, and an attack while we were on the boat could be devastating.

"They won't be ready for a round two quite so soon," Sensei said. "That much I don't think has changed." He caught my confused look. "I'll explain in a minute."

One of the cabins on the upper deck was a sort of dining/meeting room, with a long table surrounded by chairs and benches. We tucked ourselves away in there.

"Are you alright, Kaka-sensei?" Naruto asked, frowning.

"Ah, I just used too much chakra," Kakashi-sensei said with a grimace. He flicked a glance at Sasuke. "Let that be a warning against using techniques you just copied; sometimes they take more out of you than you think."

Sasuke nodded shortly. After having copied and used Lee's taijutsu without having undergone the training to build the muscle necessary for it he'd probably already discovered that.

"You said they wouldn't be attacking again so soon," I prompted.

"Right," Sensei exhaled. "The explanation for that starts with the chakra armour."

"Chakra armour?" Naruto repeated, puzzled.

Kakashi-sensei nodded. "The Land of Snow is one of the few places that is known to have mines with chakra conductive metal. Normally, metal like that is very rare and expensive, and only the very best ninja or clans will be have weapons made out of chakra conductive metal. However, Hidden Snow have complete control over the mines in Snow Country, which gives them access to a very large amount of it. They use this to make their armour, which has special properties."

"Chakra absorption," I said. "It completely negated Genjutsu… and Ninjutsu …"

It was possible there was an upper limit for what it could absorb, meaning higher ranked jutsu would still work, if weaker than normal. It was also possible that the environmental effects of jutsu still had power - Fubuki had been affected by the _heat_ from Sasuke's fire jutsu.

"Right," Kakashi-sensei confirmed. "They use the armour to absorb and nullify any chakra that you use against them. It can work as a barrier around the body to protect them, and they can use it to strengthen their own techniques."

"That's why when you copied it…" Sasuke said. There was a faint crease of a frown between his eyes.

Kakashi-sensei nodded.

"About that," Naruto said, frowning. "I thought that ice was like… a Bloodlimit. That's what Haku had, right?"

"You probably didn't notice because you were busy fighting, but the jutsu that the Snow ninja used were more like earth jutsu than what Haku used. He created ice out of nothing, while they were just manipulating the ice that was already present. That kind of thing is much easier. The second reason is that their armour helps them, though I don't know how. That kind of knowledge is heavily guarded."

It must have offset the chakra cost or _something_ because they'd been throwing those jutsu around pretty easily.

"The other thing I know is that the armour works best in the Land of Snow itself." Sensei shrugged. "It's one of the reasons they're not more of a danger. It's possible that they need to recharge or repair the armour frequently, because they're unable to participate in drawn out battles or launch follow up attacks, even when that would be the best option."

"So they're going to be even stronger when we get to Snow Country?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't know," Kakashi-sensei admitted. "They've clearly been improving since the last time I was here. At the very least, they would be able to recover faster."

Well, that wasn't really good news. But then, being able to have full, up to date information on your enemies was a very rare situation indeed. We had _something_ which was better than nothing.

"What's a Hexagonal Crystal?" I asked suddenly, remembering what Fubuki had asked Yukie for.

"That… is a good question." Kakashi-sensei stared at the wall for a long second. "I really shouldn't be telling you this, but it might be relevant to the current situation. Just keep quiet about it, okay?"

We nodded.

"I came here ten years ago as part of an ANBU reconnaissance group. There were rumours that the Daimyo was building and inventing battle puppets… chakra armour… all kinds of things. They were unsubstantiated, but obviously rumours like that worry Hidden Villages, even those as far from here as Konoha. Unfortunately, while we were here, Dotou attacked, so we were never able to fully investigate." His voice was impassive, but he was leaving out large portions of the story, which indicated that it wasn't nearly as straight forward as he was saying.

That explained where he had met Nadare, anyway, and how he knew so much about the chakra armour itself.

"We _did_ find a location that was locked with an odd key. Hexagonal in shape, probably very dense in nature. Crystal, if I had to guess. We had no time to attempt to open it, or to search for the key, so I don't know what was there…"

"But it's what Dotou is looking for now," Sasuke finished, trading glances with Naruto.

I wasn't entirely sure that giving a child the secret key to … whatever it was, was the safest of choices, and it seemed like it was a plot that really belonged on the _other_ side of the silver screen. Assuming she even had it, and it wasn't a mistake on their behalf.

"Well, we're already supposed to be protecting the princess," I said. Protecting her because of what she had wasn't any different.

"True enough," Kakashi-sensei agreed easily.

Any further conversation was cut off as the door opened and Sandayuu's head poked in. "Ah," he said. "There you are. The Director is asking…"

"Yes, I suppose we have to have a meeting," Kakashi-sensei said neutrally.

He disappeared and soon the small room was far too crowded, with the Director and his second occupying the other side of the table. The acrid smoke from the Directors pipe began to slowly fill the room. I resisted the urge to wrinkle my nose.

"Yukie isn't joining us?" Naruto asked.

"She's in her cabin," Sandayuu said. "She is…. Unwell."

Considering her reaction during the fighting, that might have been an understatement.

"I apologise for the deception," Sandayuu began, bowing slightly in his seat. "But what I have done has been for Snow Country." Quickly, he filled the other two in on the situation. They were… less shocked than they probably would have been before the whole 'attacked by enemy ninja' thing.

The Director puffed on his pipe silently for a few minutes. "To film a movie using a real princess… that is something that happens once in a lifetime."

_Priorities,_ I thought wryly. You were far too into your job if the threat of death and danger didn't faze you. Then again, with what my 'job' was, I didn't exactly have room to talk.

"Oh, I see," the Assistant Director said enthusiastically. "This movie will be a real hit and we'll make big bucks!"

"Thank you," Sandayuu said, sighing in relief. "I am grateful, truly."

My attention was distracted by the feeling of someone approaching the cabin door. If I listened carefully, I could even hear the padding of bare feet on the wooden floor. Yukie, most probably.

The door slid open, confirming my guess.

"Princess! I'm glad to see that you're alright," Sandayuu exclaimed. "The Director has been appraised of the situation and he agrees -"

"I won't go back to Snow Country," she cut him off, voice flat and lifeless. "I won't."

"Unfortunately," Kakashi-sensei cut in. "Hiding is no longer an option. Dotou has discovered you. He won't let you be until he has what he wants."

"We'll protect you," Naruto said earnestly. "You don't have to worry about a thing."

She snorted. "Just give it up already. No matter how hard you try, you can't beat Dotou."

_You can't beat Gatou, he's too strong!_

That did sound awfully familiar, didn't it? Even the names were similar.

"Lady, you don't know _what_ we can do," Naruto said, indignantly. "You can't just say 'give up' so easily. If he's strong, we'll just get stronger! That's all there is to it!"

"Because you wont give up, you will live to see a dream," the Director said thoughtfully. "Because you are able to see a dream, the future will come. This is nice. What a perfect theme for the final chapter of the Unlucky Princess."

"Wait a minute!" Yukie said. "You can't-"

"Let's make a movie with a happy ending!" The Assistant Director cheered.

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We were actually closer to the Land of Snow than I expected. If we hadn't landed on the ice berg and then subsequently been blown of course, we would have landed within the day. As it was, we were expected to dock by mid morning.

I leant on the rails of the bow - the front pointy bit - and watched the incoming land eagerly. Oh, sure, it would lead to fighting and enemy ninja and possibly a civil war, but at least it was solid ground.

Yup, I was in a good mood.

No more seasickness and maybe I'd finally be able to get the half remembered chords from the Titanic song out of my head.

"_Near, far, wherever you are,_" I sang softly. "_I believe that the heart will go on…"_

I grimaced. It just didn't sound the same after translation. Not that I could remember all the words anyway, but that was one of those songs that seemed to stick with you. I did remember, one school field trip, we'd had to take a ferry somewhere. Being teenagers and on a boat, we'd amused and/or irritated the other passengers by singing that pretty much the whole way.

My smile faded and I wished I hadn't thought of that. We had enough killjoys on this boat without me ruining my _own_ good mood.

Yukie had been… difficult, ever since that conversation. The only saving grace was that there was literally nowhere she could go, otherwise I was sure she would have tried to run away again.

Thankfully, there were no problems docking. The portside town was very small, but they had ready for us a convey of trucks and caravans. I eyed them suspiciously. Given I'd already discovered seasickness, I was pretty sure I'd find that the cars would make me sick too.

Vehicles weren't very common in the Land of Fire. You were much more likely to see horse drawn carts or carriages than cars. There were specialised work vehicles, like cranes - I remembered seeing one in the Land of Waves - but most common people never saw one and ninja weren't much more likely too. I guess they were a bit more necessary here, with the absolutely freezing temperatures.

I shivered. The ground was freezing, the air was freezing, even the _chakra_ was freezing.

That was… interesting. I was used to Konoha, which had large amounts of free floating chakra in the air, simply because it had a lot of people _using_ chakra. Land of Snow also had a lot of chakra in the air, but without that simple explanation.

"It's good to be home," Sandayuu said, quietly, looking out over the frozen white with a nostalgic expression.

"It's beautiful," I offered. It was in a way, clean and crisp, but very, very cold. A kind of beautiful I would appreciate much more in a photograph than up close and personal.

"It is." He smiled. "Come with me. We have one of the vans reserved for you. I'll show you where it is and show you the route we're going to follow."

The van he took us to was surprisingly spacious inside, done up like a small booth instead of the classic front seat- back seat set up.

"This is the path we will be taking," Sandayuu said, placing an inked map down on the table. "It follows the old railroad tracks, though they don't get used anymore, unfortunately. The first town where we will be stopping is here. Several of my old comrades will be meeting us. There is a tunnel through the mountains not far from it where we will be stopping to do some filming." He tapped the map. "We'll probably get there just after lunch time, though filming will probably take most of the afternoon."

Which meant we probably wouldn't get to the village until sundown. Lovely.

I studied the map. The distances weren't far, as the crow went - which sometimes was also the path the ninja went - but the terrain meant that the cars would have to follow a very winding path which dramatically increased the distance. Added to the slow speed of travelling on ice and we wouldn't be going very fast at all.

"The castle is… here?" I asked, motioning. Land of Snow wasn't very big. While it could take a ninja a week to get from one end of the Land of Fire to the other, here, I was pretty sure we could cross the entire country in a day, mountains included.

"Indeed," Sandayuu said.

"Should we patrol?" Sasuke asked, looking at Sensei. "The Snow ninja are going to come back."

"Most likely," Kakashi-sensei agreed.

"And the princess has already proven to be a flight risk," I said. "We really don't want to lose her again."

Kakashi-sensei blinked. "We'll be in the mountains of Snow Country. Where would she _go?_" He asked, baffled.

"Running away isn't about _going somewhere_," I said patiently. "It's about trying to get away from something."

Some things you couldn't run from. But that never stopped anyone from trying. And it certainly seemed to be the mindset that Yukie was in.

"There are a lot of places for ambushes," Sasuke noted, looking over the map. "Passes, tunnels, crossroads…"

We spent a bit of time sorting out where the most likely spots for ambush were and how we were going to patrol. I quickly volunteered, because after the ship I didn't really want to try the cars. Sure, outside might be freezing, but it didn't make me sick.

As expected, the convey didn't move very fast, and it was after one before we came up to the tunnel through the mountains. The cars stopped briefly, apparently for a toilet break or for the drivers to discuss exactly where they were going to be filming. I caught a flash of pink out of the corner of my eye, and watched as Yukie slipped from her trailer into the snow.

"I'll talk to her," I said to Sasuke, jerking my chin in her direction and sighing.

It only took a few quick jumps to get a head of her. The side of the bank was sewn with thick, hardy trees and I almost felt at home.

"There's nothing out here," I said, sitting myself on one of the horizontal low hanging branches in her path.

She ground to a halt, staring at me in surprise.

"Cold, wet, miserable… you'd freeze within a day," I said, conversationally. "If you'd headed back down the road, you might have made it to the port we arrived at… If you'd gone forward you might have made it too the village… but in this direction there's nothing. Just pure, bleak, winter."

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, frustrated. "Why won't you just leave me alone?"

I sighed. "It's our mission. As ninja, we don't give up on missions. We don't quit. There are dozens of ninja rules covering that idea alone. But more than that…" I looked down at her. "I'm a human being. If people are hurt or in trouble or oppressed, and there's something I can do… shouldn't I do it? Shouldn't I _help?_"

"You can't save the whole world," she scoffed. "You can't save anybody."

"You never know until you try," I said, shrugging. "But… This isn't the first time we've done this."

"Done what?" she asked, confused at the sudden change of subject. "Chased someone down?"

"That too," I agreed. "But what I'm talking about… is more than that. Our first big mission… was to a place called the Land of Waves. Tiny place. It's a series of islands, not really big enough to call a country, but they do it anyway. They don't really have a proper feudal lord, or anything, but because it's an island community, they're pretty heavily dependant on shipping to bring them goods and food."

"I don't really care," she said.

I continued as if I hadn't heard, swinging my legs a little. "Then this guy comes along. Gatou. Some big shot head of a shipping company. Started squeezing them for money, blocking trade, all kinds of nasty stuff. Things were getting pretty bad there."

She looked interested despite herself. "So they what, hired you to kill him?"

"Nah," I said. "They started building a bridge."

I smirked at her shocked look.

"They figured, if Gatou controlled the waters… then they just had to find another way. It might possibly be the longest bridge in the Elemental Nations, but they built it."

"They wouldn't have got away with it," she said sullenly.

"Yeah. They nearly didn't," I agreed. "Gatou hired some ninja to take the bridge builder out. In return, they hired us to protect him. Eventually, things came to a head, Gatou died, the bridge was built and Wave Country started to rebuild. How's that for a happy ending?" I tilted my head. "Well, for us it was a happy ending to a mission. I guess for them it was a happy beginning."

"There's no bridge here," she said.

I studied her. "It wasn't about the bridge itself. It was about the people coming together to fight back, not just sitting around waiting for the end to come. If you think about it like that… in Snow Country, that bridge is you."

She didn't respond. I shrugged and hopped down off the tree. "If you're ever in Wave Country, look up the name of the bridge. It might clear up some things."

"The name of the bridge?" She muttered, bemused. I'd probably confused her more than persuaded her, but well, whatever worked I guess.

I straightened my cloak and ushered her around. "Come on. Let's go back to the vehicles. It's warmer inside."

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Yes, that is Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On'. What other songs do you think of when you think Titanic? XD

This chapter would have probably been out two days ago if I hadn't got lost on Tvtropes. I was looking for other stories with the necklace-locket-key-plot token thing and couldn't think of any off the top of my head. I _know_ it's common…


	51. Chapter 50

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Nemesis Jedi starring as Horatio Caine. You make me giggle so much. XD

So I had a job interview. Failed to get job. Lots of time to write fic, still.

Sidestories has Naruto's POV of this chapter, if anyone is interested.

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Chapter 50

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_In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. - Albert Camus_

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The path widened a bit after we exited the tunnel, and all the vehicles pulled to the side by the sheer drop away cliff. The other side was a much more gentle rising slope covered in puffy white snow.

I kept half an eye on Yukie, where she was sullenly having her stage make up applied, and the rest of my attention focused outwards. Stationary targets were easy targets.

The surroundings were quiet. There wasn't any body but us for as far as I could sense. Granted, my range wasn't huge, but it would give a fair warning for a sneak attack.

Then chakra surged through the ground and I sprang out of the way like a startled cat.

I was prepared for an attack, because that was usually what a chakra surge _meant_, and my team reacted to my reaction.

The chakra didn't change, didn't morph into a jutsu, but the snow hissed and melted away to reveal four parallel iron rails.

"The railroad!" Sandayuu exclaimed, bending down to examine it. "There's chakra running through the rails and it's melting the ice." He looked grim. "They're coming. We'll be in trouble if we get caught here. We need to run."

Using the rails themselves to melt the ice was a clever solution to what had probably been the foremost danger to the trains, but it meant nothing good.

"No one clears the tracks unless they're going to travel them," I said.

Sandayuu started jogging up the snow bank, sinking heavily into the uncompacted snow. The rest hesitated, and waffled, but followed him. I noticed the camera man took his camera with him.

I ran up the snow after them, using chakra to stay on top of it. But… even with the people gone, it was sort of obvious that we were there. The cars were still parked there, the snow was disturbed… it wasn't exactly a pristine location.

I hesitated, then ran through the hand seals for the False Surroundings genjutsu, wiping the signs of our presence away.

Sasuke gave an approving nod, and we darted over the top of the hill, ducking low and finding places where we could still see.

Seconds later we heard the train, a deep growl that I hadn't heard in years yet was still so instantly recognisable, and then the ground started rumbling and shaking, vibrating all the way to my bones. The train _roared_ out of the tunnel, heavy monstrous steel spread across two tracks with a huge, evil looking snowplough on the front.

The genjutsu covering the snow shattered and broke.

"Ninja on board," Sasuke said.

"I count maybe twelve ninja. Maybe more," I said, unable to keep a hint of worry out of my voice. That… wasn't good. Not good at all.

The train ground to a halt with remarkable efficiency. I did recall, vaguely, that trains didn't - couldn't - stop quickly because of momentum and inertia, but it seemed that either they'd known we were here already, or they had some way over overcoming that. Either was likely, really, considering that we already knew the rails were chakra conductive and chakra could seemingly break all laws of physics.

I cast an apprehensive look at Sensei. With so many civilians we couldn't run. Hiding had obviously failed. But we looked to be seriously out numbered here. We'd had enough trouble fighting _three_ of them.

Grudgingly, I admitted that getting reinforcements was a good idea on their part. We'd already shown we could deal with three, so, coming back as is would have been silly. And they could get reinforcements a hell of a lot easier than we could.

"Koyuki Kazahana," a male voice said, with that peculiar mechanical echo that said it was being amplified through a speaker system. "I know that you are here."

Yukie went about three shades whiter. "Dotou."

_Oh, dear._

There was a long pause, as they waited for a response. Then, Dotou spoke again. "Fetch her."

Chakra surged as they body flickered out of the train. Eleven of them, all wearing pale blue chakra armour, aligned in front of the train. Including the three we'd already met.

"Show them how hopeless resistance is," Dotou said.

I half considered starting an avalanche to try and thin their numbers, but there wasn't much snow in front of us, and any other location would increase the danger of friendly fire while still being less effective. Not really a good idea.

But by that same token, I'd probably have to be careful about how I used my explosive tags.

"Stick together," Kakashi-sensei murmured, even as he slid his headband up. "Watch each others backs."

A single kunai went winging overhead, bearing down on the Snow ninja. It had come from Naruto's direction, so I knew what was coming even before it suddenly multiplied. I added a few of my own to the mix, tags fluttering out behind them.

The sudden duplication caught them off guard, as it was designed to do. Some were deflected, some skittered off of metal, some sunk into flesh, and some were lodged in the chakra armour and exploded in little poofs of smoke as they were drained of chakra. It hadn't taken anyone out, but a few people had what looked to be movement restricting injuries and that was without the _other_ trick the kunai had.

Given the utter number advantage they had, the fight should have been over _really_ quickly. That it wasn't was down to three things.

One, Naruto was spamming clones to even the odds. Because they were contained chakra, and not in constant contact with the armour, they weren't getting drained as fast as other jutsu would, meaning they could get a few good solid hits in.

Two, we had fantastic team work. We were watching each others backs, covering openings, negating as much of their numerical advantage as we could.

Three, not only did they lack teamwork, they seemed to actively avoid getting close to each other. Oh, they matched up ranged and close quarters fighters, but there wasn't enough space here for ranged fighting and we were effectively blocking their path to Yukie.

I narrowed my eyes thoughtfully, in between putting an arm lock on someone and swinging him around to block an ice spear jutsu that tried to attack Sasuke from the back. The armour flared and absorbed it, but the force field that materialised pushed me away. I danced under a clumsy attack, keeping him occupied as a Naruto - possibly thrown by another fighter - blindsided him with a flying kick and knocked him cold.

_Bad pun._

"What happens," I said, panting. "When something that drains chakra comes into contact with something that drains chakra?"

The armour _ran_ on chakra, that much was obvious. The circular shoulder and chest mounts with the yin-yang symbol - the taijitu - on it were probably the batteries or chakra sinks. Given the way they avoided each other, it was possible…

We weren't doing badly, but we also couldn't keep this up. Being unable to use jutsu was probably - ironically - extending the length of time we could fight, since we weren't burning chakra as quickly but that didn't mean we _weren't_ burning it. I, for one, wasn't really used to extended taijutsu fights, anyway. Sooner or later I'd fumble, make a misjudgement, get too tired, too slow…

Something needed to change.

Something did change, but not necessarily in the way that I wanted.

"Yukie!" Naruto shouted. "What are you doing?"

My heart sunk with dread and I nearly found myself trapped in an ice prison for my split second of distraction. I twisted and flipped awkwardly, feet sliding over ice, bending myself around the spires that sprung out of the ground in a feat of agility, flexibility and acrobatics that would have impressed me if I'd had time to note it.

"If you keep fighting, you will die," Yukie said. I couldn't see her, but her voice carried surprisingly well over all the fighting, despite being so quiet. "Just go home."

"No," Naruto _snarled, _and orange flooded the area, several dozen more clones appearing out of thin air. They surged forward.

I took the moment of being screened by the extra bodies and get some height so I could see what was going on. Sensei was there, fighting Nadare and two others, and there were the actors and, oh, there were the film crew - _filming. _Priorities! - and, shit, there was Yukie.

I saw as Fubuki broke away from the rest of the Snow ninja, pink hair visible against the snow, and scooped her up to carry her back to the train.

The tide of the battle had turned. Instead of them trying to get past us, it was now _us_ trying to get past _them._

Orange surged forward as Naruto rushed the train, but one of the Snow ninja pulled up a wall of slick, heavy ice, and they redoubled their assault to keep us busy and unable to move. Several of them slipped away, back to the train, but it wasn't _enough_ and we were pushed to keep fighting and we just _weren't getting anywhere_.

Then a heavy chugging sound started to fill the air and I realised that the train was starting up, starting to move, and we were about to lose the princess - had lost the princess - and, even though it probably would have been possible to create an avalanche further down to block the rails, or at least take out the bridge, it was too far for a single kunai throw and then there were two Snow ninja on me and I couldn't get free -

Then they fell to the side, and I sucked in a breath of air so cold it burnt my lungs.

"Alright?" Kakashi-sensei asked, mismatched eyes staring down at me like he was trying to catalogue injuries.

"Yeah. Fine," I rasped, scrambling to my feet. There were only two Snow ninja still conscious and Sasuke was holding them off. Kakashi-sensei darted away to help him, and I scanned the battlefield before realising something.

"Where's Naruto?"

"On the train," Kakashi-sensei said grimly, dropping the last ninja with a swift knife hand strike to the neck. Once again, I admired how brutally efficient he could be, once he decided to.

_Well, shit._ There was a downward turn to Sasuke's lips that said he wasn't any happier with that information than I was.

On the surface, it wasn't necessarily that bad. If Naruto was free it meant we still had someone covering Yukie.

But it meant Naruto was essentially alone deep in enemy territory and we couldn't count on him being free. I trusted Naruto, I did, but even he couldn't win all the time.

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

"Go after him," Sasuke said, with a look that flat out _dared_ Kakashi-sensei to say otherwise.

"We need to find out where they're going," Kakashi-sensei said, scuffing a hand through his hair. He turned and headed towards where the Director and cameraman were lying underneath a large white sheet, apparently trying to blend in with the snow.

"What a fight!" The Director enthused, apparently lacking any concern for the danger they'd just been in. "Drama! Excitement! And now to rescue the princess. Yes, this is what a film is made of."

Kakashi-sensei sort of blinked at him, before seeming to come to the decision to just ignore it. "Right," he drawled. "Where's Sandayuu? I need to know where the railway goes."

Sandayuu came puffing up the snow, a set of what looked to be green samurai armour over his normal clothes. I blinked. There were other people behind him, some the stuntmen and film crew, but others that I'd never seen before. They had swords, but they looked like they might actually know what to do with them, instead of using them as props.

"The railway?" He muttered. "Well, it goes everywhere. To every major city and port. But it's almost guaranteed that Dotou will take her to the castle. It's his base of operations and everybody knows it."

"Kazahana castle?" Sasuke repeated.

"Yes," he confirmed. "Well, we expected to have more time, but we're all ready to attack. Word has been sent out to the others-"

Kakashi-sensei cut him off. "There's very little you can do against a force of ninja."

Sandayuu nodded solemnly. "Most of us are survivors of the coup itself. We know what we're about to face. But for the princess… for the hope that the future will be different… we are prepared to do this."

Sensei sighed. "We won't wait for you," he warned. "We don't have time to."

Sandayuu nodded, like that was to be expected. "Please, save the princess."

Sensei turned to us. "Get your bags."

We pulled our stuff out of the vans, strapped it on, and were off. It was good to get moving again. We didn't follow the road, instead setting a good pace across the peaks of ice. It wasn't as fast as we could go, and I chaffed a little, but intellectually I knew there was no point in rushing and arriving tired.

"Why didn't you stop them?" Sasuke asked.

Kakashi-sensei's eye flicked over to him. "You can't stop people who are that determined," he said mildly. "I could have spent longer trying to persuade him, but it would have been wasted time." He set his eye back on the path. "It will take them time to get ready and organised, and to travel. Hopefully it will be over and done before they get there. If worst comes to… they might make a good distraction."

It was harsh, but they were _willingly_ going ahead with it. They knew the likely outcome as well as we did. Depending on what kind of force we found at the castle…

We didn't have any other options. We had no where to get reinforcements, and we _couldn't _leave Naruto there. That was not an option.

I hoped he was alright.

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><p>.<p>

The castle, when we found it, was an intimidating looking place, all dark metal perched atop steep slops with looming glaciers behind it. It was late evening, the sky growing dark and ominous, which only made it more menacing.

"Can we sneak in?" Sasuke asked, as we crouched in the trees observing it.

"They know we're coming," Kakashi-sensei said flatly, staring at it. "And frankly, neither of you have the stealth skills required."

Probably true, I acknowledged, but it was still harsh. To be fair Genin four months into their career generally weren't expected to have to storm enemy strongholds, but it wasn't like our team ever did _normal._

"Okay, so," I said, then faltered because I didn't know. Oh, sure, I knew the standard textbook tactics for this situation but even running them through my head sounded dumb. I didn't want to say them out loud.

"We'll blow the lower wall in two places. One for a distraction, one for an entrance," he said. "Get in, find Naruto and the princess, and get out." He pulled out two spheres about the size of a closed fist. High grade explosives. Explosive tags - even my adjustable ones - had an upper limit on the amount of chakra they could convert to explosive force, so when trying to take out serious defensive structures you sometimes needed more serious firepower.

"The diversionary explosive will be set along the left wall, while we'll enter through the front right," Kakashi-sensei continued. "That means someone will have to circle around the outer walls to set the charge, then make their way back. I'll enter first and take out any opposition. You two follow and hold the area while we find Naruto."

He held one of the spheres out to me. "You know how to set them?"

I nodded. "Theoretically, anyway." Privately, I was amused, because, _really,_ people said I had a reputation for blowing things up and how did they expect that to change if this was the kind of positive reinforcement I got?

"Don't worry if you have to throw it. Just make sure you prime it with a countdown long enough to get away."

I nodded. Carrying explosives would be pretty silly unless they were stable enough not to go off at every bump and jostle.

"Alright. Go. Set it off when you're ready. We'll take the explosion as the mark, and Sasuke will wait for you to return." He cast a look at Sasuke who nodded shortly. If they responded faster to the first explosion than expected, I might need Sasuke's help on the outside.

"Got it," I said easily. "Wait for the bang."

It was getting dark outside, and I was glad that the moon was close to full. The snow was starting to look eerie under the moonlight. I traversed the ground carefully, on the lookout for traps either natural or manmade. There didn't appear to be any patrols _outside_ the castle, and I suspected that in Snow Country weather such a thing wouldn't really be practical. It was easy enough to stick to the steep cliffs and get within throwing distance of sleek, towering metal. I suspected that the entire thing was made out of chakra metal, and that trying to climb it would be a spectacularly bad idea. Usually, castles were a joke for ninja, but Snow Country just liked to be difficult.

"Here goes," I murmured, channelling chakra into the sphere _just so._ I felt the whirr and _change_ and the almost hum it gave off as I armed it before drawing back and throwing to roll to a stop along the wall.

Then I booked it out of there.

I was around the corner and out of sight when the explosion went off, and half way to covering the distance to my team when the second one followed. There was nothing behind me, and I met up with Sasuke with a relieved nod before we charged through shattered metal with kunai in our hands.

The inside of the castle was all ledges and balconies in a three dimensional maze. It was easy to tell which way that Sensei had gone from the unconscious bodies on the floor.

"Come on," Sasuke said, leaping over the bodies and taking off down the hallway.

I followed, pausing at the corner to slap a seal on the wall that would bring the roof down, because it was one thing for them to know which way we'd gone and it was another to be able to follow us and our chances of getting out the same way we'd come in were pretty slim anyway.

"Goddamn," I panted after we'd strangled another corridor with judicious use of ninja wire, only to nearly slide into another squad of ninja that had descended from a balcony. "Is this Hidden Snow, or something?"

And hell, if these guys had had anywhere near the skills of the first three, or even the other eight that had attacked us this afternoon, we would have been screwed. Thankfully, being indoors stripped them of their ice jutsu, and the lack of space seemed to hamper them much more than it did us.

Then we came across Naruto fighting two ninja and didn't even pause to consider before throwing ourselves in the fight beside him.

"Clone!" he said. "Boss is downstairs with the princess!"

"How many of you are there?" I asked. At least we wouldn't be rescuing both Naruto and Yukie. In fact, it looked like Naruto was doing pretty good at the rescue thing on his own. The amount of confusion that dozens of Naruto's could provide was probably one of the reasons why we _hadn't_ been swamped.

"Heaps," he replied with a foxy grin. "Soon as we saw you guys attacking we turned back to help out. Keep going straight ahead, there's a huge chasm thing with a long bridge and elevator cages." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "I'll hold 'em here."

I swallowed down the 'no, we won't leave you behind' because he was a clone, he said he was a clone even if he looked, sounded, _felt_ real, it wasn't the same, and nodded. "See you soon."

Going down was _cold._ It was like the lower levels were _in_ the rock-and-ice rather than isolated from them. Which was very poor planning for your luxury palace, let me tell you. But we darted through the corridors and ran into Kakashi-sensei and Naruto and Yukie, who had her necklace clutched in one hand and a kunai thick with Naruto's chakra in the other.

_She still has that?_ I wondered. It seemed strange that they hadn't taken it from her already.

"Let's go," Sensei said, and we took off again, pace slowed so that Yukie could keep up.

I paused to slap a seal down to collapse the bridge behind us, just in time to see the pale blue of the Snow ninja uniform at the other end.

_Suckers._

Of course, it can't be that easy. It would _never_ be that easy. Naruto and Sensei both seemed to have a fairly good idea of where we were going, and it made me wonder just how many clones Naruto had scattered around the castle scouting it out for him. But we still had to _cross_ that distance, which brought it's own dangers.

We were half way across a large room that was maybe a foyer or atrium, half lit and eerie, when the lights flared bright and revealed Nadare's three and a man in courtly robes that had to be Dotou.

"Trying to escape, Koyuki?" he asked, voice deep and disapproving.

Her hands flexed, around the crystal and kunai both. "Dotou."

Then she stepped forward.

_Oh, no._ I thought with dread, the world seeming to slow down. _Don't, Yukie, don't._

The Snow ninja blocked us, Yukie passing uncontested through their ranks. I didn't have to look to see Naruto's betrayed face.

"I am an actress," she said softly. "Always acting other people's scripts. Never my own."

"She had you fooled, didn't she?" Dotou said smugly. He reached out, a hand grabbing for the crystal without even seeming to pay any attention to Yukie herself.

Something, _something,_ shifted in my vision, in my understanding of the situation, like looking at a optical illusion and suddenly _seeing_ the hidden image. Yukie's hand twitched and horror dawned on me all over again.

_Not us. She had _you_ fooled._

The kunai, clenched in her left hand and forgotten, came up and _slammed_ into his chest.

Dotou snarled, hand coming up to grab her throat. "Damn you!"

"Nee-chan!" Naruto shouted.

"I knew," she said, even as Dotou tried to choke her. "When I returned here, I would die. That's why, at least… It's all thanks to you, Naruto. Until the very end, I kept running away…"

"No!" He shouted. And the kunai that was lodged in Dotou's chest burst outward in a puff of chakra smoke, an orange clad form slamming into Yukie and pulling her away. The clone looked woozy and disorientated, falling to one knee above her.

"Chakra armour…" he wheezed.

"Yes," Dotou said, pulling apart his shredded kimono to reveal black metallic, overlapping plates covering his chest. "Your attack was futile, Koyuki. _Meaningless_. This is my advanced chakra armour. No puny knife can overcome this."

He stepped forward, towards her again.

"No!" Naruto shouted, fingers coming together in a cross seal.

And like that was the signal, we clashed.

It was a blur of confusion and fast paced, frenzied fighting but like the other ninja, being inside stripped them of their snow jutsu. There was no jutsu, no fancy tricks, just us and brutal taijutsu. The smell of smoke was thick in the air, and the roof was slowly collapsing, bits and pieces of stone and wood and steel falling all around us.

I slammed a thrusting kick into Fubuki's stomach, throwing her sliding back across the room. Her face had gone from smug arrogance to uncertainty to the very faintest hint of fear. We had retreated the first fight, and been overcome at the second and she had been over confident.

I felt the surge of ugly chakra, so unbearably hot in such a cold place that it stole the moisture from my throat - _Kyuubi, Kyuubi, Kyuubi_ - as Naruto stood toe to toe, hand clenched in hand, with Mizore, holding him back with Bijuu enhanced strength. My body moved on automatic, dodging a piece of falling rebar, and I _couldn't _force myself closer, going instead after Fubuki.

Sasuke slid low, between the two of them, kicking upwards with a move copied from Lee and launching the much larger man into the air. The two of them followed him up, raining punishing blows down and I made a quick snap calculation of their trajectory.

Fubuki tried to blindside me, flickering to my left. I caught the punch across my forearm and would have winced at the impact if I hadn't been so hyped on adrenaline. Later, I'd feel that. Not so much right now.

I pulled in close instead of getting distance, knee slamming into her stomach and folding her over, foot barely touching back down before lifting again, an impossibly fast roundhouse kick snapping into her ribs. I twisted, torso angling to provide extra strength and counterbalance, and she tumbled backwards, slamming down into the ground.

I flipped out of the way, just as Sasuke shouted in exertion and slammed the last kick into Mizore, sending him crashing to the ground, exactly where she was lying.

I saw the widening of her eyes, before the two of them connected and their armour shorted out, the chakra sinks on their shoulders exploding.

"Hah," I panted, trying to breath. "So _that's_ what happens…"

"You knew that would happen?" Naruto asked, and the Kyuubi chakra was gone and his eyes were perfectly blue but…

"Suspected?" I offered.

Sasuke shrugged. "That takes care of that," he said.

Kakashi-sensei touched down on the ground beside us, and I could see the crumpled form of Nadare on the ground behind him. Well, that was all the ninja taken care of.

_Wait…_

"Yukie!"

_This mission is not going well._


	52. Chapter 51

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Nemesis Jedi - Of _course_ that's what Minato meant. Clearly this is the ultimate evolution of his technique. The only way that Naruto could top it would be with the Flying _Rainbow_ God. XD Iwa will be _frozen in fear!_

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 51

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><p>.<p>

_A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another time, a little smaller. ~ Paul Klee_

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><p>.<p>

"He went through the roof!" Naruto shouted, pointing upwards.

I squinted through the jagged hole torn in the ceiling. I couldn't see Dotou, but Yukie's pink coat was much easier to pick out against the dark night sky.

"He's flying?" I asked tentatively.

"Must have had wings," Sasuke said. "She did." He jerked his head at Fubuki, where she was lying on the ground.

"Do we know where they're going?" I asked. Because, well, chasing them was going to be damn difficult. There were no marks of passage, and who knew how fast or far they could travel. From here, we couldn't really even tell what _direction_ they were going in.

Naruto bit his lip. "The Rainbow Glaciers," he said. "That's where they said the weapon was. I bet he's taking the key there."

"That's… worrying," Sasuke said grimly. I agreed silently. Their chakra armour was bad enough, I didn't want to have to fight whatever weapon they had.

"We need to go after them," Kakashi-sensei said. "Anyone injured?" He cast an assessing look over us.

I shook my head. Exhausted, yes, but not injured. We'd been fighting and running and fighting… and it looked like we were going to be doing a lot more running and fighting before this was done.

"Let's go, then," he said. "Once we get to the forest, you can eat as you run."

That was a good idea. Food was important in recovering chakra.

We abandoned the castle, and managed to get out without running into any other ninja. The fact that there was the sound of fighting and explosions going off in other parts of the building told me that either Naruto's clones were still at it, or we'd overestimated the amount of time that it would take for the ex-samurai to get here.

We hit the forest outside the castle and took a moment to orientate ourselves.

"Someone's already been this way," I said. It had taken a second to set in, because those weren't footprints, they were wheel tracks, but it still meant someone had passed this way.

"The Director," Kakashi-sensei said, without even looking to see what I'd seen. "You can still smell the smoke from his pipe."

Well, no. I couldn't. But Naruto nodded, like he could, and I just took their word for it instead of arguing.

The Rainbow Glaciers weren't _close_ to the castle. It was a good three or four hour run before we even saw them in the distance. I felt _exhausted_. It had been at least fourteen hours since the fight by the train, and we'd been in constant motion since then. And we'd been patrolling all morning before that, even if nothing had happened.

_Yay, ninja. More all-nighters than a university student with an assignment due…_

Chakra made it easier, but we were starting to run low on that, too.

"I think they're already there," I said, swallowing heavily as a beam of light shot up into the air out of the centre of the Glaciers. Even from here, I could feel the huge surge in chakra. Not really a good sign.

"We need to hurry," Naruto said in agreement.

The Glaciers were, well, hard to describe. There was a flat basin of a shallow valley, with a tiny shrine in the middle ,and the edge of the basin dish was surrounded by six huge towering pillars that were wide in one direction and thin in the other so they almost looked like pieces of walls more than pillars. We were coming towards it from a steep, nearly sheer cliff face, which gave us a chance to analyse it, but not much cover once we started to move.

The ground underneath the shrine and pillars was so thick with chakra conducting metal that it made my teeth ache, and the air had so much chakra in it that I was surprised that it wasn't visible.

Dotou was standing next to the shrine, obviously having used the key to activate it. It was channelling chakra into the ground, into that abundance of metal, which was then getting carried outwards and away.

"Ley lines," I muttered. That was more of a spiritual concept, but it was close. Why it was happening was a question that I couldn't even begin to answer.

"Where is it?" Dotou muttered to himself, circling the small shrine. "Where is the treasure?"

_Something_ was obviously happening. The shrine was putting out chakra… or was it taking it in? The snow around it was steaming, and the pillars were beginning to melt, torrents of water sluicing down off their faces.

"Where _is it?_" He shouted, turning to Yukie where she sat huddled miserably to the side. She was on the other side of the clearing to us, and the open spaces meant that circling around unnoticed was going to be impossible.

We could wait, but every minute we lost was time that that thing was activated. Whatever it was, and whatever it did.

"Focus on keeping the princess out of danger," Kakashi-sensei said. "I'll take care of him. Everyone ready?"

We nodded.

"You better believe it," Naruto said fiercely.

We moved. Dotou was facing away, but either he sensed us, or something else gave us away, because he turned and saw us.

"Leaf ninja," he sneered. "Why must you _always _interfere?" His hands clumsily ran through seals. "Well, no more. It's over now. _Ice Release; Black Dragon Blizzard!_"

His black chakra armour crackled and surged with power, the chakra sink on his chest starting to glow, and then black lightning gathered in his hand. We twitched, ready to evade, to jump out of the way at a moments notice.

But he didn't aim for us.

It twisted and writhed, a black dragon with demonic red eyes, heading straight for Yukie.

Kakashi-sensei swore and _vanished,_ becoming a blur of blue and green racing across the ice. At that distance, that speed, he was the only one of us with a hope of making it. I tucked my hands into my kunai pouch, pulling out fists full of kunai and explosive notes and hurled them unceremoniously at Dotou. Some clattered off his armour, the metal of the knives shattering, but that didn't stop the explosive notes.

The fireball _engulfed _him.

"Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto called, and suddenly there were many more of him darting across the ice. They hurled themselves at Dotou, some of them body slamming him and being thrown off, others getting hit and destroyed. But the moves were clumsy and it was clear that however much more powerful this set of chakra armour was, Dotou himself was not a ninja.

"Hold him still," Sasuke ordered, crouching and gripping his wrist. "Chidori!"

Lightning blossomed in his grip, chirping and shrieking. He burst forward, foot cracking the ice as he pushed off, winter cloak flaring out behind him. The Naruto clones cleared a path and he flew across the ice with Sharingan enhanced precision.

Light flared as the Chidori hit the armour, obscuring vision, and the Naruto clones tumbled away in puffs of smoke. Then Sasuke was thrown back with a cry, slamming into one of the tall pillars and cracking the ice surface. He wasn't moving, but his chakra was pulsing steadily. Knocked out then.

_Ice surface?_

For a moment, it was like time slowed down for me as everything clicked into place. Those weren't ice pillars, they were _mirrors._ Giant, twenty meter tall mirrors, reflecting back the chakra inside the valley, recirculating it, _heating it …_

Then Naruto shouted "SASUKE!" and my attention jerked back to the fight. I threw another handful of kunai and explosives, more to buy time and as a distraction than because I thought they'd work. But there was a crack running through the chest of the armour; Sasuke's Chidori _had_ done damage. Just not _enough._

"The circle!" I shouted, hoping Naruto understood. If he hit it again, it would probably break and short out like what had happened in the castle. And the very least, it would weaken the armour.

"I got it!" He shouted back, a clone standing behind him helping him form a Rasengan. I threw another handful of kunai and notes, the explosion knocking Dotou back a step and disrupting the jutsu he was trying to cast. A ninja would have dodged, and kept going, but he wasn't and he couldn't.

_Good for us,_ I thought.

I glanced back at Naruto to see how his progress was going and for a second I was blinded, as the first rays of the sunrise peaked over the horizon. They caught on the giant mirrors, reflected back again and again, brighter and brighter each time.

And. _Oh_.

The chakra in the air _was _visible, caught up in the spinning of Naruto's Rasengan, spiralling outwards and reflecting all the colours of the rainbow. It trailed behind him, transparent and translucent, like coloured smoke, as he ran across the melting snow.

And then he slammed it into Dotou's chest, right onto the broken chakra sink, and the focused dispersal of all that energy was so fast and violent that it made the very ground shake.

Dotou _flew _upwards, and uncontrolled ragdoll tumble before impacting heavily into the face of the mirror, shattering it behind him. I had no doubt that he was dead before he hit it, but it was unquestionable that he was by the time he fell and hit the ground.

"Nothing is over," Naruto panted. "Until you have a happy ending."

And all the chakra in the air was being sucked back down into the generator, down into the ground and flowing out through the veins of metal, through the_ ley lines_, and the snow was melting… no, not just the snow, because there was _grass _there, underneath it, full grown and healthy like the middle of spring, not just bare and barren rock…

"If there is no spring," Yukie said, softly as Kakashi-sensei dropped down near us and set her on her feet. "Then you make it come." She laughed, softly, wondrously.

Behind them, some very familiar faces on a small rolling trailer came down the hill. It did look very much like they had been filming. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

Sasuke was awake, sitting awkwardly at the base of the mirror. Naruto had flopped down next to him, sprawled out on the grass.

"How…" Sandayuu said, looking about in amazement. He was still wearing his samurai armour, and it looked a little battered and dirty. "How did this happen?"

"It's a generator," I said, verbalising the things that I'd put together. "Not a weapon. The Land of Snow has a lot of chakra in the air, and the chakra conductive metal underground… it's probably what kept it in winter for so long… it kept trapping the cold, making it so the snow never melted…"

How clever. Using all the things that had kept the Land of Snow in perpetual winter for so long as _tools_ to bring it into spring. Not fighting against them, but _using_ them.

"But now, we will have spring," Yukie said.

_Believe in the future_.

We turned to stare at the shrine, where the voice had come from. It was glowing, reflecting off the mirrors and producing an image… a hologram. It was clear and bright and I marvelled at the technology that would be necessary for it.

_If you do, spring will come. Koyuki, what would you like to do then?_

_I'll become a princess,_ a young, vibrantly dressed Yukie said, standing easily on the platform. She looked so innocent and happy. She was… maybe four or five. Maybe a little older, I wasn't sure.

_Hmm? What kind of princess?_

_A strong one,_ she replied, swinging her hands in a little girl dance. _A kind one. A princess who believes in justice!_

Strong, rich male laughter echoed throughout the valley. _That's going to be very hard work._

"I did say that, before…" Yukie whispered, staring at it.

_But if you don't give up, and keep believing in your dreams, one day you'll be one for sure. _The hologram shifted, a male form coming into view. Sousetsu Kazahana. Gently, he clasped the hexagonal crystal around the neck of the small princess. _Can you see that a very beautiful princess is standing here?_

_But I'm not quite decided yet,_ Yukie said, twisting to look up at him. _There's one more thing that I want to become!_

_What's that?_

_An actress! _The small princess exclaimed.

The memory of Sousetsu laughed, and so did the woman standing beside me, tears dripping down her face.

"Ah, father," Koyuki said. "I became an actress. Now, it's time for me to be a princess, isn't it?"

I sighed, closing my eyes and turning up face up into the sunlight. The chakra in the air was warm and soothing and I hadn't realised how _cold_ I had felt up until this moment.

Or how tired.

_What a crazy day_, I thought.

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Eventually, we had to head back to the castle to inform everyone of the new change in leadership. Dotou's body got sealed up and brought with us for proof, but by the time we made it back, so many people were panicking about the change in weather that they were pretty much willing to listen to _anyone_ who knew what was going on.

The Hidden Snow ninja listened to the news with grim faces and retreated. They were in a bad position; things could get very messy for a ninja village if the Daimyo didn't like you, and they'd just been trying to kill her. I wondered if their limited tactics had been a way of hedging their bets in regards to the outcome. As far as I could recall, the only people they had tried to hurt had been _us._

Them leaving let us fade into the background as the last of the threats vanished. With their employer dead, there wasn't much reason for them to attack, but you never knew. Sandayuu bustled around, managing to either locate the people in charge, or simply convince them _he _was and got all of the film crew, actors and us lodging in one of the undamaged wings of the palace.

I was so happy with the idea of sleep that I didn't really care how he'd managed it.

The next couple of days were mostly the same. We kept out of the way as the palace was restored - quite a bit of it had collapsed, funny that - and Koyuki was so busy taking up the reigns as Daimyo that we didn't really get to see her.

Her coronation was rapidly organised, but no less beautiful for it. People turned up by the trainload, and it seemed that every spare inch of space was crammed with people - all joyous about the sudden spring weather.

"The device was incomplete," Koyuki confided in us, when she had a free moment after the ceremony. "That's why father never used it. But we have people studying it now, and eventually we will be able to refine it." She smiled. "And then someday the Land of Snow will be called the Land of Spring."

"That's good, Nee-chan," Naruto said, tucking his hands behind his head, and grinning. "I bet you can make it happen."

"Yes," she said. "We won't give up." She ducked down quickly and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you."

Naruto went very red. I giggled, I couldn't help myself.

"All of you," Koyuki amended with a smile. "For everything you did…. I wouldn't be here without you."

The next day, Sandayuu approached us. He had gone from being Koyuki's manager to being her assistant, but he looked ecstatic with the change.

"Ah, there you are! Thank you. Thank you very much," he said bowing deeply at the waist.

"It was our mission," Kakashi-sensei said, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Yes, well," he said, shuffling the files that he was carrying. "The Director tells me that they've finished filming now and are going to be returning to the Land of Fire."

Considering that we had come on the same boat they had, we'd been expecting to return with them. And _that_ would depend on…

"Obviously, you were hired to protect Koyuki during the filming process and that is now over, despite being a much shorter timeframe than anticipated. Although I wont be returning with you, the Director assures me that you'll be welcome on board the ship."

"Good to know," Kakashi-sensei said. "Although, it may be difficult to get you a refund so far away."

Sandayuu shook his head. "That's not necessary." He handed Kakashi-sensei a folder. "I feel that the service Konoha provided is equal to the amount paid, despite the shortened timeframe."

Kakashi-sensei flicked through the file, then tucked it inside his vest. It was probably a paperwork or a disclaimer to the same extent.

"Oh," he added. "Koyuki wanted me to give you all these. I know it isn't much, but please, hold us in your memories."

He handed each of us an envelope, bowed again, and left.

I opened it curiously.

"An autograph!" Naruto exclaimed. "She told me she never gave autographs!"

I smiled at the picture. It must have been a rush printing, because it was of the five of us at the coronation yesterday, Koyuki all done up in her Daimyo's robes, and the courtyard filled with banners behind us.

_Shikako Nara, _

_Happiness without an ending. I hope you find yours. _

_~Yukie Fujikaze_

_~Koyuki Kazahana_

Then I realised something.

"I'm going to have to go back on the boat, aren't I?"


	53. Chapter 52

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Valerie - not to worry, I do have a plot point for that. It's… in progress. XD

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Chapter 52

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_We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contest, and we must win. ~ Edward Gibbon _

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"You know," Tsunade drawled from behind the missions desk. "Generally when I give people two month long missions, it means I don't see them again _for two months._"

Given that it had taken less than a week to sail there, we'd spent less than a week there and then sailed back, we were in at well under a month.

"Mah, mah," Kakashi-sensei waved his hand lackadaisically. "The mission was completed successfully. Just… interestingly." His eye curved up into an irritatingly happy smile.

"Interestingly," Tsunade repeated, sounding unimpressed.

We nodded. Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

The other ninja manning the assignments desk were staring at us like they _really_ hoped that we were going to expand on 'interesting'. It was a little uncomfortable.

"Alright, briefing room!" Tsunade snapped. "This is going to end up on my desk _anyway_, I just know it."

We trooped out of the mission assignment room and ignored the surge of conversation that happened behind us.

"Okay," Tsunade said, leaning back in her chair and eyeing us seriously. "What happened?"

We gave her the run down of the mission.

She stared at us and very slowly lifted a hand to rub her temples. "It was a simple, straightforward mission," she groused. "And while I can't see anything that points to it being your _fault_…"

That wasn't entirely true. We probably should have kept a better grip on Koyuki and not let her get kidnapped _twice_, for instance, but there was nothing we could do about the basic premise of her being the princess.

"Kakashi, you're probably going to have to spend the next day or two in the Intelligence Division filling them in on this new chakra armour and generator and what have you," she said with a sigh.

Kakashi-sensei groaned, but nodded. Yeah, I could see how they'd want that information.

"And, hmm, I suppose your early return solves one problem anyway," she folded both hands under her chin. "There's been a mission specifically requesting Sasuke Uchiha."

Sensei sharpened to attention. Heck, so did I.

"Relax," she said. "It's been vetted. Thoroughly. You've got tomorrow off, but come to my office to pick it up the day after."

Not the mission desk, her office. She was keeping her hands tight around it so that even if it was legitimate, the wrong people didn't find out and screw it up anyway. I wondered just how much of a shakedown was going on through Konoha's systems. Tsunade didn't seem the type to be anything less than completely thorough when she set her mind to something.

The thing was, turning down missions looked bad for a Hidden Village. And she could hardly _stop_ sending Sasuke out. Well, she could, theoretically, but that really wasn't a viable long term solution.

"Fill out your paperwork," she directed. "Go home. Try not to cause trouble."

Naruto's incredibly innocent face probably didn't help our case any.

"So," I said, as the door shut behind her. "Dinner at my place?"

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It was a quiet day off for me; Team 8 and Team 10 were both out of the village on missions. It was a strange feeling, so far it had always been the other way around. And I'd been looking forward to making Ino flip by telling her just who we'd been guarding.

I wrote my mission report, switched out all my winter gear and restocked my pack. A days worth of downtime wasn't exactly a lot, especially coming off an A-rank, but we weren't injured and the last week had been spent travelling and recovering anyway.

"Team Seven. Come in, come in," Tsunade said, waving a distracted hand at us as we entered her office.

"This is a C-rank mission from the Neko-baa, the proprietor of an independent supply outpost in the abandoned city of Sora-ku." The way she said it, Neko-baa sounded more like a title than a name, which made sense since it roughly translated to Grandmother Cat.

Sasuke stiffened noticeably.

"They used to have very strong ties with the Uchiha clan," Tsunade acknowledged with a dip of her head. "And the request was made specifically for Sasuke to be the one to fill it." She paused a beat, as though waiting for protests, then continued smoothly. "Kakashi is still working with the Intelligence Division to update our information on the Land of Snow so he won't be going with you. It's only a C-rank, so two Genin and a Chunin should be an adequate team, even if you are rookies."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama," I said respectfully. Going without Kakashi-sensei added a nervous thrill to the mission, but as long as it _stayed_ a C-rank, we should be fine.

She nodded. "The Neko-baa will be waiting at the outpost in Sora-ku with additional details for you. There are directions in the mission scroll, but I assume you know where it is?" The last bit was directed at Sasuke with a raised eyebrow.

He nodded. "I know where it is." He sounded a little stiff, and I glanced at him curiously out the corner of my eye. I'd ask, later.

"Off you go then," she said, dismissing us.

Sora-ku was just slightly less than a full days travel to the north-east, in the middle of a barren rocky stretch more similar to something you'd expect to find in the Land of Earth than the Land of Fire. The city itself was …_ bigger_ than I expected, tall square buildings that stood several stories high… blocks of nearly identical buildings tightly compressed into a small area.

"This place is creepy," Naruto said, staring around.

It was abandoned, and though there were signs of disrepair on the buildings, signs that it had been abandoned for a long while, there was no clear cut destruction or destabilisation that showed _why_ it was abandoned.

Sasuke just grunted. "This way," he said.

"You've been here before, right Sasuke?" I asked, glancing at him. "You seemed to know what Tsunade was talking about." He still looked tense, even after travelling here. It could have been the general reminder of his clan, but…

"I… came here when I was younger," he said quietly. "With Itachi." His hands clenched tightly into fists.

"I see," I said, even though it didn't clear up everything. It was no wonder that he was tense, though.

Naruto had an uncharacteristically serious look on his face at the announcement. "So how much further to the old lady's place?" was all he asked.

Sasuke scoffed. "You're the one with the mission scroll; why don't you tell me?"

"You're the one that's been here before," Naruto shot back, a playful glint in his eyes.

I rolled my eyes at their bickering, but it was better than doom and gloom. And it was friendly teasing, neither of them serious enough to be actually annoyed.

"This is it," Sasuke said, stopping in front of a building that looked more cared for than the rest. He paused for a second, then breathed deeply and went inside.

Naruto and I followed. I was a little surprised that Naruto hadn't brought up the issue of who exactly was team leader here, but I guessed that either personal history outweighed rank in his mind or he hadn't started thinking of himself in the role of team leader. To be fair, all our team decisions and planning had always been based more on a general consensus than any one of us taking charge and Kakashi-sensei really only took over when things went to hell anyway.

"I'm glad you came, Sasuke-boy," an old woman said as we entered the room. The _shop_ more like. The walls were covered in good quality weapons - kunai, shuriken, katana - and there were shelves of all kinds of bottles and jars. And there were cats. Everywhere. Not that that was a bad thing; I rather liked cats myself.

"It's been a long time Neko-baa," Sasuke said respectfully.

"My how you've grown," she said. "It has been a few years, hasn't it?"

He nodded shortly. "You hired us for a mission."

"Yes, yes. The young are so impatient," she sighed. "Tamaki! Bring me the Paw Encyclopaedia."

A young girl - well, youngish. She was probably about the same age we were - stepped out from the back room carrying a think, pink covered book.

"You turned that into a book?" Sasuke asked, surprised.

"Indeed, I did," she replied, looking pleased with herself. "But it isn't finished."

I looked curiously at the book, wondering just what it was. Neko-baa caught my gaze and chuckled.

"Sasuke collected all of these," she said opening it, and showing us what looked to be ink stamps of cats paws - not just housecats but lions and tigers… oh my. "When he came here with his brother." She shook her head. "But it isn't finished. There's still one more paw print that I need to get."

"One?" Sasuke repeated, faint surprise in his voice.

Neko-baa nodded, turning to a specific page. "I asked Yugito Nii of the Hidden Cloud and she kindly agreed."

I choked on a giggle, just a little bit, at the kind of insane balls that it would take to ask a Jinchuriki for a paw print. Crazy old lady. Then again, Naruto would find something like that hilarious if someone was making a fox book.

"Huh?" Naruto asked, not getting it.

"Yugito Nii," I said, breathlessly. "Is the Jinchuriki for the Two Tailed Cat." It wasn't exactly secret knowledge; Hidden Cloud _liked_ making sure everyone knew they had two effective Jinchuriki.

"Nekomata is the only one that remains," she continued. "He's a big shot in the ninja cat underworld that never shows his face in public. He hides in an impregnable fortress. The number of ninja cats who guard Nekomata is unknown. Can you handle this?"

Sasuke nodded curtly.

"Just leave it to us!" Naruto said.

"Very well," she said gravely. "In order to infiltrate the fortress you will need these."

She whipped out … fuzzy, cat ear headbands?

"If you put these on, the cats will think you're one of them."

"And it'll let you understand cat talk!" One of the cats sitting beside her chirped. I tried not to flinch in surprise. It wasn't that I wasn't used to animals that could talk, I just hadn't expected it.

"Alright," I said doubtfully, but my distrust vanished the instant I actually touched them. They were imbued with chakra. Some kind of seal work or genjutsu? I shrugged, and slid them on.

Naruto had no problems wearing them either, but Sasuke gave them a distasteful look, before he put them on. Oh, they looked too cute.

"I wish I had a camera," I said quietly, so he didn't hear me.

The young girl, Tamaki, giggled and held her finger to her lips before slipping off to the back of the shop.

"Using the headbands, Hina and Denka will summon you to just outside the Cat Fortress," Neko-baa continued. "They won't be able to take you close, but they should be able to point you in the right direction."

"Okay!" Naruto cheered. "When do we leave?"

Neko-baa smiled. "As soon as you're ready."

"Then let's do this," Sasuke said firmly.

Two of the cats vanished in a puff of smoke, and then I felt a tugging sensation, not all that different from being the target of a replacement jutsu. White chakra smoke obscured my vision and when it cleared the scenery was different. We were outside, for one, and there were hills and trees and grass rather than the bare rock of the land around Sora-ku. The air and chakra were different too.

Well. We had been reverse summoned. It was to be expected.

"This way!" Hina said, running forward. We followed until we cleared the tops of one of the hills and saw a valley with a lake nestled in the centre. And built into the centre of that lake was the Cat Fortress.

Not just a fortress _belonging_ to the cats… but a fortress built in the shape of a cat.

"Zero points for guessing where we're headed," I murmured.

"We're known in these parts," our guide said. "So we can't go any further."

"No ninja cat has ever seen Nekomata's face," Denka added. "Will you be able to find him?"

"Thanks to these, infiltrating will be quite easy," Sasuke said, gesturing at his cat ears. If Sakura and Ino could see him now… "If we can get in successfully, the rest will be easy."

"Wait! Hold it," Naruto cut in. "We're supposed to be able to talk to ninja cats with these things, right? Meaning there's no need to start a fight. Let's just talk it out with him. I'm sure he'd be willing to give us one or two paw prints."

"Impossible," Hina said.

"What? Why?" Naruto asked, bewildered.

"Having your paw print taken is extremely embarrassing for a cat," Denka said, as a matter of fact.

"For humans, it would be like being stripped naked and then photographed," Hina added, licking a paw.

Well, some people did it. I wondered if Yugito Ni knew… okay bad thoughts. Not going there. Actually, if the cats were intelligent enough to talk and reason, did this count as a violation of privacy? That was … suspect.

"I think talking will be useless," the old cat said.

I shrugged. "Trying diplomacy never hurts, even if you think it will be useless." Sometimes it was but that didn't mean you should stop trying. Besides, Naruto had been the one to suggest a less violent path, and I didn't want to dismiss that.

"Let's go," Sasuke said, breaking the argument. His gaze was fixed on the fortress.

We moved off, circling around to approach the single bridge that lead out across the water. The second we set foot on that, we'd be in hostile territory.

_Here's hoping these headbands work_.

I wasn't _quite_ sure how much of a threat to consider these ninja cats. Obviously, they were summons animals, and therefore worthy of respect, but that didn't mean they were all fighters, or even that they were powerful ones. Although, conversely, it didn't mean they _weren't _either.

We stepped onto the bridge.

No immediate alarms were raised. There were other cats coming and going, and none of them seemed to be giving us a second glance.

"I think we're good," I said, tentatively.

We walked forward, keeping a steady, even pace and joined the line of cats waiting to enter the fortress. There were two guards by the door, checking everyone who passed. That would be our first test.

"Next!" The guard cats wearing pseudo samurai armour called. We stepped forward. "I don't recognise you guys."

"We're newbie cats!" Naruto said cheerfully.

Sasuke went the smarter route and bribed them, with a small jar of catnip. "Here."

"For someone new, you're quick to catch on." The cats levelled their spears at us.

I froze, legs tensing, ready to dodge or fight at their next action.

"So here's a reward for you! New cats that get the idea are welcome!" They twisted the spears, one end coming away to reveal a fluffy cat toy that bobbed in the air in front of us.

I blinked at the mood whiplash. The toys bobbed. The guards looked on expectantly.

Gingerly, I reached out a hand and batted at it, as a cat would do. We were trying to sneak in, so acting so as they seemed to expect us to was important. After a seconds hesitation, the boys joined in. I giggled, just a little, at the _absurdity_ of it.

"You like that?" The guard chortled. "Yes, yes. Welcome to Nekomata's Fortress. I hope to see you around."

They withdrew their toys, returning the sheath that made it into a spear and let us pass.

"Close one," Naruto said as we entered what looked like the main courtyard. "I thought they had us there."

"So did I," Sasuke admitted, looking around. The place was fairly well lit, which was good because it was getting dark. "Now we need to find Nekomata."

"We could search," I murmured, before nodding at the main, cat shaped tower. "But I think the main tower is our best bet. It's the most logical choice and it's where the strongest chakra signal is coming from."

"As good a place to start as any," Naruto said with a shrug, starting off in that direction.

Sasuke didn't move.

"Sasuke?" I asked, carefully.

He looked at us both. "I need to be the one to fight Nekomata," he said.

I exchanged a worried look with Naruto. "Why would you say that?"

"It was… it was a target Itachi set me, but one he always said I wasn't ready for," he said. "I need… to prove that I can. To overcome it."

For someone he wanted to kill, Sasuke cared an awful lot about measuring up to Itachi's standards. It made sense in a way - just because someone you loved did something horrible, didn't mean you stopped loving them; you just started hating them as well, and that wasn't the same thing at all - but it was heart achingly sad.

"You don't have to do this alone, you know," I said gently. "We're with you."

"I know," he said. "But this is _important _and it wouldn't be the same…"

I thought I could see the reasons Sasuke was trying to articulate, even if I couldn't really understand them.

"Fine," Naruto said abruptly. "But don't think we wont jump in if you're losing. Because we will."

Sasuke snorted. "I won't lose."

"And don't think that that line of reasoning is going to work too often," I added wryly. "Because there's only so much I'm willing to let you get away with."

He smirked. "I wouldn't expect anything less," he assured me.

We headed to the main building, finding the stairs and going upwards. No one tried to stop us, but it was a little nerve wracking all the same. We were at the level below Nekomata when we ran into trouble. The stairwell opened into what looked to be a well staffed guard room, with half a dozen cats in samurai style armour.

The doorway to the next stairwell was straight across the room, and after a seconds hesitation, we strode for it confidently, hoping we could bluff our way through this. Sometimes, acting like you were allowed to be there was all it took.

"H-hey!" One of the cats squawked as we neared the doorway. "What do you think you're doing? No one's allowed to see the boss!"

"It's really important that we see him!" Naruto said earnestly. "He really needs to hear what we have to say!"

The cat looked doubtful. "You can just tell it to his attendant," he offered. "That's what everyone does." He frowned, and peered at us. "You know, I haven't seen you guys around before…"

"We're new," Sasuke said, offering the same excuse we'd used at the gate. I could see that it wasn't going to work though, or at least not how we needed it to. Unobtrusively, I turned sideways, sliding behind Sasuke and blocking my hands from view. Gently, very gently - made more difficult because I didn't actually know what we looked like to them - I settled a False Surroundings genjutsu over the group, duplicating the room exactly to give the impression that we were moving away from the door.

"Well, I'll forgive you for not knowing how things are done then," the cat said. "But Nekomata-sama doesn't need to be bothered with petty details. That's why we have people to report to, you know."

I grabbed Sasuke and Naruto by the arms, tugging them backwards, even as the cat followed open air like we were moving. I didn't expect it to hold for long because they were _cats_ and their sensory priorities were different to ours. Still, they weren't expecting it, and I was being as subtle as I could with it.

We slid up the stairs silently, appearing at a large, stone room with low lighting. One end had a raised pavilion with bamboo blinds blocking our view.

We traded glances.

"Nekomata?" Naruto called, voice echoing loudly. "Eh, Nekomata? We're ninja on a mission for Neko-baa-chan, to get a paw print from you. Whaddaya say?"

There was a shifting, rustling sound, and behind the bamboo screen, a huge shadow loomed. "Such _insolence_," he growled.

"It'll be easier if you willingly offer your paw," Sasuke stated. "If not, this will be quite painful for you."

I was tempted to roll my eyes, just a little.

The cat laughed. "You have guts to stand before me and make such threats."

That hall _changed_.

_Genjutsu_. I shook it off, snapping out of the illusion and grabbing Naruto's arm to disperse it for him. Sasuke's eyes were already spinning Sharingan red.

Below us, I heard the wail of a siren starting up.

"Looks like they discovered our trick," I said. Meaning, there would probably be a whole lot of guards pouring into the room very soon. "Naruto and I will guard the stairway." With that as a choke point, we'd be able to restrict the number of enemies we had to fight at any one time.

Sasuke nodded, satisfied. "Good." He leapt forward, putting a decent amount of space between us. "The Sharingan can see through genjutsu," he informed Nekomata coldly. "That won't work on me."

A huge form moved off the pavilion, white and blue stripes. Nekomata was _big,_ but not in league with Gamabunta or Shukaku.

"Then I'll go with brute strength!" He lashed out, claws arched and his paw slammed into the ground, sending chips of stone flying. Sasuke dodged agilely, evading the angry swipes.

"Here they come," I said, turning back to the descending stairwell and away from Sasuke's fight. "Get ready, Naruto."

The first cat charging up the stairwell had his spear already out and ready. It was easy enough to catch him in my shadow possession jutsu and then spin it like a staff to knock out those around him. There was strange resistance on the jutsu, and the different joints made the moves translate awkwardly, but it worked well enough.

Some of the cats had very flexible taijutsu styles, able to bend around our attacks, or to change direction on a whim, but the small space of the stairwell limited them and with two of us defending the top, it was a painless fight.

"How long do you think Sasuke is going to take?" Naruto grumbled, blocking claw swipe with his kunai.

"Probably not much longer," I said, listening to the ground shaking _thump_ of something very large hitting the floor hard.

Naruto snorted. "Nice timing."

"Proper timing is an essential component of ninja battles," I said faux-haughtily. "And witty quips."

He laughed. "Sure. But… important question here; how are we going to get out? Because I'm pretty sure we won't be able to sneak out." He threw another attacker back down the stairs, bowling over two others that weren't quick enough to get out of the way.

And they were probably going to be guarding the bridge something fierce. "Through the window," I suggested. "Just slide down the wall and go across the water?"

"Mission accomplished," Sasuke said behind us, a folded up piece of canvas in his hands. "Let's go."

He looked pleased with himself, lighter somehow, like overcoming this challenge had been important. Maybe it wasn't something that had weighed on his mind until it had been brought up again, but having it over with _meant_ something to him.

"Awesome," Naruto cheered. "Let's get back to Neko-baa-chan."


	54. Chapter 53

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: For all of you that asked; yes, that was a real episode. Shippuden 189, Paw Encyclopaedia. This chapter is the OVA Protect the Hidden Waterfall Village.

So I know Kakashi's message is probably just a plot device to get him out of the way and let the kids do the fighting, but my brain likes picking on things like that and making them into _something._

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Chapter 53

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_A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom. ~ Bob Dylan_

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Three days later saw the full Team Seven assembled and escorting Shibuki back to Hidden Waterfall. He was a ninja himself - newly instated leader of the village, though I think the post was more administrative in requirement than that of a Kage - so 'escorting' in this mission meant less 'protect' and more 'keep him from poking his nose in places that we don't want it'.

Because he was from an allied - and trusted, which wasn't always the same thing - village, it was only a C-rank. If he'd been from a village that we had strained relations with, or one of the big five at all, it would have been a B or A and wouldn't have come anywhere near us.

Shibuki himself was… twitchy.

It got old, pretty fast. Every time he jumped at wildlife or 'heard something' I reacted to his reaction. We'd been wired tightly _because_ our previous missions had had a tendency to go badly and quick reaction times had been our saving grace. Here… it was exhausting.

Kakashi-sensei appeared not to notice at all, and gave off the impression that he found our repeated startling highly amusing. Since I knew he was twice as aware of any threats as we were, his ability to filter out non-threatening stimuli was pretty amazing.

So we were pretty relieved when we finally got to our destination, a large lake fed by a huge waterfall at one end. Presumably Hidden Waterfall was nearby, since there were two kids wandering about who greeted Shibuki enthusiastically.

Hidden Waterfall, as a ninja village, was fairly unique. For one, it was actually _hidden_ and only the residents knew how to find it. For another, Land of Waterfalls claimed to have never been invaded, which was a pretty strong comment considering the nearby Land of Rain had been repeatedly devastated by it's stronger neighbours. Part of that could be attributed to the third interesting point; it was the only minor village to house a Jinchuriki.

The exact identity of the current Jinchuriki wasn't known, but there were a couple of suspects among the upper tier of the village. For a small place with only a few dozen ninja, it had a consistently high level of shinobi. Either they had an _excellent_ training program or… well. Or something.

"Could you help us, please?" The young girl asked, after they'd finished greeting Shibuki. "We have to clean up the litter in the water, but the current is strong and it can be pretty scary."

Naruto groaned.

"Consider it part of your mission," Shibuki said with a laugh.

Kakashi-sensei said nothing against it, apart from a mild reminder that it would be considered an extra mission, before taking a seat in the shade and leaving us to it.

"This sucks," Naruto said with a sigh.

"Cheer up," I said. "It's not like it's anything we haven't done before."

So picking up rubbish was hardly the greatest of missions but it would be over fairly quickly. The sun was shining and the water was cool and clear, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

We were jerked to attention by Shibuki's startled cry, a sound which had become familiar to us on the journey.

"Not to worry," Kakashi-sensei said, as a bird swooped down to perch on his arm. "It's just a messenger bird from Konoha." He easily unravelled the message tied to it's leg.

"Sensei?" I asked tentatively, because it _really_ wasn't common to contact ninja that were out on missions. And when something unusual happened, it generally didn't mean anything good.

"I hate to miss out on the fun," Kakashi-sensei said laconically. "But it looks like you three will have to finish up here on your own. Complete the clean up and head straight back to Konoha, okay?"

"Wait, wait!" Naruto protested. "Where are you going?"

"There's been an emergency meeting called," Kakashi-sensei said. "I wouldn't worry about it, if I were you." He gave us a reassuring smile.

_Emergency meeting?_ My questions died in my throat. With Shibuki here - a foreign ninja - Kakashi-sensei wouldn't say any more than that. Even his leaving was highly suspicious.

Because you _didn't_ call a ninja back from a mission for a _meeting_ and if the emergency was anything less than dire, he would have waited for us to finish up to save face. Heck, suggesting that Naruto use Shadow Clones would have had the whole thing done in minutes.

_Unless he wasn't supposed to take you…_

But even then it would have been easy enough to send us on our way alone, since he could move faster without us. Which meant that it was an every-second-counts, Jounin response only emergency…

_Which is what?_

I tried not to think about it too hard. Without any information, every situation my brain created would be as false as it was worrying.

I glanced at my team mates as Kakashi-sensei took off, leaping straight into the tree tops. Naruto looked mostly annoyed, and truthfully, I hadn't really expected him to pick up on the subtext, but either Sasuke hadn't picked up on it either, or he was better at hiding his thoughts than I was.

Numbly, I went back to picking up litter.

We were pretty much finished when the mother of the two children came out of the trees to get them. At first I didn't pay her much attention, really, but Naruto lifted his head, nose twitching and face set in a peculiar expression.

"I smell blood," he said.

We waded out of the water, dumping the sacks of rubbish on the ground.

"Shibuki-sama," she was saying, voice trembling. "It was terrible… they attacked without warning…"

I saw the way her facial muscles went slack a split second before her legs gave out and lunged forward to catch her weight before she sprawled out on the ground. Grunting, I lowered her down gently to reveal what we hadn't seen before - the kunai stuck into her back.

"_Mother!_" the kids shouted.

"It's okay," I reassured them. "It's not as bad as it looks." It couldn't be. She was walking, so obviously it hadn't severed her spine, and it wasn't gushing blood, so it hadn't hit any major arteries or veins. It had probably just been the shock and pain that had got to her.

"We've got to get to the village right away!" The boy said.

"That wouldn't be a good idea," Sasuke refuted calmly.

"She said they attacked without warning," Naruto added.

"That's impossible," Shibuki protested weakly. "How could anyone find this place?"

No one answered him.

"Shikako," Naruto said. "Can you…" he made a weak gesture towards the woman and kids.

I understood. "I'll take them into the forest. We'll find somewhere to hole up while you guys check out the village. Stay safe," I added.

It wasn't that I was precisely _thrilled_ about being the one left behind, but in this case it made sense. _Someone_ needed to look after the kids, the mother was injured and I knew healing jutsu.

"Four incoming," I murmured in a low tone. "Behind the waterfall."

Shibuki's mouth thinned at the information.

"Go," Sasuke said, pulling his foldable fuuma shuriken out of his pouch. "I've got this."

I ducked, heaving the woman over my shoulder and beckoned the kids. "Come on. Lets get out of here and take care of your mum, okay?"

For kids under pressure, they were doing really well.

"Are you two at the Academy?" I asked, hustling them away while at the same time trying to keep an eye on the fight behind us. There was the sharp clanging of metal on metal as incoming kunai were deflected, but it was hard to really hear over the roaring of the waterfall. It had become background noise over the last hour or so, but it still muffled other sounds.

"Uh, huh," the boy said. I really had to find out their names. "We just started this year."

"You're doing very well," I said. "Keeping calm is important."

Unseen to them, I grimaced. We couldn't go too far away, it would simply take too long with having to carry the woman and at the pace the kids were travelling. The surroundings weren't exactly good for cover either, with a sheer cliff going up and the land below pancake flat. It was forested, of course, and with a team of ninja or by myself it would have been fine, but hiding civilians in a forest is tricky.

There was a small curve in the cliff, not enough to be called a cave, but it would probably give _some_ protection. Hopefully.

"Okay," I said, carefully setting the woman down and then rolling my shoulder. She wasn't exactly light and if I hadn't been a ninja, I wouldn't have been able to carry her, let alone so easily. "Let's see what we can do about this."

I dropped a False Surrounding genjutsu over us, hoping it would buy us time while I dealt with this injury. There was no reason to suspect that they were looking for us, of course, but I preferred to take precautions when I could.

I used my Diagnostic Jutsu and confirmed what I had suspected before. It hadn't pierced her spine or hit anything immediately vital, which was good news.

"Alright, I'm going to pull this out and then heal it up," I said, grasping the kunai firmly. "You might want to look away."

They shook their heads, eyes fixed on my hand.

I probably should have insisted, really, but I didn't, pulling the kunai out with a short, sharp tug the same way that it had gone in so as not to cause any extra damage. Blood welled in the wound and spilled down her back as I ran through the hand seals for the Mystical Palm Jutsu.

The kids gasped as the wound knit itself back together slowly. It took concentration but it wasn't _much_ more serious than anything else I'd healed. Eventually, all that was left was pink new skin and I absently wiped it clean before taping a bandage over it, just in case.

"There we go," I said, leaning backwards with a sigh.

Now I needed to set some traps and preferably make this little spot as defensible as possible.

I had only managed to rig a few very basic tripwire traps when I felt the incoming chakra. Four people. Three Chunin level. One Jounin level.

_Shit._

Who were they after? Me or the kids? They already knew we were here, the skirmish by the lake had proven that.

I snuck back to the kids. "Keep your heads down," I whispered. "Whatever happens, stay calm, stay quiet. Understand?"

They stared at me, wide eyed. I didn't really have time to explain, because they were homing in on us. "Understand?" I repeated.

They nodded.

_Good enough._

Carefully, I pulled my chakra in tight, a ball of adrenaline burning in my stomach and then faded carefully back into the trees. I cancelled my Resistance Seal, feeling lighter and freer as it faded away. If I had to go into combat alone, I wanted to be as ready as possible.

The group split up, the three Chunin level ninja staying in the trees and the Jounin one descending to land by the kids. I caught a glimpse of him, black cloth mask over his face, hair covered by a bandana, as I waited breathlessly.

Who to take out first? The lone Jounin or the three Chunin. I'd only get one shot, if I went for the Jounin, and fighting four at once would be too much. But if I went for the Chunin, I'd have to take them all out _silently_ or he'd be alerted anyway.

"Well, well, well," he chuckled maliciously. "Look at what we have here."

I could feel the fear radiating off the kids.

_Right. Decision made._

I ran through the seals for Earth Walking and sunk noiselessly into the ground. I _could_ use jutsu while keeping my chakra compressed, it just took more concentration. A sensor type ninja might be able to pick up on the chakra used for a jutsu, but your average ninja didn't have that sensitivity.

If I'd approached him normally, he'd have heard me. I didn't doubt that. By the time they got to Chunin most shinobi would expect an attack from above. But even ninja forgot to think about underground.

I pushed forward, manipulating the dirt in front of me and almost _swimming_ through it. I had to hurry - before he took them and left - but I couldn't be noticed. It was frustrating.

Then, I was beneath him. I lashed out, hands reaching upwards and breaching the surface, latching onto ankles and _pulling._ I yanked him downwards, rearing backwards and packing the dirt in around him as hard as stone.

"H-Hey! What the hell!" he shouted, struggling.

I surged out of the ground, gulping fresh air greedily. I scrambled in my kunai pouch, pulling out a knockout tag and slamming it down on his forehead - above the Hidden Rain forehead protector. A flick of chakra and he was out cold.

I would have taken that chance to breathe a sigh of relief, but there were still three ninja in the trees, stirring uneasily. They'd been expecting screaming, but not _his._

Plans flickered through my mind. They were up in the trees, so the same strategy wouldn't work twice. I didn't know how far away the rest were, so I wanted to have this done as quietly as possible.

I circled as widely around them as I dared, coming up to them from the back. Not a leaf whispered at my passing.

_Don't try and evade a Mist shinobi on the water, or a Konoha shinobi in the trees_ went the old saying. I hoped to prove it true.

"Should we go down there?" Ninja one whispered. I could see them, just, perched in the branches around a single, thick trunk. They were all dressed in a grey uniform, but not one I recognised from any Hidden Village.

"Do we have to?" Ninja two hissed back. "He creeps me right out."

"Quiet!" Hissed the third.

My shadow crept along the branches, aided by the abundant canopy. My fingers were busy tying loops of ninja wire to my weapons. This one was one of Sasuke's favourite shuriken tricks, though he did it without the added paralysis and with a Wire Dragon Jutsu to give it a bit of oomph.

Up the trunk my shadow crept, splitting into three unnoticed. It latched on; one, two three.

"Shadow Possession Complete," I breathed, and let fly.

Shuriken whipped through the air, curving around the tree trunk, trailing silver wire behind them. Once, and then again…

The three shinobi cried out as they tried to evade and couldn't. I pulled tightly on the wire, pinning them to the tree, and cut the Shadow Possession as the outside force nearly yanked _me_ off my feet as it did them.

One of them was quick enough, clever enough, to use a replacement jutsu before the wire got too tight. He hit the ground running, either to get a better position or to go for reinforcements, and I_ couldn't_ allow that. I yanked the wire tight, pinned it to the tree branch I was standing on with a shuriken, and was after him.

Over one branch, under another, a quick zigzag - bounce horizontally off a tree branch - and I was gaining on him. He knew I was there, but not where; every brace of thrown kunai missed by miles, and none of them had explosive notes or ninja wire attached. I'd checked.

I leapt off another branch, judged my distance and caught the next one with my hands, swinging around it and launching myself down. I slammed into his back, legs first, sending us both tumbling over the ground. I was expecting it. He wasn't.

He went sprawling and I rolled us over, no easy feat when he was bigger than me, and pinned him down. He lurched, trying to throw me off and I cocked my fist back and slammed it, hard and fast, into his jaw.

"Glass jaw," I panted, double checking that he was really out and not just faking before clambering off. It had been a stupid move, though, turning it into a grappling match. He was bigger than me, physically stronger than me… one wrong move and I would have been screwed.

I rolled him on his side and used ninja wire to tie his hands and feet together, making sure to get his fingers so he couldn't form hand seals. Trying to restrain ninja was an _art._

Then I backtracked to the two still furiously tied to the tree trunk and slapped knockout tags on them. No need for them to get free either.

The kids were where I left them, huddled next to their mother. I gave them the all clear, and dragged them to a new clearing away from people buried in the ground up to their necks. It was better that way. Then I told them to stay there with their heads down.

"Where are you going?" The girl asked, eyes tearing up.

"I have to go check on Shibuki and my friends," I said, as reassuringly as possible. "I'm sure they're fine."

I actually had great faith in Naruto and Sasuke's ability to deal with things, but that _didn't_ mean they wouldn't need help.

And since Kakashi-sensei was gone, I was the only one left _to_ help.

For lack of a better place to start, I made my way back to the lake. I was surprised, and not a little worried at what I found there.

All the villagers had been rounded up - tied up - and corralled by the lake. Even worse, so had Sasuke. He was hanging suspended from wooden arch. I could make out a metal sheen around his chest, and his arms were pinned up against his back.

There were three ninja in the clearing, all Jounin level. One, a young man with a blue blocky tattoo across his face, the second a young woman, and the third an older man.

_Not. Good._

Naruto wasn't there, and neither was Shibuki which was a spot of hope. Naruto's chakra was somewhere behind the waterfall, and it seemed strong and vibrant. I hoped like hell he was alright, because this was definitely going to need both of us.

Maybe if I could meet up with Naruto…

Except…

I didn't know how to get to him. Oh, I could probably get behind the waterfall, but there was a slight problem of the waterfall being completely out in the open. They'd see me before I even got halfway there. If there were other ways in, I didn't know them.

_Shit._

That was okay. It was fine. Don't panic.

There was no rush. Just wait for Naruto to come out. Wait, watch, listen.

"Why are you doing this?" One of the villagers shouted. "You were once our most respected Jounin, Suien!"

Okay, there was a name. Suien. Presumably a missing-nin from Hidden Waterfall. Well, that explained how they'd found the place.

"Have you come to take over the village?" Another asked fearfully.

_Good._ I encouraged them. _Get him talking_. I couldn't see a single headband among them, so they were probably civilians. Hidden Village civilians, though.

"What would I want with this pathetic collection of huts?" Suien scoffed. "No, I've come for the Hero's Water."

_Hero's Water?_

The admission sent up a clamour from the civilians though. "Shibuki-sama would never hand it over!"

"He'd pour it out before he did that!"

"Maybe if he was a different sort of leader. But you forget; I was the one that taught him the ways of the shinobi. I know what he is," Suien said smugly.

This just kept getting better and better. Granted, I hadn't thought much of Shibuki myself, but presumably they'd elected him leader for a reason.

"Just where is Kirisame, anyway?" the woman muttered to the other ninja. I felt myself stiffen. Of course they would notice that their comrade was missing.

_Stupid_…

He shrugged. "Probably stopped to have 'fun' on the way back. Doubt we'll get more than mangled corpses from him now."

"Suien won't like that," she said, but didn't seem to find the explanation odd. I dared breathe a sigh of relief. As long as they didn't go looking for him…

"I know you can hear me wherever you're hiding, Shibuki," Suien called, turning towards the waterfall. "Come out and bring the Hero's Water with you. Don't let this village suffer any more because of you."

I didn't know what the Hero's Water was - some kind of medicine or artefact? - but obviously Shibuki had it and Suien wanted it. Wanted it badly enough to storm the village and take people hostage.

"You wouldn't be thinking of pouring it out now, would you?" Suien asked, as if talking to Shibuki. There was no answer, but if Suien _had_ been close to him, he probably knew how Shibuki would have reacted. "If someone came along and attacked the village, you wouldn't be able to defend yourselves, would you?"

_Okay? A weapon then?_ Except they'd said 'pour it out'. Which implied that it _was_ a liquid…

"Time's running out, Shibuki," Suien called. "There's a limit to how long you can just sit out there. Bring out the Hero's Water, or I'll start killing your villagers, one by one." He paused. "Starting with the children."

He singled out one of the younger ones, maybe ten years old, and dragged her to the front.

"One minute, Shibuki," he shouted. Then he started counting down.

And.

Nothing happened.

_Shit. _There was no way in hell that Naruto would stand by and just let this happen. Not if he could see it.

Then I had an idea. A crazy, stupid idea.

_Oh, hell._

"Twenty seconds!"

I clasped my hands together and carefully built the fragile chakra construct around myself. "Transform!"

"You want the Hero's Water?" I asked, stepping out of cover, and the voice that came out wasn't mine but Shibuki's. "Come and get it!"

"Shibuki-sama!" The civilians cried. "Don't do it!"

The three ninja stared at me. I felt cold sweat sliding across my forehead. My left hand trembled in a perfect mimicry of Shibuki's nervous tick.

Funnily enough, it was really difficult acting terrified, even when you were. I was more used to trying to pretend I _wasn't._

Suien chuckled. "What a _hero_," he mocked. "Hand it over, boy."

I lifted my chin. "Not- not until you let them go!"

_Holy hell, what was I doing?_ I shuddered. I was damn surprised that they hadn't seen through my transformation, and yet, if they did, I was screwed.

"You're not really in a position to bargain," he pointed out. Then his eyes narrowed. "What were you doing over there?"

And not behind the waterfall where he expected Shibuki to be. I thought fast. "If you knew where the Hero's Water was, you'd have got it yourself," I bluffed.

At the very top of my vision, I caught a flicker of orange. I consciously _did not_ look upwards.

Suien smirked. "Or maybe you were trying to run away, weren't you, Shibuki? That was always your answer to everything. You truly haven't changed. How disappointed they must be."

I couldn't think of a retort to that. "Let them go," I said instead. "You don't need them anymore."

Suien shrugged, dropping the girl unceremoniously to the ground. I was right, though; they _didn't_ need them. I was one person surrounded by three Jounin. My only advantage was that I wasn't the person they thought I was.

"The Hero's Water," he said.

I gulped. I had no idea what the Hero's Water really was, or what it looked like. I couldn't fake it. The civilians exploded into a chorus of 'don't do it's. Up above, I could feel Naruto's chakra building.

I stepped forward. My hand reached into my pouch, and I hoped that the Hero's Water was small enough to believably fit in there.

Suien narrowed his eyes.

_Breathe._

I stepped forward again. And again. Every step carried me closer to him.

"Hand it over. Now," he said, face stony.

My hand whipped out, sending a volley of shuriken scattering through the air. My shadow lashed out underneath them, heading straight for him. He dodged, faster and more agile than I'd thought, and backhanded me straight across the face.

My saving grace was that Shibuki was taller than me. Suien's punch shattered the chakra construct of the transformation, but I was able to dodge it.

Naruto's chakra _surged_ and then there was orange all around me, clones slithering out of ropes. He'd replaced all the civilians, sending them to safety inside the waterfall.

One of my shuriken, the barrage that had scattered wide and missed Suien so completely had had a different target all together. It neatly severed the rope holding Sasuke and dropped him to the ground.

For a moment, things looked up.

We'd run into strong opponents before and we'd always come out, if not better off, then _alive_. I'd only just taken out a Jounin through sneak tactics - but that was very, very different to a straight up fight. That there had been mitigating circumstances… that those opponents hadn't always wanted to kill us… we _knew _it but at the same time…

We were probably kind of arrogant.

We were strong, for Genin. Strength-wise, Sasuke and I probably ranked Chunin alongside Naruto. The three of us could _maybe_ even be called high Chunin.

But there was still a hell of a difference between Jounin and high Chunin.

The three of them, quite effectively, proceeded to school us in that difference.

They were faster, stronger, could do better jutsu and do them _faster._ We were slammed with water bullets, slashed with water whips, in one memorable case nearly electrocuted, and they cut through the horde of Naruto clones with ease.

I had the feeling that the fight would have been over much, much faster, if only Suien hadn't wanted us to understand just how _pissed_ he was.

Three against one, we might have stood some semblance of a chance. Three against three…

_Yeah. No._

"Anyone got a plan?" I asked, a little desperate, as we were forced back to back.

"I think I gotta pull on furball," Naruto said.

I choked on a giggle. _Furball._

"Do it," Sasuke said.

Before he could, the water itself swirled up, spinning furiously like a tornado. I braced myself for the attack, but it swung outwards, slamming into the woman and second man. It sent them flying and they tumbled to the ground.

And didn't get back up.

_Hallelujah, timely saviour!_ I thought.

The water spun itself out, revealing visible blue chakra around… Shibuki. Huh.

_He knows how to use the Eight Gates?_ I wondered. That's what it _felt_ like, that surging chakra, more than a person should have flowing through them.

_Go figure._

"Leave them alone," he said.

"So, you used the Hero's Water?" Suien asked, mockingly, seeming not to care that his two comrades had just been taken out. "You know what it does to people of your constitution."

"Shut up," Shibuki ordered. He extended his hand. "Takigakure Style: Watercutting Sword." Water swirled around his hand, condensing and coalescing until it was blue and opaque, formed into a curved sword.

He leapt forward, sword slashing through the air in a flurry of blows.

Suien blocked every one. "Your chakra might have increased, but your moves haven't gotten any better. You've left your guard wide open. Just like you always did," he sneered.

"Sorry pal," I said, hands clasped together in the rat seal. "The only one here whose guard is open is you."

And then I spread my arms wide.

Suien did the same.

Shibuki's sword came down and cleaved his head straight from his shoulders.

"Well, that was anti-climatic," Sasuke said.


	55. Chapter 54

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Apparently, this has a rec on TvTropes. Thanks guys!

lucife56 drew some beautiful fanart for this. I've put links in my profile. XD Go check them out!

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Chapter 54

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_It's not the glittering weapon that fights the fight, but rather the hero's heart. ~ Proverb _

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"I thought… what kind of leader was I if I let you fight for us and didn't help?" Shibuki explained later. "They all called me a hero, but I was too scared… and… you all just jumped in without caring that they were stronger than you. To save _my_ people."

We'd rounded up all the enemy ninja and stashed them in the surprisingly secure cells, and we'd found the kids and their mother that I'd left in the forest and brought them back to the village. We'd even been let inside, since Naruto and Sasuke had seen it anyway while they were scouting. It was pretty impressive. The entire cliff face behind the waterfall seemed to be hollow and riddled with tree roots that created a maze of passageways leading to a gigantic cavern where the Sacred Tree grew and all the houses were.

Shibuki had the look of someone who Naruto had given a talking to. Given that he'd gone against his stated cowardice to step into a losing fight, to the lengths of taking a chakra enhancing drug with potentially lethal side effects… a drug that had killed his father, no less…

_Definitely the result of talking to Naruto_, I thought.

The Hero's Water did explain the mystery of how such a small village could hold its own. Shibuki had been understandably sparse with the details, but it seemed that the Hero's Water was, at the very least, an artificial way of replicating the opening of the Eight Gates. It wasn't exactly the same, but it increased the amount of chakra available at one point in time, even to the detriment of the body, so the comparison was apt.

It was the village leaders job to protect the Hero's Water and to dispense it in times of need to prevent the village from falling.

But _that_ led to another question that had been bugging me ever since we set foot here…

"Shibuki," I asked tentatively. "Where are all your ninja?"

He blanched. "Ah, well, you see," he started, before wilting. "When I went to Hidden Leaf to discuss the alliance with the Hokage, I left the Jounin Commander in charge. I can't imagine why he would have left the village undefended."

I bit my lip. That didn't sound good at all, really. If it was a coup, they wouldn't have left but leaving the village undefended went entirely against the grain. Maybe they had left a guard but Suien had taken them out? But that still left the question of where the majority of the ninja were…

_That_ was the sort of question that made the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.

"Do you want us to stick around until you find out?" Sasuke asked casually, leaning against the wall.

Shibuki paused, then nodded. He might not have liked how much he was having to rely on us, but having _no_ ninja around would be worse if there was a second attack. "Thank you," he said. "I need to go and talk to the villagers, so please, stay here."

He went off, either to reassure them, or to find out what was going on.

"So," I said, sitting down and stretching out my legs. "What did I miss?"

Naruto flopped down on the ground, sprawling out messily. "Not that much," he said. "Sasuke took care of the guys that jumped out of the waterfall, then Shibuki showed us how to get inside. Not the way we just came in, but a different way, and we had to swim through these tunnels… and we came up in the water over there somewhere." He waved his hand vaguely towards the lake around the Sacred Tree.

"Shibuki went off on his own," Sasuke picked up. "And we got ambushed."

"And you shoved me in the lake," Naruto grumbled, making a face.

"If you'd noticed the attack, I wouldn't have had to," Sasuke shot back, completely unrepentant. He even smirked. "I told him to go after Shibuki and I fought off the other ninja. The weaker ones were no problem, but the two Jounin caught me." He made a disgusted face. "I didn't even sense them coming."

"They were pretty tough," Naruto said, grimacing. "But yeah, I went after Shibuki and he had the Hero's Water and stuff. We were up in the wall somewhere, so I could see you guys through the gap. And I was with Shibuki, so I totally knew it wasn't him, but if I hadn't been I would have believed it," Naruto said generously. "It was a cool plan."

"It was reckless," Sasuke corrected.

"Yeah," I agreed. "But it didn't look like he was bluffing and I wanted to do something before he started killing the kids. I figured, if I could get you down we might have managed something until Naruto showed up. But I underestimated them…"

_Or overestimated us._

It could have, in hindsight, gone very, very wrong. If, say, Naruto hadn't moved all the villagers. Or if they'd seen through my transformation. If Shibuki hadn't shown up…

Naruto shrugged, almost philosophically. "It worked. That's what counts."

"Yes, well," I said. "Here's hoping we don't get stuck in another fight like that too soon."

Sasuke nodded in agreement, a frown pulling on the edges of his mouth.

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><p>.<p>

It was much later when the commotion of returning ninja roused me from the doze I'd fallen into. It wasn't exactly late, but the mantra of missions was _catch sleep where you can, because you don't know how long it'll be until your next chance._ Given that the situation looked so unstable, I wanted to recoup as much chakra as possible.

Naruto hadn't been sleeping, and Sasuke had come to alertness the same time I had, so we wandered out to see what was happening.

"-left two Chunin patrols," an older man was saying to Shibuki when we tracked them down. He had dark hair dragged back into a low ponytail and he was wearing a shinobi vest that was dark blue in colour, though similar in style to a Konoha vest, which was Hidden Waterfall's variation of the shinobi uniform. "I'll send a squad out to see what happened to them." He grimaced, clearly not expecting anything good to come of it.

There was a group of ninja arrayed behind him, spanning ranks from Genin to Jounin, though much more of the former. A few of them I thought I vaguely recognised from the Chunin Exams.

"But what happened?" Shibuki asked.

"We went to reinforce the border," the Jounin explained. "Hidden Cloud ninja have been incredibly active lately. They've come down through Land of Frost and Land of Hot Springs… I think they were just testing our defences but we don't know whether their goal is to head west or to go south through the Land of Fire. Either way it isn't good for us." He waited a beat. "The border patrols have been restructured, and there's another Genin team due back from a mission in the morning. The situation won't happen again."

_Cloud ninja are active… go south through the Land of Fire…_

… _Jounin only, emergency response…_

We technically had a treaty with Hidden Cloud, but given what had happened to Hinata during the signing of it, it wasn't worth the paper it was written on.

I felt cold.

"Send people out after the Chunin patrols," Shibuki said quietly. "See if they can be recovered. And… someone to deal with the prisoners."

The Jounin nodded. "Will do. I'm putting everyone who was on the second shift off duty and Fu…" he trailed off, an uneasy expression on his face.

Shibuki twitched.

_Interesting_, I thought, though it was detached. My mind was still stuck on…

"Aha," Shibuki said nervously. "You didn't leave her at the border? No, no, of course not. Never mind."

I cast a glance over the group, wondering who they were worried about. No one really stood out. Some of the ninja looked tired, some looked bored. Some had interesting weapons…

Then I saw her. She was standing away from the main group, by herself. Maybe fourteen, fifteen years old, wearing a white shirt and skirt, a red backpack, with mint green hair. And her chakra was _enormous. _

I didn't know as much about the Jinchuriki as I would have liked. They hadn't really shown up in the show in any meaningful way, or at least not early on. I knew the ones that had featured in canon. And I now knew the ones that didn't hide what they were, like Roshi and Yagura.

There had been a Jinchuriki with green hair. Hidden Waterfall had a Jinchuriki. She had an inhuman amount of chakra.

The math wasn't perfect, but there was potential.

"She looks lonely," Naruto said, following my gaze. I glanced at him, just in time to see the firming of his expression.

Therefore, I wasn't _really_surprised when he marched over to her.

"Hi, nee-chan!" he chirped. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, Konoha shinobi!"

She blinked at him, nonplussed.

Beside me, Sasuke sighed. "That moron…"

"Ah, leave him be. If he wants to make friends, it's fine," I said with a shrug.

"As long as he doesn't annoy her into trying to kill us," Sasuke returned dryly.

Which was a valid outcome, really. Naruto's special brand of annoying grew on most people pretty quickly, but there were still people that he rubbed the wrong way and he didn't always know when to back off.

"Oh, there you are," Shibuki said, finishing up with the Jounin and approaching us. "I was just going to come looking for you. As you can see, our ninja have just returned. You can stay tonight, if you like, and I'll have someone escort you to the border tomorrow." He looked around. "Where is Naruto?"

The second he caught sight of Fu his face sort of froze. Then he smiled weakly, looking more like the twitchy person that we'd escorted here than the determined shinobi that had been peaking through recently. "Ah, well, I guess we can talk to her now."

He approached her cautiously, footsteps loud to ensure she heard him coming. "Ah, hello, Fu," he said. "I see you've already met Naruto. I was, uh, going to ask if you could escort them to the border. Tomorrow, I mean, because it's late now and they'd have to travel in the dark. If you don't mind, that is?" He sounded so incredibly nervous and not at all like a village leader assigning a mission.

Given his reaction to her, I wondered if the mission was really just a way to keep her busy and out of the village. It certainly wasn't because we _needed_ an escort, or that he didn't trust us. That would have been redundant by now.

Fu just gave a careless shrug. "Sure, I guess."

Naruto beamed. "Awesome. That's so cool, nee-chan! You can show us all the really neat spots on the way. We passed this inn when we came here, with a little teashop and the sign said that they had a special on ramen, but Kakashi-sensei said we didn't have time to stop which was lame, because you should _always_ have time for ramen." He nodded, to himself.

"I guess?" Fu said hesitantly.

"Well," Shibuki said, shifting nervously. "I'll just, uh, leave you to it. I have stuff to do. Yeah."

_Okay. Weird._ I could possibly have written Shibuki's nerves off as him being Shibuki, or possibly as teenage male confronted with teenage female, but the way the other ninja were giving her a wide berth told a different story.

What that story was wasn't so clear, but I had a suspicion.

"So what time should we leave?" I asked.

"Whenever you're ready," Fu said, unconcerned.

"After breakfast?" I suggested. "We're already late so there's no point in delaying longer than necessary."

In which case we probably could have - should have - left earlier. But I liked my sleep, even in a strange place, and I wasn't going to pass up a chance to have _actual food_ for breakfast.

And also, that would mean we would pass the teashop-with-the-ramen around morning tea time.

_I am so weak._

"So, Fu-nee-chan?" Naruto asked, bouncing on his toes. "Can you show us around? We didn't get to see much before. Hey! Have you ever been to Konoha?"

Fu looked around, possibly for help or someone to tell her what to do. "Sure," she said eventually. "And no, I've never been to Hidden Leaf."

"Well, if you do, you should totally come and find me," Naruto decided. "And I'll take you to Ichiraku. They make the best ramen, ever. And the bridge where we always meet up, which is really nice even when it's _really early_ and, oh, and Cherry Blossom Avenue, which is just a bunch of cherry blossom trees, but Sakura and Ino are always talking about how pretty it is, so maybe you'd like it too?"

Sasuke and I mostly trailed behind them as Fu showed us around, and tried to deal with Naruto's excited, lets-be-friends chatter. There really wasn't much to see, because as an actually _hidden_ village it obviously didn't get trade and probably had to source food and materials outside. We put in a comment or two when Fu was starting to look too overwhelmed. She seemed like a nice girl, if overly passive and indifferent.

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><p>.<p>

As promised, after breakfast the next morning we got ready to leave. Quite a crowd gathered to see us off, mostly the villagers we'd rescued yesterday, though there were a few curious or appreciative shinobi amongst them.

"Bye nee-chan," one of the two kids I'd protected in the forest yesterday said quietly.

"Hey, what's with the long faces?" I said cheerfully, chucking her gently under the chin. "Smile."

"Fu is scary," the boy said, voice equally low. He kept glancing at where she was standing, off to the side.

"Bah, she doesn't seem all that scary to me," I said, contradicting him gently. "And you two know what really scary things are like now, right? And you were really brave in the forest, so don't be scared now."

I couldn't, truthfully, say outright that Fu wasn't dangerous. She didn't seem it, now, but you never knew someone fully at the first meeting. And well, all shinobi are dangerous, if you catch them at the wrong time.

"Oh, yeah. That was _really_ scary," the girl said.

"See?" I said, before straightening. "Anyway. I've got to go now. So take care and pay attention in class, right?"

I jumped back to rejoin my team, and we left, waving behind us. Fu was silent.

"That was weird," Naruto said, frowning, as we took to the tree tops. "They were all nervous and twitchy and stuff. I thought they liked us."

"It's not you," Fu said, voice blank. "They're afraid of me."

_Fu is scary._

"That's silly, nee-chan," Naruto objected. "Why would they be scared of you?" He was completely and utterly sincere, and even Fu could tell, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

She sighed, then said resolutely, "because I'm a demon."

"No you aren't," Naruto refuted with certainty.

She double-checked, expression bemused. That really wasn't the answer she was expecting. She glanced at me, then Sasuke. I'd already suspected, and Sasuke just shrugged.

"Yes, I am?" she said weakly, obviously not used to arguing _this _part of it.

"No, you aren't," Naruto repeated patiently. "Demons have, like, teeth and claws and they growl a lot and are really mean. You're people-shaped and really nice, so you're not a demon."

Fu stopped, and expression of frustration on her face as she turned to him. "People shaped, huh?" she whispered, before closing her eyes. There was a surge of chakra - strange chakra, inhuman but nothing like Kyuubi or Shukaku - and wispy tendrils of chakra burst from her sides, beating up and down with enough force to lift her off the branch.

"There," she said, throwing it out there, face set grimly like she was waiting for the accusations. "I took this burden on when I became a Genin. And now, because of it, people from my own village - people I _grew up with_ - treat me like a stranger. No, like a mad dog about to bite!"

_She wants him to know,_ I realised. _She wants to push him away before he gets too close._

Naruto's mouth dropped open. "You have _wings_! That is so cool!"

_Fu's_ mouth dropped open. She spluttered.

"You're a Jinchuriki," I said calmly, as soon as I could trust myself not to laugh. It probably wouldn't go over well. "The Seven Tails, right?"

"Yes," she said.

Naruto blinked in surprise, glee fading into determination. He lifted his chin. "Me too."

Fu double-checked again. Yep, she hadn't seen that one coming. It was a good thing we weren't moving, or she might have actually fallen off the branch.

"I'm the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi," he said. "So, when I say 'you're not a demon', I know what I'm talking about! I'm not one, you're not one and Gaara isn't one either! Some people might treat you like you are, but you just have to find people who look past that and see _you_. Those precious people… they're what's worth fighting for!"

"I see," Fu said, blinking at him, then at us.

I smiled. "You know, I have to wonder if you're magnetised or something, Naruto. Of all the people we could run into, it'd have to be another Jinchuriki."

Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "I'm just awesome like that," he decided.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Moron," he said, but as fondly as Sasuke ever said anything. "Are you coming or what? We don't have time to stand around all day, you know."

"Sheesh, don't get all worked up about it, Sasuke," Naruto complained, and we started moving again. "Hey, Fu! Do you know what this means? It's like you really are my nee-chan!"

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><p>.<p>

Having confirmed that Fu was a Jinchuriki, things got a little trickier. Not outwardly, because Naruto took the opportunity to _bond_ and not even half an hour later had Fu smiling; a little bewildered, but smiling all the same. He seemed ecstatic to meet another Jinchuriki, and one who wasn't trying to kill him at that.

But I had information that it was really kind of important for Fu to know. Namely that Akatsuki were after her.

And I was pretty sure that that was _classified_ information and the village would _not_ be happy if I happened to tell her about it.

Which was frustrating. The ninja world horded information and secrecy was the name of the game, but that tendency was a double edged sword. In this case, I was pretty sure that that secrecy was one of Akatsuki's greatest weapons.

It seemed to me, that the more people knew about Akatsuki, the better the Jinchuriki could be protected. And the more the other Jinchuriki were protected, the fewer resources they could commit to hunting Naruto and the safer he would be.

There were probably flaws in that logic somewhere. But still.

How could I _not _warn her? Knowing that they _would_ hunt her and that she _would_ be killed… how could I not?

The difficult part was _how_. Being as how I was certain that the village wouldn't _like_ me giving this information away, I kind of didn't want to get caught doing so.

And didn't that thought just make me cringe. 'Doing something the village wouldn't like' sounded an awful lot like treason, even if it was just something like telling someone they were likely to be attacked.

We reached the teashop about mid morning, like I had thought we would. It was a quaint little place, just off a well travelled crossroads, that looked like it got it's fair share of visitors.

"Time for a break," Naruto declared, bounding inside.

Sasuke paused in the doorway, and looked back at me. "Coming?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I just want to talk to Fu for a second," I said. "Order me whatever looks good, okay?"

He looked at me for a second, dark eyes probing, then nodded silently and continued inside.

Fu looked wary.

I gestured at the bench on the opposite side of the worn dirt road. It was far enough from the shop that we wouldn't have to worry about eavesdroppers if we spoke quietly.

"Naruto is a good person, you know?" I said conversationally, settling into the seat.

Fu perched beside me, gingerly. "I know," she said, eyes fixed on the teashop. "There's no one in Taki quite like him."

I laughed a little. "I don't think there's anyone else in the world quite like Naruto."

Naruto could make _strong_ bonds. Despite the absence of fighting, I hoped that he'd formed one with Fu, too.

"I want to keep him safe," I admitted. "But it's hard. You wouldn't think that Jinchuriki make good targets, would you?"

Her eyes turned to me. "No, you wouldn't," she agreed carefully. Fu was a shinobi too, and I hoped she was good enough to pick up on what I wasn't saying.

"I guess only people who counted themselves as also that strong would knowingly attack a Jinchuriki," I mused. "S-rank, maybe."

"There aren't many of those," Fu said.

"Enough," I said. "Enough that go missing-nin, even. Hmm, I know one from Konoha, even. Uchiha Itachi is S-rank." I tapped a finger to my lips. "And Kisame Hoshigaki from Mist."

"I've heard of them," she said carefully. "They sound very strong."

"Mmm," I said. "Imagine what people like that could do if they got together. Scary thought, isn't it?"

"It's a good thing they don't," she said mildly.

"It would take someone even stronger to make them," I agreed. Hmm, that was getting a bit off track. I tilted my head back to stare at the sky. "We're lucky that we had such nice weather today. Did you see the sunrise?"

She blinked, thrown. "No."

"It was quite pretty," I said. "All pinks and reds. I hope it's not a bad omen. There's a saying, you know, _red sky in the morning, shinobi's warning. _A red dawn. Akatsuki." I blinked and laughed, a little shakily. "Maybe it is a bad omen. If I saw someone in a black cloak with red clouds on it, I'd probably run away."

I glanced at her. She caught my gaze and held it.

_Listen, listen, listen!_

I blinked. "Ah, listen to me rambling. Just forget I said anything. What I was going to say was, I'd appreciate it if you didn't spread the news about Naruto. Obviously, not many people know about you and we'd like to give him as many advantages as possible."

"I don't talk to many people," she said.

"True enough," I said easily, standing and stretching. "But we all have to keep secrets at some time or other. I mean," I said, with another false laugh. "Even Shibuki asked us to keep the location of the village secret."

A reminder. And one that smelt very faintly of blackmail at that. Something sour twisted in my stomach.

This was also the dangerous part. There was no doubt in my mind that she was stronger than me, even without the added Jinchuriki part. Everything I'd said had been carefully worded as hypothetical, as random assumptions, with no concrete basis. But it had still passed information along. I needed her to keep silent about it.

"I wouldn't want to do anything that would endanger Naruto," Fu agreed, standing as well. "Or my village." There was a faint killing intent emanating from her. Yeah, I got the message.

"No," I agreed. "No one wants that."

We walked inside the teashop, blinking at the change from bright light to dimness.

"Hey!" Naruto said cheerfully. "There you are. What took so long?"

"Ah, just girl talk," I said, waving the question off.

We didn't stop for long, just long enough for a snack and cup of tea, before we were off again. The border between Land of Waterfall and Land of Fire wasn't far, which was where we left Fu.

"Keep yourself safe, okay?" I said, as seriously as I could.

She gave me a long look. "And you," she said finally.

She left, heading back for Hidden Waterfall and leaving us in there. The weather was nice, the sun was shining, and the birds were chirping. It was very peaceful.

I wondered how much of that feeling was a lie.

"Think we can double time it back to Konoha?" I asked, a little uneasy about being out here alone. I could have been wrong; I _hoped_ I was wrong. But if I wasn't…

"Baa-chan will understand why we're late, right?" Naruto asked, rubbing the back of his head.

Sasuke smirked. "You know, with Kakashi-sensei gone, you're the one in charge. That means the one she'll blame is you."

Naruto's face looked like it had got caught between _hey, yeah_and _oh, shit. _"But… she'll understand… right? Right?"


	56. Chapter 55

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Nemesis Jedi - Hmm, that's a good point about the names. But I know that not all the Bijuu were secretive about them like Kurama was. Shukaku, obviously, and I think it was said that Roshi knew Son Goku's name but never used it. I'd have to check and see what Fu actually said during that scene to see where she fits on the scale…

Anyone who's looking for more Naruto SI's should check out Butterfly Wings by Quantum Physics. It's only at two chapters, but looks to be interesting. And of course, go check out lucife56's fanart for this fic. It's beautiful.

Not only does D.O.S. have a rec on TvTropes, it now has it's own Tropes page. Thanks guys!

_._

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><p><em>.<em>

Chapter 55

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><p>.<p>

_Confidence is the foundation of friendship. If we give it, we will receive it. ~ Harry E. Humphreys, Jr. _

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><p>.<p>

The Missions Desk was buzzing when we got back. Tsunade-sama wasn't there, which wasn't that unusual; she _was_ the Hokage, and only spent a small portion of the day there, after all.

"Team Seven reporting a mission complete," Sasuke stated when we got to the desk.

Naruto set the mission scroll down on the table. "Kakashi-sensei got called back to Konoha," he said. "For some emergency meeting?"

"Emergency… oh, he probably got called to the Border Outpost," the Chunin behind the desk said. "I wouldn't worry about it. Was there anything else?"

"Yeah," Naruto said uneasily. "Other stuff happened. We picked up at least one extra mission, but probably two."

The Chunin raised an eyebrow but didn't really comment. "Alright. Go to briefing room four and someone will come and take your statement."

It probably said something about us, that the missions where we _didn't _get debriefed specially were less common than those where we were.

I followed the boys out of the room silently.

Konoha had a lot of outposts spread throughout the Land of Fire - and potentially in other places, though the official word was 'not'. Some of them were small, like the ones around Konoha itself, while others were reasonable sized buildings or towers with several rostered teams, holding cells and medical facilities. The biggest outposts, though, were the Border Outposts. They were responsible for the border patrol, quick response teams when shinobi ran into trouble on missions, and other varied functions. The outposts weren't infallible, as evidenced by the invasion at the Chunin Exams, but they _were_ the first line of defence.

An emergency at a Border Outpost was almost _certainly_ an attack.

"Alright?" Sasuke asked, eyebrow raised.

"I'll tell you later," I said.

_When I actually know what's going on,_ I added mentally.

We had to wait quite a while in the briefing room before one of the missions room shinobi could come and debrief us. I was uncharacteristically impatient for it to be over with, but I had nothing on Naruto, who starting tapping an _absolutely irritating_ rhythm on the table.

I liked to think I had patience. I dealt with Naruto on a regular basis, after all. But I was contemplating strangling him by the time the door opened. Judging by the spasm of Sasuke's eye, he probably was, as well.

"Finally," Naruto said, exhaling noisily and scooting his chair forward. "Man, you guys must be really busy out there."

"A bit, yes," the Chunin said. "So lets get this out of the way." He sat down and flipped his file open. "So, you're Team 7, under Kakashi Hatake and you were escorting Shibuki back to Hidden Waterfall. What was the issue?"

"We arrived in Hidden Waterfall safely, with no complications," Sasuke began after a pause. "And were offered a second mission to assist helping clean the waterways, which we accepted."

"That's when Kakashi-sensei got his message bird and left," Naruto picked up. "He went off alone and told us to finish up before coming back here. So we were doing that, then we got attacked."

The Chunin's eyebrow jerked up.

"A group of missing nin ambushed Hidden Waterfall and took the villagers hostage. They demanded… a village artefact, of some kind." Sasuke shrugged. "We assisted Hidden Waterfall, engaged the missing-nin and Shibuki killed the leader."

It was a concise, _very concise_, summary of the mission.

"How many missing nin were there?" the Chunin asked, pen darting along the paper.

"There were three four-man teams, of at least Chunin level and led by a Jounin and one more Jounin additionally, so thirteen," Sasuke said. We'd actually added that up and been _surprised_ at the number. Both at how large it seemed against the three of us, and how small it was for fighting a village. Luckily, most of them had been taken out before the fight by the lake, or things might have gone even worse for us.

The Chunin coughed. "Four Jounin and _nine_ Chunin?" he asked, disbelief colouring his voice.

Really, I don't know why he was _that_ shocked, since we hadn't really mentioned that the Hidden Waterfall ninja hadn't been about.

"Hidden Waterfall has them prisoner," Naruto said, a little defensively. "The ones that survived, anyway."

"Right, right," the Chunin said hastily. "Thirteen. And then you returned?"

"We stayed the night," Naruto admitted easily. "Then we had an escort to the border."

"We got home without complications," Sasuke added dryly.

"Excellent," he said drolly. "Right, we'll draw those up as two separate missions. A D-rank cleaning and an A-rank hostage rescue." He twitched, just a little. "Fill out the forms and bring them to the desk. And don't forget to write up mission reports for them."

"We know the drill," I assured him.

We did as asked, and I left my team mates with an invitation to dinner before disappearing home. I could have combed through the Genin clearance announcements to find out what was going on, but why would I when I had a much better source of information?

"Tadaima!" I called softly, stepping out of my shoes.

Mum appeared in a flurry of movement and nearly knocked me off my feet when she pulled me into a hug. "Shikako! You're home! Are you hurt? I was so worried that you were going to get caught up in the fighting."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I said. "We just got back about an hour ago and I don't even know what's going on. Kakashi-sensei got called off for _something_ and… it sounds pretty bad…" I gave her a hesitant look.

Mum was a retired kunoichi. More than that, she was the wife of a Clan Head and the Jounin Commander at that. She kept up with what was happening.

"You aren't wrong," she said, sombrely. "Go, put your things away, and I'll fill you in."

That wasn't a particularly promising start, really, but I did as asked, and we sat down in the living room with cuts of steaming green tea.

"Is there fighting at the north-east border?" I asked bluntly. It was what all the evidence was pointing to.

"Yes," Mum said, equally straightforward. "Hidden Cloud made a major push against the border. The outpost managed to hold them off and send out for reinforcements. It was a priority order, so all Jounin and upper level Chunin who were capable of responding dropped their missions to answer it. I was afraid that with your team you would end up there. Land of Waterfalls certainly isn't very far away."

I shivered at the thought. As this mission had shown us, we probably would have just been cannon fodder. No wonder Kakashi-sensei had left us behind.

"They're still fighting?" I asked, because mostly ninja fights were over quickly. Even when you were talking about _battles_ rather than individual fights, the principles were the same. Long term, head to head, knock down and drag out battles were rare.

"It seems so," Mum replied. "A second wave of reinforcements were sent out to back up the first responders, and your father went with the third wave yesterday."

I nearly spilt my tea. "Dad's there?" I asked, alarmed. I don't know _why_ the thought bothered me so much.

"He is the Jounin Commander, you know," Mum said, a little tartly. "It makes tactical sense to have the strategist nearby to decrease the amount of time it takes to get new orders and information."

I nodded. "I know."

"It's unlikely he'll be on the front lines," she said, softer. I knew she was worried too.

She probably had a better idea of what it was like out there than I did. The only experience I had with that scale of fighting was the Chunin Exam Invasion, and for most of _that_ I'd been off fighting Gaara and missed the worst of it.

A terrible thought occurred to me. "Where's Shikamaru?"

Had Mum thought I'd end up there because…

She shook her head. "On an escort mission to Shinjuku-gai. It's only the three of them, though. Asuma was sent out with the second wave."

The hand clenching my heart eased. "He'll be fine. That's not very far away at all." It wasn't even outside the Land of Fire.

I took a sip of my tea, marshalling my thoughts. "What do they want?" I asked, switching back to the original topic.

"If only we knew," Mum said wryly. "It's only a skirmish so far but there are rumours that it might blow up into a full out war. I can't imagine Tsunade-sama wants _that_ so early into her reign."

Fighting happened among ninja villages, covert and overt. Fighting bad enough to be called a war? Well, that happened too. But if Konoha and Hidden Cloud went at it, you could almost bet that the other villages would be dragged into it and it would turn into the Fourth Shinobi War.

_That… didn't happen…_

I frowned. There hadn't been serious fighting between nations in the series, had there? None that had made the story, anyway, which wasn't always the same thing. I _couldn't_ have changed something enough to have caused this, could I?

I mean, I'd barely managed to affect the things I _knew_ about.

Dinner that night was a subdued affair, even with Naruto there. I'd hissed a warning at my team mates not to mention the 'extra' missions, because I was pretty sure Mum didn't need anything extra to worry about right now.

"So what is it?" Sasuke asked, after the table had been cleared off. "You've been acting weird since we got back. No, before that…"

"Ah," I said. "You know how Sensei got called off, and then the missions desk guy said he was at the Border Outpost? There's fighting there, with Hidden Cloud. That's where Dad is," I added, aware that they would have noticed his absence.

"Fighting?" Naruto said, puzzled. "What kind of fighting?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. It sounds pretty bad, though. They had to call in a lot of Jounin, so…"

"That's… not good," Sasuke said, apparently not knowing how to sum it up, either.

"What does it mean?" Naruto asked.

"For us?" I said, thoughtfully. "Probably not much, right now. They won't send rookies like us out there unless things get much worse." In which case, they might. Naruto had already proven himself to be surprisingly competent, and with Kyuubi… "We'll have to take missions without Kakashi-sensei, that's for sure. For the village? That depends on how long this lasts. Having so many high level ninja tied up will affect our ability to take missions. Which means our income will go down. There's injuries and casualties, which will overwork the system." _And mean people are dying._ "Less resources to use in other places. The other villages might decide we can't fight two battles at once and attack. If it escalates into war… well. Then it's war."

We were silent for a beat. I started setting up the shogi board, just for something to do.

"It's weird," Sasuke said. "That they waited so long. You'd have thought they would have attacked early, if they were trying to take advantage of the Invasion."

I frowned, rolling a shogi piece through my fingers. "Maybe it's not," I said slowly, "because they think we're weak. Maybe it's because they think we're strong."

There was a pause."Hidden Rock sent teams to scout because they thought we might be weak after losing the Hokage. But Hidden Cloud waited long enough to know that we aren't, not really. We're not at full strength, not yet, but we're not an easy target either. But… we are getting stronger."

"I don't get it," Naruto said, puzzled.

"Hidden Cloud is currently ranked as the strongest of the hidden villages. They're stronger than us. But for how long? Think about the kind of showing that we put on at the Chunin Exams, and how we rebuffed the Invasion. At the rate we're growing, in five years, in ten years? Where'll we be then?"

"They're trying to crush us back down while they have the chance," Sasuke said thoughtfully.

I shrugged. "It's a theory. Or who knows, maybe there was some secret mission that none of us know about that stirred them up. There's plenty going on in this village that I don't know about."

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><p>.<p>

For all the ominous portends, nothing had actually changed in Konoha itself. Ninja came and went and fighting happened, so it was nothing _too_ out of the ordinary. It was probably a different story in the departments that dealt with the issue, but from the outside, everything seemed normal.

I stopped by the hospital. Lee was still there, which meant it had been a very long hospital stay for him. As far as I knew, he'd had his surgery and was recovering well.

I knocked on the door. "Hi, Lee. Oh, and Tenten, right?" I added, seeing that he already had a visitor. I _knew_ she was Tenten, but it wasn't like we'd talked or anything.

"Right," Tenten said. "And you're Shikako." She glanced curiously at Lee. "I didn't know you two knew each other."

"I was just stopping by to see how Lee was," I excused. "I haven't been here for a while."

He beamed. "Much better! Tsunade-sama is an excellent medic. I have several more weeks of physical therapy before I can be returned to active duty." He looked, well, like himself, with green jumpsuit and orange legwarmers, and Lee wore bandages as equipment _anyway_ so it was hard to tell if they were medical.

Tenten smiled. "I think they're only keeping him here so he doesn't injure himself training," she added.

Which sounded about right. Not that they could really stop him, but it probably curbed _some_ of his outrageous tendencies.

"Ah, well," I said. "I'm sure it'll be over sooner than you think."

"Yosh! And if I work even _harder_, I will be out of here sooner!" Lee practically _sparkled_.

I traded half-amused looks with Tenten.

"I look forward to it," she said. "Really. With Gai-sensei gone, Neji and I are just getting shuffled around. It'd be nice to have the team together again."

Neji was probably in higher demand, too, with his Jyuuken skills and Byakugan.

"We should spar sometime," I suggested. "If you're free."

Sparring was kinda the ninja equivalent to going out for coffee or catching a movie. Everyone needed to train, and training with others (preferably of the same level) was always better, so it was practical as well as a social exercise. It was something we all needed to do, so it was a sure connection to make. 'Hey, I haven't seen you in a while, wanna spar?' or 'We've got a few hours, wanna spar?'

You could tell a surprising amount about someone by fighting too, if you paid attention. Had they improved, or gotten sloppy? Were they injured, tired, sick, not focusing? How was their gear; well looked after or rusty and old? And if so, were they taking care of themselves to the same degree? Why not? Were they stressed, depressed, on the verge of a mental break down? How were they handling the stress of the fight?

And, well, you needed to be able to trust someone to spar with them. We used live steel, and real techniques. You had to trust them to pull back if you couldn't dodge, to abort the fight if things got too dangerous.

"I- sure," Tenten said, blinking in surprise. "I've just been training by myself."

"You are so inspirational Tenten!" Lee said. "When I return to training, I will convince two, no _three_ fellow ninja to spar with me!"

"Ah, you do that, Lee," Tenten replied, too used to his ways to make a big deal out of it.

We chatted for a little while longer, before Tenten invited me to Team Gai's training grounds. It was a little more immediate than I'd expected when I made the suggestion, but it wasn't like I had anything better to do.

"How do you want to do this?" she asked.

I considered. "To a decisive victory? And try to avoid injuries." Well, 'decisive victory' was sometimes hard to measure, especially if you were pulling attacks, but I didn't really see the point of getting injured during training.

"Sounds good to me," she said with a quick smile.

We paused, surveying each other, and the atmosphere switched from friendly-casual to battle-ready. I felt hyped, adrenaline starting to surge through my limbs, heart beat already picking up in anticipation.

My shadow lashed out, zipping straight across the clearing for her. She was expecting it, leaping backwards up into the trees, hands pulling out weapons and throwing them in a single fluid movement. I caught the gleam of silver, pulled out my kunai and deflected the first wave, thrown in a scatter pattern that would have hit ankles, knees, thighs, torso, shoulders and upper arms in places that were debilitating but not fatal, and more precisely, made it difficult to deflect them all quickly because of the range.

The second wave, released about half a second after the first, I dodged instead. Then I saw the flicker of white paper across the canopy, as a scroll was thrown across the clearing, unrolling as it went and Tenten leapt after it.

_Oh, hell no._

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!" I raced through the seals and slammed my hands into the ground, raising a fairly tall and stable defence. None too soon, I heard the rapid fire thunk of many, _many_ sharp and pointy objects hitting it. Even more went sailing past the edges of the wall, embedding into the dirt, which would have prevented me from dodging in either direction.

Tenten circled around through the trees, to try and get around my Earth Wall.

_Time to abandon the low ground_, I thought. It gave her far too much of an advantage.

I ran through quick calculations in my head and pressed my hand to the ground. "Touch Blast," I murmured, watching as the ink spread out with my chakra.

I noted with satisfaction that my speed at setting the jutsu had improved. Having a name - something to sum up and recall all the parts involved - helped tremendously, even if it wasn't the most exciting of names. I'd contemplated having something whimsical like Blooming Flower or Gentle Fireworks, but simple, short and to the point worked best.

I darted backwards, to the edge of the wall, as it blew. It was a weak blast, very little heat or damage, but it threw _a lot_ of dirt and dust into the air and obscured sight.

I moved.

Trees cast shadows, but ironically, shadow possession worked best at ground level. Being up in the branches meant that my shadow had to go up and down to reach it's target. The more the shadow had to travel, the greater the chance that it would be noticed. However, fighting in the tree branches gave me a much better position against Tenten's thrown weapons, so I went high.

Tenten obviously knew that the dust cloud was a distraction, and was on high alert for an attack.

It was easy enough to make an Illusionary Clone and have it take the most unexpected route out of the dust. That is, leap straight for Tenten, head on.

I think I was starting to base my idea of 'unexpected' on 'what would Naruto do?'.

She reeled, just for a second, before withdrawing two handfuls of weapons and sniping it down. They went straight through it, but were perfect shots otherwise. That gave _me_ time to circle around the clearing and pinpoint her.

I ran through the hand seals for the Vertigo genjutsu, dropping it on her just as I threw a handful of shuriken. I could see the genjutsu hit, in the way she stumbled, but she drew a handful of senbon and threw them with unerring accuracy through the centre of the shuriken, pinning them to the tree.

_One hundred percent accuracy, huh?_ It was an impressive shot to be sure, even without the balance affecting genjutsu.

"Kai!" She shouted, releasing the genjutsu as I dashed across the intervening space between us. I swept low, aiming to kick her legs out from underneath her, but she jumped over it, lashing out and forcing me to block.

_Fast._ I hadn't released my Resistance Seal, or enhanced my muscles, so I was hardly working at full capacity. But Tenten was faster and stronger than expected. Given her team mates and Sensei, it shouldn't have come as a surprise - I did remember watching her fight Temari - but her preference for long range combat created assumptions.

We traded blows, blocking and dodging, and working in the three dimensions provided by the forest. Tenten's scrolls were less useful when there were so many obstacles, and when I kept pressing in close she didn't have time to withdraw them anyway.

We rebounded off the tree trunks and the undersides of branches, flipped around them to gain surprise, twisted and turned, mostly managing to block each other though there were a few attacks that slipped through guards.

She vanished in a burst of speed, coming in low with a rising kick to my stomach. I'd seen the move before from Lee, and given that Naruto and Sasuke had both managed to copy it, I didn't doubt that Tenten had her own variation. I quickly used the replacement jutsu on a nearby log and impressed an illusion overtop of it.

She followed it up, shadowing underneath it and pulled two scrolls out. They curled through the air, arching over and around the 'body' she was attacking.

A flare of chakra through the scrolls and…

_That could have been messy_, I thought, as Tenten disengaged and the perforated log plummeted to the ground.

She tensed, looking around warily, kunai in each hand. She wasn't far from me. If I could keep her attention for a second or two…

I made a quick hand seal, and another Illusionary Clone shimmered into existence, in the opposite direction to where I was. It moved so that the very barest of edges was visible around the tree.

Tenten grinned and took aim -

"Shadow Possession Complete," I said. I raised one of my empty hands up to my neck, and Tenten mirrored me, only she was holding kunai.

"I give," she said after a pause and assessing her options.

I let the jutsu unravel. "Good fight," I said politely, before surveying the metal scattered ground. "Need a hand picking those up?"

She laughed nervously. "Ah, yeah. Thanks. That's one of the downsides of using a lot of weapons."

We set to work gathering them all up. They were everywhere, lodged in trees, scattered over the ground, and we'd covered a surprising amount of distance during the fight.

By the time we made it back to the clearing, we both had armfuls of weapons to be resealed. It was… awkward.

"I'll have to spread the scrolls out," Tenten murmured, before stopping to stare at the Earth Wall. She sighed.

"Alright?" I asked.

"Ah? Oh, yeah, fine," she dismissed. "Just something someone said…"

"Hmm?"

"'Any half decent ninja is going to be able to avoid those'," she quoted. "'And those that can't dodge will have some kind of technique to protect them.'" She ran a hand through her bangs.

I winced. It was, well, kinda true. The head on way she tackled the fight probably didn't help in that matter, either. "Well, eh…" I frowned. "Did Sasuke say that to you? It doesn't sound like a Neji quote and Lee would never…"

She blinked, startled. "Well, yes."

I smiled, apologetically. "Sorry. He's usually nicer than that." Okay 'nicer' might have been stretching it. 'Less deliberately cruel' maybe.

"I know," she waved it off. "It wasn't a good time for us, either. But he did have a point."

"Kinda hypocritical, though," I pointed out. "He does use shuriken techniques a lot."

"But he has more than just that. He has ninjutsu and taijutsu as well."

"Yeah, variety is good," I agreed. "I'm not saying that you _can't_ make it with just one skill but… you have to be clever about it. I don't know, I like having options, which is why I use more than just the clan jutsu. Shikamaru does fine with nothing else, but he's a lot smarter than I am. Maybe if you mixed it up? Sasuke is living proof that shuriken, ninja wire and fire make an awesome combination. Think about what you could do by adding like… a wind jutsu behind them, or something."

She blinked, then looked thoughtful. "That's an idea. Yeah."

I smiled, pleased to have been some help, and touched the Earth Wall, sucking all the chakra out and letting it crumble back down. The various weapons clattered to the ground.

Tenten was spreading the scroll out across the grass and placing the weaponry over their respective kanji to reseal them. I brought a pile of them over, and well, was basically nosy and looked over what seals she used.

"Do you do a lot of sealing?" I asked curiously.

"I can't carry this many weapons otherwise," Tenten said with a shrug.

That wasn't really what I meant, but it probably answered my question. She only used it for sealing scrolls.

"Mmm. I just noticed that you used a different seal pattern for these and these," I said, pointing.

She glanced at it. "Kuukan Seals work better for objects that are bigger than the paper," she admitted. "But I don't need them for small things like kunai."

"The fold the space more efficiently," I said. "But have a higher chakra cost to set."

She looked surprised. "You use seals?"

"A bit," I said, and hesitated. Should I? _It's my book. I wrote it, I can lend it to whoever I want._ "I have a book on seals, if you'd like to borrow it."

"Thank you," she said, surprised at the offer. "Gai-sensei has been teaching me some, but he's not an expert or anything."

"Not many people are," I said wryly. "It'd be nice to have some one to talk to." Our focuses might be different, but imagine what Tenten would be like if she managed to whip up a hammerspace or something.

_Mind you, I wouldn't mind a hammerspace myself…_

"And, you know," I added, figuring I might as well go all the way. "If you're interested in medical jutsu, some of us girls get together for a study group."

"I wanted to learn medical jutsu once," she admitted. "I wanted to be like Tsunade-sama. I wasn't very good at it," she added, self-deprecatingly.

"It's a difficult subject," I agreed. "But you could still come anyway. Hinata can't use the jutsu either but there's still things that she can do."

"I'd like that."


	57. Chapter 56

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Nemesis Jedi - rofl, what would I do with out you? Hot Tamales, indeed. XD

I keep wanting to put an honorific on Jirocho's name, but I don't really know what to use. I think in the sub they used Oyabun, and in the dub it's 'boss' so… yeah.

Distorted Reality by Hanako H is a Hyuuga SI that's just been put up, wherein the SI isn't actually familiar with the Naruto-verse at all.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 56

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><p>.<p>

_You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. ~ Eric Hoffer_

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><p>.<p>

I wasn't wrong in my assumption that we would be taking missions without Kakashi-sensei. It made Mum purse her lips in disapproval, because quite apart from going alone, it also meant we'd had very little down time between missions.

It couldn't be helped though, and we weren't injured or incapable of going, so we went.

"So what do you have for us?" Naruto asked eagerly, as we lined up by the Missions Desk. "Are you going to send us out to fight?"

"Don't be an idiot!" Tsunade snapped. "You wouldn't last five minutes out there!"

"Don't underestimate us. Don't you know the kind of missions we've been doing?"

"Of course I know, brat!" She said, exasperated. "That's why I'm giving you _this_ mission. If you could just hold your tongue for two seconds…" She grumbled softly to herself. "You might not realise it, but sending a newly promoted Chunin off with two Genin isn't _done._ By rights, you'd either stay with your Jounin-sensei until you had some goddamn experience, or you'd be stuck with a more experienced Chunin squad. The fact that I _am_ sending you off should tell you how well you're doing."

It also kind of said just how pushed they were at the moment, but Naruto looked vaguely appeased, the frown fading from his face.

"Right, no more complaints?" She asked pointedly. "It's a B-rank escort mission. Of course, it could develop into an A-rank mission if you run into trouble," Tsunade continued. She might have been trying to warn us, but given Naruto's expression it seemed to be working more as an enticement. Maybe she knew that.

"So, who do we escort?" Sasuke asked, cutting straight to the heart of the mission.

"I don't know," Tsunade said, leaning back in her chair.

"Hold on, what do you mean, you don't know?" Naruto blurted out.

"Every four years the Land of Tea holds a dedication ceremony at the Great Todoroki Shrine. And each time, we're asked to escort a runner that will participate in the race that's part of the ceremonies. This year, the messengers who were bringing the request were attacked before they could get here," she explained.

_Land of Tea?_ _Race?_ That… sounded familiar actually. After so many missions where I _didn't_ remember, it was rather strange. And in some ways it was both a good thing and a bad thing. Good, because I knew where we were in the timeline now and had an inkling to how this mission would turn out. Bad, because _I knew where we were in the timeline now._ We had seemed to spin off, and I had thought maybe… things were different…

Team 7 had gone to the Land of Tea just before Sasuke's defection.

_Something _else_ to worry about…_

I'd known it was coming. It was the entire point of Orochimaru marking Sasuke in the first place. That didn't mean it wasn't worrying.

I closed my eyes, just briefly; barely more than a long blink. First this thing at the border and now Sasuke to worry about, and I'd managed _nothing_ about Akatsuki, and I was _trying_, I was -

"You'll be heading to Port Degarashi to meet up with Jirocho. He'll fill you in on the details." Tsunade folded her hands together to prop up her chin and regarded us seriously.

"Jirocho?" Naruto frowned, then seemed to click. "Ah! That gambler guy we met!"

"That's all I know. Now, no wasting time. Get going." She waved us off.

We bowed hastily and ducked out of the room.

"It doesn't look good," Sasuke murmured. "If the _messengers_ got attacked…"

"Yeah," I agreed, forcing my mind back on topic. "We should expect to encounter enemies. There's probably something more to the ceremony and race, if the runner _needs_ an escort."

I knew a bit about the Land of Tea in general; it was located to the south-east of Land of Fire and consisted of a peninsula and two long islands. It's main export was obvious, and it was fairly prosperous as countries went. It had no standing ninja village, and the Daimyo's power was pretty weak, with most of the towns and cities having a ruling 'family' or 'organisation'. There were sometimes clashes between Families, but the majority of them never devolved into outright fighting, preferring to stay in the realms of back room politicking.

"Whatever it is, we'll handle it," Naruto said confidently.

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><p>.<p>

It was dark when we got to Port Degarashi. We made our way to the destination given in the mission scroll; a very nice, traditional looking house. We were ushered inside and directed to a meeting room, complete with tatami mat floor and shrine.

"Hey, boss!" Naruto greeted casually. "Team Seven is here to fulfil the mission. You don't have to worry anymore."

Jirocho chuckled, sounding plenty amused. He was an old guy, with dark grey hair, but still solid and competent looking, dressed in simple blue and grey yukata. "You haven't changed at all, I see."

Naruto tucked his hands behind his head and grinned. "Yeah, well you haven't changed much either, big guy."

"Pleased to meet you, Jirocho-dono," I murmured, bowing politely. "You have the details for our mission?"

"Yes, yes," he clapped his hands together. "Please take a seat and I will explain. Every four years we hold a dedication ceremony at the Great Todoroki Shrine using the Ryoko jewels. At first it was just a rededication of the jewels, then it became a festival, and a race, with the winner of the race being hailed a great hero. In recent years, however, what once was a friendly contest has become much more serious. For generations Port Degarashi has been divided between two Families; the Wasabi and the Wagurashi. Both Families wanted control of the town, which naturally led to disputes. These disputes became increasingly violent, sometimes resulting in all out battles. The rest of the townspeople were caught in the crossfire. Many were injured, or worse. Finally, in an effort to end the cycle of violence, our Daimyo called on both sides to get together and come to an agreement. Henceforth, control of the town would be decided not by street brawls but by a competition."

"The race," I realised. Which meant it was a hell of a lot more important that 'just a race'.

"Indeed." He smiled. "Four years ago, the Wagurashi beat us soundly by hiring a ninja and we found out they've done the same thing this year."

"And that isn't against the rules?" Sasuke wanted to know. It did sound a little dodgy.

"The race has no rules, merely a starting point, a check point and an end point. The first one to reach the end wins, it's as simple as that. The race starts at dawn at the harbour. The first leg of the race is done by boat, and the competitors sail to Nagi Island," Jirocho explained. "The Ryoko jewels are held at the Modoroki Shrine, and each runner has to pick one up and carry it to the finish line, which is at the Great Todoroki Shrine on Ouzu Island."

_Sailing. Great._ But it wouldn't be long, which was the only saving grace. And I made a mental note to look at the maps of the local area tonight, to see if I could trace out a path. A race wasn't a good time to get lost, though hopefully the runner would know where he was going. If we had more time, I'd probably suggest scouting the course, but that wasn't an option.

"So who are we supposed to be escorting?" Sasuke asked.

"A young man from my Family, Idate," Jirocho answered. "I asked him to come here and meet you so he should be here soon."

There wasn't really that much more to ask. It seemed pretty straightforward. There was a race that had a lot hinging on it, we had to protect the runner, and there were enemy ninja who wanted to stop him winning.

We did end up meeting Idate. He was perfectly polite - under Jirocho's watchful eye - but the look he gave us was less than welcoming. He was a few years older than us and fairly tall and lanky. He had more chakra than a regular civilian, but it wasn't enough for me to think that he was a ninja.

Or rather, anything more than a dropout Genin. Yeah, I remembered that. Still, it wasn't exactly _that_ much of an issue.

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><p>.<p>

The following morning we were woken early and proceeded to the harbour with the rest of the Family. It was dark and still cold, but it seemed like the entire town had turned out to watch the start of the race. There was music, and fireworks, and plenty of cheering.

"Whoa, I had no idea it was such a big deal!" Naruto exclaimed. "So where are the ninja the other side hired?"

There was the strong pulse of a shinobi's chakra hidden among the dim glow of the civilians. It wasn't out job to go on the offensive though. We were just supposed to protect Idate. "They're here," I said.

"I don't care what you guys do," Idate said, as he went to line up by the starting block. "But whatever happens, just stay away from me."

"Say what?" Naruto protested.

"I've got a race to run. I don't want you in my way." It was almost a valid reason, but the bitter tone of voice belied it.

"That's what we're here for," I said, as calmly as possible. "To stop people getting in your way."

His lips pressed into a flat line and he muttered something that sounded like 'shinobi' as he turned to face the water.

"Attention, attention," The loudspeaker chimed. "The Great Todoroki Shrine race is about to begin! Running for the Wasabi Family; Idate Morino!"

"Morino?" Sasuke whispered, obviously recognising the name.

"Running for the Wagurashi Family; Fukusuke Hikyakuya. Runners, take your marks!"

Fukusuke was older and taller than Idate but that didn't necessarily mean he was faster. In fact, if the Wagurashi were confident in him, they probably wouldn't have hired ninja to take out the competition.

The two crouched into a runners start as the gates to the dock swung open. Over the water, we could see the sun beginning to rise.

"GO!"

They burst into action, tearing out the gates and then towards the waiting boats. Well, Fukusuke did. Idate curved around, running along the dock and parallel to the water.

"What the-" Naruto started. "The ocean is the other way! Where the heck do you think you're going, you idiot?"

"We better go," I said, cutting through the side of the arena. Hey, I wasn't part of the race, I didn't have to go through the gate.

"What's he _doing?_" Sasuke asked, vexed.

"Maybe he's got a plan," I offered, quietly. "Nothing in the rules says he has to leave from Port Degarashi." I was vaguely aware that sailing relied on water currents and wind gusts, which occurred in patterns or channels or whatever the correct terminology was. The best path across water, therefore, wasn't necessarily a straight line, but the path that took advantage of them.

_If we're going to be dealing with boats so often, I really have to start learning this stuff_, I mused.

The flat concrete of the dock ended and gave way to dirt paths. We followed Idate up into the trees instead of curving around the bay. Or well, we ran in the trees, and he ran along the ground beneath us. He was _fast_ but not ninja fast, and at least two of us had put heavy effort into training our speed.

"Jeeze, what's the big deal? Why the heck did you come this way?" Naruto asked, as we bounded through the tree branches.

"Will you shut up? It's none of your business anyway, kid," Idate retorted, dismissively, casting an annoyed glance upwards.

"What's with the attitude, pal?" Naruto barked, voice gaining an edge.

"I said shut up!"

I rolled my eyes in exasperation.

We ran on, through the trees and onto a path that wound up the side of a cliff. It was barely wide enough for two people side by side, so Sasuke and I dropped back without comment.

Then I felt it. The slimy crawl of foreign chakra in my system.

"Genjutsu," Sasuke muttered.

I pulsed my chakra, shaking off the illusion, then frowned. "Release!" I said, clapping my hands into a seal. This time, the web of chakra shattered, vanishing to show the real landscape.

_Double layered huh?_ Tricky. You dispelled the first layer and then got caught by the second.

Which did tell us something about the kind of ninja we were about to face. Strategic thinkers. Clever. Good at genjutsu - layering wasn't easy.

"Are they making their move?" Sasuke murmured quietly.

I frowned. "I can't sense anyone around. Either they're hidden from me, or that was just a delay tactic." They would have had to have been close by to set it, but that didn't mean they'd _stayed_.

"Well, it is a race…" Sasuke said.

Which meant delay tactics _mattered_. If they could slow us down, it was the same as stopping us. And every little bit added up.

Idate seemed sure of his path, and though Naruto kept asking, he didn't let us in on where he was going. I kept checking to see if the ninja were close by, and to make sure they hadn't set traps or anything across our path. Nothing showed up.

We crested over a hill and found ourselves entering a small hidden bay. Almost immediately, my eye was drawn to the boat prepped and ready on the water.

_Planned it all along, huh?_

Idate didn't head straight for the boat, but turned towards the small shack set by the forests edge.

"Nagi Island?" Sasuke asked, shading his eyes with a hand. Out across the water, you could see the outline of land.

"Yeah," Idate said, losing some of his aggression. "And the halfway point. We can probably get there in an hour from here."

_Thank god_, I thought. The less time on a boat, the better.

He knocked on the door. "Hey, gramps. It's me, Idate of the Wasabi!"

"Hey there, I've been waiting for you," the old guy rasped as he answered the door. "I've got things all ready for you. There isn't a faster boat around."

"Thanks a lot," Idate said.

"It's not a problem, Jirocho has done a lot for me, over the years. Just make sure you don't lose to the Wagurashi, I've had about all I can stand from them."

"Don't worry about a thing," Idate said confidently. "I may be the underdog but I won't lose. You can count on it."

With a sigh, I joined the others in clambering onto the boat and getting it moving.

"So what happened to Port Degarashi?" Naruto asked, anger forgotten in favour of curiosity.

"At this time of year, there are some pretty strong seasonal winds blowing hard across the sea," Idate explained. "Back at the starting point, I could see the clouds. I noticed the wind was blowing towards us. On top of that, from that bay, the current flows directly onto Nagi Island. It's much faster." He tapped his temple. "You should use your head a little more."

"Hey!" Naruto protested immediately.

Idate turned away. "I can't believe someone like you made Chunin. Standards must have gone _down._"

I thought about how Naruto had fought Gaara, the sheer danger of that fight. Let alone his actual Examination fight. "Oh, trust me," I said dryly. "Naruto deserved his promotion."

Naruto went a little pink.

"You're from Konoha, aren't you?" Sasuke cut in, eyes dark. "I thought I recognised your name." And picked up on what Idate probably hadn't meant to say about the Chunin Exams. Gone _down_ implied that he had a baseline to make that judgement from.

"Huh?" Naruto frowned. "Idate… Morino. Oh, wait. Morino. Ibiki Morino. He was the proctor for the First Exam!"

Idate spun back around. "What did you say? My brother? He's alive?"

"Of course he's alive, why wouldn't he be?" Naruto said. "He threw such a curveball at me, the tenth question in…"

Idate ignored his anecdote. "Seriously? He's really alive?"

I nodded. "He is. Does this have something to do with the reason you left?"

Technically, I suppose Idate was a missing-nin. He'd abandoned the village. Given that he hadn't even changed his name, it was a little surprising that he was still around. Then again, if he was just a Genin, it might not have been regarded as worth chasing him down.

_And, also, he has a brother highly placed in the Intelligence Division_. That didn't necessarily mean Ibiki was covering for him. But it _could_.

"I… It… That's none of your business!" He shouted. "I don't have to tell you anything!" There were definite signs of panic on his face.

"Shesh, take it easy," Naruto said, flapping his hands. "What are you getting so worked up about anyway?" He had a puzzled frown on his face.

"You don't know anything!" Idate shouted.

"Then why don't you tell me!" Naruto shouted back.

"I left Konoha behind. It's nothing to me anymore," Idate said, turning away. His hand clenched around what looked like an ornate switchblade. "All I want to do is win this race and pay Jirocho-sama back."

"Well, whatever," Naruto said dismissively, but I could see that he was curious.

The rest of the trip was mostly quiet as we headed for the island. It was only as we were closing in on the harbour that things started to happen.

"Three incoming," I said. "Five o'clock." I narrowed my eyes at the ocean. "Stealth jutsu that can cover a whole boat. That's pretty impressive." They were coming at us from an angle, and had managed to get fairly close without being noticed, especially considering that there was nothing to hide behind. It was strange that they had managed to catch up to us, consider that _we_ hadn't even known we were coming this way.

"What should we do?" Sasuke asked, staring over the side of the boat. "Wait them out?"

We didn't really have much choice. We could hardly leave Idate alone to go and attack, which was always the case when body guarding.

"What a sucky time for it to start raining," Naruto grumbled, swiping his hand across his face.

I frowned. "That's not water," I said, staring down at the black drops on my hands.

"It's oil," Sasuke finished. We shared a look.

_Not good._

With the glint of the sun off the water, and the angle at which they were attacking, it was hard to see the projectiles as they were fired. Sasuke knocked the first flaming arrow out of the air with a well thrown kunai, sending it sizzling into the water. But even then we could tell that we were fighting a losing battle. They could fire several arrows at once, and even when we were successful, we were depleting our weaponry stocks.

And then water clones started rising out of the ocean.

"Hey, those are the guys from the Chunin Exam!" Naruto exclaimed.

They were. The three Hidden Rain ninja that we'd taken a scroll from. And obviously, they remembered us too.

_Hidden Rain…_ Pein's base of operations. I'd been focusing on tying Akatsuki to Rain, but maybe I was going about it the wrong way. Maybe I could tie _Rain_ to Akatsuki…

It was a thought that had be percolating in my head ever since I'd seen the missing nin in Hidden Waterfall. I hadn't had the chance to question them, too focused on the ambush and the fight that it hadn't even crossed my mind.

The middle of combat wasn't the best time to be thinking of it. And the question of _how_ to manage it remained…

Then it happened. With an ominous 'thunk', a flame tipped arrow slammed into the deck. The oil caught fire almost immediately, spreading rapidly across the ship.

"The fire is out of control; we'll never put it out. We're going to have to swim for shore," I said, sounding surprisingly calm. I really felt like cursing. "We need to keep them from following us."

"Right," Naruto said, forming a cross seal, with eyes narrowed. "Idate! You go on ahead, we'll stop these guys and catch up."

"You can forget about it!" Idate said, voice tight with panic. "What, do you think I'm stupid? You three just probably want to use me as a decoy!"

"What are you talking about?" Naruto shouted, voicing the frustration that made me want to scream.

"You guys want them to focus on me, while you get the heck out of here!" He accused.

"Stop talking nonsense!" Naruto demanded.

"I said, forget it! I don't trust ninja!"

"Get out of here, already! We don't need you getting in our way!" Sasuke ordered. It was harsh, but true.

"Fine!" I snapped. The mission trumped my half-formed plans of taunting them into speaking. It was doubtful that I'd get anything useful out of them anyway. "I'll go with you. You two should be able to handle yourselves, right?"

Sasuke nodded curtly. I didn't think they would have much trouble. They hadn't been _that_ tricky to deal with last time.

"I won't!" Idate shouted.

I didn't waste time arguing with him, snaking my shadow towards his feet and launching us both into the water. I could have run on top of it, but it wasn't a skill most Genin had, so I doubted that Idate could. Keeping low would also maximise the cover that we got from the smoke. Swimming it would have to be.

I looked over my shoulder, and through the thick black smoke pouring off the boat, I could see a horde of Naruto's launching themselves across the water. I smirked grimly. They would certainly regret initiating _that_ fight.

Idate was, thankfully, a strong swimmer. That was good, because the closer we got to the shore, the more the current and waves insisted on trying to slam us into unforgiving rock. I would have popped out of the water and dragged us both in safely, but I could feel someone already there waiting for us.

_Now, what kind of ninja travels with a group of Genin?_ I thought wryly, feeling a brief flash of relief that I had decided to come with Idate. Not that me vs. a Jounin was a particularly compelling thought, but it was better than nothing.

Maybe if I used Earth Walking? But no, the ground was solid rock. Even _if_ I could manage to make it malleable enough to travel through, it would be slow and it would _chew_ through my chakra.

That was out.

The shoreline we were being swept closer to had a jutting bay of flat rock, surrounded by higher, steeper cliffs. There would be no circling around.

_Damn_.

There was no avoiding it, no picking a better field of battle, and no ambushing him. Double damn.

I let the waves sweep me closer to the rocks, using chakra to stick to them and haul myself out of the water. Idate scrambled up behind me.

"Well, well," someone chuckled. "Now isn't this interesting?"

He was a tall guy, wearing a form fitting blue and white bodysuit with dark green hair. He was wearing a Hidden Rain forehead protector, and carrying a combat umbrella.

"Aoi Rokusho," Idate said, sounding like a curse.

_Of course, you know him_, I thought sardonically. _Why not?_

But I recognised the name, too, from out of the Bingo Book. Aoi Rokusho. Chunin missing-nin from Konoha who had defected to join Hidden Rain. Some people did that, avoiding the hunter-nin by seeking protection with another village. Konoha had obviously not cared about him enough to cause an issue over it.

"I was expecting you to run away. It wouldn't be the first time," Aoi said carelessly. "Or does your little friend not know about that?" His eyes glinted wickedly.

"Shut up!" Idate shouted. "That was all because of you!"

"Now, now, Idate," Aoi tsked. "I guess I couldn't expect you to have told her; you've never trusted anybody in your life. You've never thought of anybody but yourself. You abandoned your village, betrayed your brother, and it's still all about you, isn't it? You just don't care what happens to anyone else. A person like that really doesn't deserve to live."

"Your opinion hardly matters," I cut in. "Idate. You have a race to run. Get going."

"Going to run away again, Idate?" Aoi smirked. "How very like you. Don't think that you can get away though, I am so much _more_ than you."

"Idate. Go!" I barked.

Aoi narrowed his eyes and twirled his umbrella. I knew those things could shoot senbon by the dozens, and I wasn't particularly keen on experiencing it.

I dropped my Resistance seal, channelled chakra through my muscles and grabbed Idate, rushing us to the other side of the bay with a burst of speed that was almost Body Flicker level. Running that fast wasn't easy when you were carrying someone that was bigger than you, but it was worth it as I watched the stone ground tear up under the hail of senbon.

I shoved Idate towards the path leading up the cliff. "Go. Jirocho is counting on you, remember?" I said, snapping him out of whatever daze he'd fallen into. His hand clenched around his switchblade.

"Right," he nodded, swallowing heavily. He darted off, picking up speed, and I settled in to guard the path, kunai in each hand. Now I was the one stalling and blocking the path onwards.

"It's pointless, you know," Aoi said. "Fukusuke will already be at the shrine. There's no way that Idate can win."

I studied him with hooded eyes and shrugged. "You can't call the race over until someone has crossed the finish line."

He glowered.

I was starting to get a feel for him. He was the kind of person that used psychological attacks, that fought verbally as much as physically. Smug. Arrogant. Self-entitled. Superiority complex.

"Are you really going to try and fight me?" he asked, tone rife with disbelief. "You're only a Genin, you don't stand a chance. Why don't you just run off home now and keep yourself safe? I'll even let you go." He sounded so very patronising.

"Sah," I drawled. "You're only a Chunin, right? The difference isn't that much."

His eyes bugged out, jaw clenching. _Bingo. Direct hit. You can dish it out, but you can't take it, can you?_

"I am a Jounin of Hidden Rain," he said poisonously. "You will _regret_ that." It seemed like he was touchy about his rank. Well, when you found an exposed nerve, the only thing to do was to jump up and down on it repeatedly.

"But only a Chunin of Konoha. I guess they must have been desperate, right? To take you in and all, let alone give you a title," I kept my voice light and sweet. "Maybe you even bought them off? Sold them village secrets? I guess they might have given you a rank out of gratitude. Do they have a special name for that, like Honourary Jounin?"

Special Jounin were those that had Jounin level skills in an area of specialisation. There was no such thing as Honourary Jounin. He might have really been a Jounin in skill, but boy, was that stirring him up.

"You little bitch," he swore, spinning the umbrella. I dodged, as chakra surged and brought together the water spray in the air and slammed it down where I had been standing. He was breathing hard, not from effort, but from anger. "I deserved that rank! I always _deserved it!"_

I spared a moment to wonder if riling him up was _really_ the best way to go about this, but it was a little late now.

"How long do you really think you can keep this up?" He taunted. "You're all alone here. Did your little friends run into trouble?" He mocked. "Did you leave them behind? Just … run away?" His smile was sharp and cruel. "How pathetic."

"Did that happen to you often?" I asked innocently, dodging again and again. His swings were getting wilder. "I guess nobody liked you. I can see why. Did you have to go to Rain to make some new friends?"

He made a low noise, like a growl, and threw down the umbrella. "I'll show you," he promised darkly, pulling out something. "This… this is why they took me. The Sword of the Thunder God, used by the Second Hokage himself."

It pulsed with chakra and ignited.

I stared at it, barely able to keep my jaw from dropping.

_That… is a lightsaber. _I narrowed my eyes.

_Lightsaber. _

He did not get to keep that.

_**Lightsaber**__._

I was a ninja. I knew there were jutsu and weapons of every description and ability and more. And yet, some things were so deeply ingrained, like the cultural belief that the coolest weapon in the world was made of light and went zshooshm.

"They must not have cared about it that much," I managed. "Since they let you keep it. And I really doubt that you knew anything important, right? Too _unimportant_ to be trusted with and really _good_ secrets. You're _nobody._ Maybe you traded something else, hmm?"

He crossed the distance between us _fast_. I blocked the first swing of his sword with my kunai and winced at the low grade shock that they transmitted to me. I jumped back, but I wasn't fast enough, and the blade seemed to _spit_ a web of lightning at me.

I hit the ground rolling, muscles seizing as the electricity ran through them.

With a grunt, I forced myself back to my feet. The lightning blade wasn't really good for me; it forced all the shadows back away from it and it _moved._ A regular blade was dangerous enough in taijutsu, but a blade that could do distance attacks was a much worse prospect.

At least he was fighting me and not chasing after Idate. That was something.

"I guess…" I spat out. "With hair like that, you look like a girl from the right angle."

His face changed interesting colours and he lunged forward again, swinging the lightning sword like a bat. I launched two exploding tags at him and scrambled out of the way. My hands were still trembling and I _didn't_ want to be hit with that again.

He was good and _mad_ though. I darted away, throwing handful after handful of weaponry at him. Some had explosive tags attached, some had strings of ninja wire strung between them - anything I thought would slow him down.

"Who could it be though?" I taunted. "You're hardly worth anything, and Hanzo has no love for the Leaf."

Pein had killed Hanzo at some point, though I didn't know when, to wrest control over Hidden Rain. The problem was that Hidden Rain was so isolationist - and competent about it - that no one had _known._ It had probably been before the series started, but regardless, it wasn't a fact that was known to anyone else.

_Tie Akatsuki to Rain, or Rain to Akatsuki… either way…_

The taunt missed it's mark and Aoi's face twisted into a smug smirk, as he wrested control of the verbal battle. "Oh, you know _nothing_," he gloated. "No one follows that decrepit old fossil anymore. We have a new god now.

_Bingo._

"I didn't take you for the religious type," I said wryly. He must have felt in control of the fight, despite my taunting, because I hadn't even tried to attack him yet. The Sword of the Thunder God was a strong weapon, and it made him even more certain of his own victory, but like all weapons it was only a tool and therefore only as good as the one who wielded it.

"All of Rain lies in his grasp. But you don't _know_ about that do you? Poor little girl, so blind to the world around you. Why even bother?" His voice turned syrupy sweet. "Why don't you just give up and run away home?"

He was _really _irritating. I liked to think I was pretty level headed; I didn't normally _argue_ with people like this. He wasn't jumping on any exposed nerves like he obviously wanted to be doing, but that didn't mean he wasn't annoying me.

"The one who should give up," someone growled. "Is _you!_"

Naruto and Sasuke both hauled themselves out of the water and onto the flat rock.

Aoi's eye twitched. "It doesn't make any difference how many of you there are. You'll never defeat me," he declared.

"Never say never," I said, grinning at the boys. Obviously they'd finished up with the Genin team easily enough. It meant conversation time was probably over, but I had _something_.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto called, fingers in a cross seal. His doubles appeared and rushed towards Aoi as we regrouped.

"Someone needs to go after Idate," I murmured.

The boys cut a glance around the area, as though suddenly realising that he wasn't here.

"Naruto," Sasuke suggested. "Leave a clone to watch the fight, so it can warn you if he gets past us."

"I-" Naruto protested.

"Protecting Idate is the mission," I reminded him. "We don't know if there are any more ninja…"

I was thinking _not_ but it was always possibly.

Naruto saw the logic. "Fine," he said. "But you guys better hurry up. I'm not going to wait around for you forever, you know."

Then he was gone, a blur of orange scrambling up the cliff face. The clones around Aoi were being snuffed out surprisingly quickly.

"Pathetic," Aoi sneered as the last of them vanished. "No one on earth is a match for the Sword of the Thunder God. It's a blade that can cut _anything._ It even cuts through chakra. That technique stands no chance."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at him.

_Maybe,_ I considered, _it would have been best to send Sasuke off and keep Naruto here._

"Now do you understand?" He gloated. "How pathetically out classed you are?"

"You know," I said. "For someone who keeps talking about how great you are, you seem pretty keen on making us give up so you don't have to fight us. What's the matter, scared we'll win?"

The sword hummed as it cut through the space between us. I ducked out of the way, but Sasuke blocked the attack with his kunai, the way I had at first.

_Should have warned him about that,_ I noted with a cringe.

"I see the stories are true," Aoi said as he threw Sasuke back. "I always heard the last of the Uchiha Clan was a hopeless loser unworthy of the name."

_Uh-oh._

Sasuke's face was set with anger, and the Chidori blossomed in his hand so fast I didn't even see the hand seals. It clashed noisily with the sword, and both fighters strained against each other. For a second I thought it might work, then he was thrown backwards, lightning sparking over him.

My hands raced through seals. This jutsu wasn't one that I mastered, but I didn't need it to be.

"Hiding in the Mist Jutsu," I murmured, voice low.

There was so much water around, salt spray in the air, that even I could gather it together. I didn't need to make it thick, to limit visibility; that wasn't what I wanted it for.

"Sasuke!" I called, concentrating on gathering it carefully. "Don't just leap straight at him, that's never going to work! You've got to keep your distance!"

He glanced at me, sidelong, but some of the _rage_ faded and he nodded curtly. He pulled out his fuuma shuriken and retreated a little.

I sighed with relief, glad that he'd listened.

"How touching," Aoi spat. "Defending each other, looking out for each other. Pathetic nonsense. Only a weakling needs to depend on others. Trusting other people to give you the strength you haven't got for yourself…"

Sasuke leapt up and _hurled_ the fuuma shuriken down. From this angle, I could see the second one hidden in it's shadow, and the long looping strand of ninja wire between them.

Aoi sneered and batted them away.

I concentrated the mist, dragging it in close around him, until it became thick and visible.

The Sword of the Thunder God, concentrated lightning chakra, came into contact with the metal of the shuriken, sending electricity thrumming through it. It would have ended there, except for the mist.

In the Preliminaries, Naruto had already shown that wire and water worked wonders in enhancing the effect of lightning jutsu. This was a much smaller scale affair, but the principles were the same.

Aoi screamed as the feedback from his sword hit him.

"Looks like teamwork wins," I said, laconically, as he hit the ground with a thud. I let the mist disperse, soaking the ground with water. Aoi was twitching, half tangled in the wire, and the deactivated sword had rolled from his grasp.

I used my shadow to paralyse him, just in case he was faking, and eyed Sasuke. "Tie him up?"

The question then, of course, was what to do with him. He was, technically, a Konoha missing-nin, so by rights we _could_ take him back to the village as a prisoner. Transporting him would be a pain, though, and technically he was _also_ a Rain ninja so we might not be supposed to take him prisoner.

_Pein. Akatsuki. Rain._ My mind reminded me, helpfully.

Sasuke finished tying him up, and he hadn't been exactly gentle about it. "What now?" he asked.

I pursed my lips. "Eh, where's the Shadow Clone?"

"Here!" One of the rocks transformed back into Naruto. "Want me to let the boss know you're done?"

"In a sec," I said. "I think you'll need to stay here and watch the prisoner. We should probably try and take him back with us."

I handed him a few knockout tags, because keeping him unconscious would minimise aggravation for all involved, and scooped up the _Lightsaber._

The Naruto clone made a clone, which dispersed, and waited for a bit, before obviously getting a reply. "Boss is at the bridge," he informed us.

Sasuke grunted. "Let's go."

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><p>.<p>

We caught up to Naruto and Idate on the final leg of the race, and had passed Fukusuke sometime before that. Baring any last minute surprises, we were home free.

"I can't believe you won," Idate said.

Sasuke grunted.

I shrugged. "He was arrogant and insulting, but I don't think he was all that strong. He made you want to give up, and when that didn't work…"

Idate blinked. "Yeah," he said quietly. "I always… I always gave up."

Naruto scoffed. "I told you. As long as there's one person that believes in you, that's enough."

"And if you have friends that trust you, that's even better," I said, recalling Aoi's ranting. God knows what having him as a teacher would have been like.

The road up to the shrine itself was surrounded by crowd. The sheer volume of the cheering when Idate rounded the corner was almost deafening.

We kept our eyes open, but there were no last minute attacks and Idate crossed the finish line with the white ribbon fluttering gracefully through the air.

"And the winner is Idate Morino of the Wasabi Family!" The race official shouted.

People swarmed forward to congratulate him. Idate looked overwhelmed at the attention.

I smiled, a little bemused. "You know, this is the third time we've participated in a regime change."

The festival lasted pretty much all day, and when we headed down to the docks for the ferry to take us back to Port Degarashi, we ran into a bit of a surprise.

Pulling up at the harbour was a boat flying the Konoha flag. And on the boat…

"Hey, isn't that Ibiki?" Naruto asked, squinting.

It was. And wasn't that suspicious timing. Or maybe not 'suspicious'. Given that the race was a regular event, Ibiki had probably known about it and who was running in it long before we'd been sent. Maybe he'd meant to have it assigned to someone trustworthy and had been pre-empted by the situation or something and was now cleaning up.

"My team and I are returning to Konoha after our mission," Ibiki explained. "And were notified that there was a team here that would also need to return."

I didn't really want to know what kind of missions the head of Torture and Interrogation went on.

"That's us!" Naruto said, scratching the back of his head.

"Yes," I said. "There's something else though…" I hesitated then shrugged. "We ran into a Konoha missing-nin. He's currently tied up near the top of Nagi Island."

Ibiki raised an eyebrow. "Then we'll stop there and pick him up," he said calmly.

Idate seemed to shake himself out of his stupor. "Big brother?" he said timidly.

"Who are you?" Ibiki said, voice flat and turning to look at him. "Only one person called me that, and he died three years ago."

_Can't be a missing-nin if you're 'dead'_, I thought.

They seemed to communicate with a look though, and Idate smiled and backed down. Well, at least he got something out of this.

We settled onto the boat, and it set off, almost hugging the coast so we could retrieve Aoi.

"To save time, I can take your mission reports now," Ibiki said.

One of my eyebrows tried to rise. Yeah, _that_ wasn't standard practice at all. But if Ibiki was trying to keep Idate safe and out of the reports then it made sense. He did outrank us, and technically, by asking about Aoi, you could say we had consulted him and passed over leadership…

I shrugged. "Alright." It was probably arbitrary to let Idate go, while hauling Aoi in for questioning. But Idate had been a kid taken advantage of, while Aoi was a full grown jerk who should have known better.

Ibiki's response on seeing just _who_ the missing nin was, was a little disturbing. "Aoi Rokusho," Ibiki said slowly, then grinned. It was not a _nice_ smile. "I'll show you how interrogation is really done."

_Right._

"You know," I said, frowning. "When we were fighting, he said something weird…"

"Yes?" Ibiki said, patiently. It was strange, for such an intimidating looking man, he could project an aura of calm and trustworthiness.

"About Hidden Rain," I said. "He said 'no one follows Hanzo anymore'. I just thought it was weird; I haven't heard of them changing leaders or anything."

A slight widening of his eyes was the only clue that that _hadn't_ been the kind of question that he was expecting.

"Hidden Rain has always had a fair amount of infighting," he said carefully. "But I'm not aware of any leadership changes either."

I hummed, tipping my head back and staring at the sky.

_Maybe_…

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><p>.<p>

Urgh. This chapter just didn't want to get written. I couldn't pin any personality on Aoi other than 'giant asshole' and then tyring to work the back story in… and the Hidden Rain stuff. The timeline is _frustrating._ I have no idea when Pein took over and killed Hanzo, though it was kinda implied to have been a fair while before Jiraiya investigated. And even the two Genin knew at least the name Akatsuki…


	58. Chapter 57

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: You know, it kind of seems like I've started a craze here, with the SI's. XD Little Acorn by Colours of Iris, Konoha's Beautiful Lotus by Supernatural Crossover Girl, Hacia el sol by lucife56 … and more, I'm sure.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 57

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><p>.<p>

_The quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the Company is true. ~ Galadriel; Lord of the Rings_

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><p>.<p>

Sasuke didn't show up to dinner. We'd made it a tradition, after completing a mission to have dinner at my place. And he didn't show up.

A cold hand gripped my heart. I knew, I _knew_ it was coming soon, but it couldn't be _now, _could it? We'd only just got back this morning. I was going to train with him tomorrow, see if I could…

My mind was tossing and turning. Sasuke wouldn't leave, would he? He wasn't the same as canon Sasuke. He didn't… he wouldn't…

"We should go and look for him," I said, sounding distant even to myself. "Naruto?"

"He probably just got caught up training," Shikamaru said. "You shouldn't worry." He was picking up on my feelings, I knew he was, but he couldn't know _why_ I was so worried. It probably looked like I was over reacting, but I couldn't help it.

"Sheesh, he's turning into Sensei, being late for dinner," Naruto complained. "Let's go drag him here. One really late person on the team is enough."

I could just imagine how annoyed Sasuke would be at that comparison and a ghostly smile traced my lips. It wasn't enough, though, to shake my feelings.

There were so many big events that I hadn't been able to touch, hadn't been able to affect at all. This was one that _was_ small enough, personal enough, that I could … that I _should_ have been able to alter. Should have been able to _change._

"Want me to come too?" Shikamaru offered with half lidded eyes. The fact that he was even _offering_ to do something…

I nodded. "Mum will be here in case he shows up…" I said thoughtfully. If I treated it like a mission, search and rescue… "We'll check his apartment… team training grounds… the training grounds by the Naka River…"

Those were the most likely places that he would be. If he was still here at all.

_If-_

"Alright," Shikamaru said calmly. "I'll take the apartment. We'll meet up by the library once we're done."

I nodded. It didn't matter if Shika thought I was making a big deal out of nothing, at least he was taking it seriously. "I'll go to the Uchiha grounds," I volunteered.

The Naka river wound through the entirety of the old Uchiha district. The place was creepy, especially this late at night. It was just dead; a ghost town. There were a lot of training grounds though, the Uchiha had been a serious ninja clan. Sasuke still used them sometimes, when he didn't want to be disturbed.

"Sasuke?" I called timidly, feeling anxious. What if I was right? What if I was _wrong?_ Hadn't there been Sound ninja involved? What if they were still here? But they couldn't get _in_ to Konoha, could they?

I spread my chakra sense as wide as I could, slowly moving through the empty grounds and…

_There._

One person. I locked onto the position and made a beeline for it. I doubted anyone but Sasuke would come here.

It _was_ Sasuke. He wasn't training though. He was sitting slumped against the base of a tree, idly toying with a kunai.

"Sasuke," I said, half in greeting, half in relief. It faded a little, when I looked closer at him. He was battered. It was possible that it had come from training, of course…

He looked up. "Shikako? What are you doing here?"

"You missed dinner," I explained. "We were worried."

"Oh." He looked around, then ran a hand through his hair. "It's later than I thought, I guess. Sorry."

"What happened?" I asked. "You're hurt." I suspected I knew. I _hoped_ I was wrong.

He looked away. "It's nothing."

"It's _not _nothing!" I said, voice uncharacteristically sharp. I took a deep breath and tried to tamp down on my fear and anxiety as Sasuke stared at me with wide eyes. "Please, Sasuke. Tell me what happened."

He paused. Looked away. For a second, I thought he wasn't going to say anything. But then he spoke. "There were these ninja… They said. They said they were from Orochimaru. They called themselves the Sound Four."

My mouth went dry. "Here?" I croaked. "In the village?" Not just _waiting_ for him. Not just outside and ready if he left, but _here. _

Sasuke nodded. "They wanted me to go with them," he confessed quietly.

"You didn't," I said. "You didn't go with them."

His hand reached up and curled over the mark on his neck. His eyes were very, very dark.

_Don't you _dare,_ Sasuke…_

"'If you remain in this village,'" he quoted. "'You will never become strong. Every day, you're slowly decaying. Spend enough time here, and you'll forget all about Uchiha Itachi. Orochimaru will give you power.'"

"They're wrong," I said. "You won't forget about him. We're the _reason_ you want to kill Itachi. You think… you think I don't want him dead too? You think I don't want to stop _dreaming_ about-" I cut myself off. My voice was rising, sharp and tight and I could hear the ruined rasp beneath the tone. This wasn't the time for that. It was _never_ the time for that. "_Orochimaru_ came from Konoha. That's what made _him_ strong. _Itachi_ became strong here. Jiraiya. Tsunade. _Sensei._"

_Listen to me, Sasuke!_

I couldn't tell what he was thinking. I couldn't tell if he was even listening.

"He can't offer you anything, Sasuke. And he wouldn't, even if he could. The only person that Orochimaru looks out for is Orochimaru. Everyone else is a tool."

"I know," he admitted softly. "They said the curse seal was killing me."

_Carrot and the stick. You'll die if you don't come._ They had to have some kind of cure, or antidote.

"You don't use it though," I said. He was talking. That had to be a good sign. "And Tsunade is the best medic-nin in the world. If anyone…"

I trailed off. I wished there was something I could _say_. I wished I was more eloquent, had better arguments, was a better speaker.

Because… if Sasuke tried to leave now… I'd fight him.

I didn't want it to come to that.

"You are strong," I said softly. "Look at what we've done since we became Genin. How many A-ranks have we done? How many battles have we fought? How much have you learnt? Sharingan, Chidori… you_ are_ growing stronger. _We _are growing stronger."

He stared at me for a long while, then smirked tiredly. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

I scoffed weakly. "You guess."

Was that _it_? Was that _enough?_ Had I convinced him? Had he convinced himself?

"What should we do?" He asked.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. _He's staying. He's going to stay. _"We need to go and see the Hokage."

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We met up with the others at the library then headed to the Hokage's Tower. It wouldn't have been as easy to get in to see her if it hadn't been quite so late. Or if we hadn't had Naruto with us, because he just didn't take 'no' for an answer.

Considering we hadn't explained anything, and he was there solely on faith…

"What is it, brat?" Tsunade-sama barked. "Do you know what time it is? I'm supposed to be out of the office by now."

"Sasuke has something to say," Naruto responded, shrugging off her annoyed greeting.

Her golden eyes focused on Sasuke, taking in his slightly battered appearance.

"Orochimaru has ninja in Konoha," Sasuke said bluntly.

She sharpened to attention. "Details."

Security was currently tight and Tsunade had done a lot of work to remove any of Orochimaru's plants in Konoha, I thought, biting my lip. Either she'd missed one… or it was something more than a simple spy.

_Is there a traitor in Konoha?_

The answer was immediate.

_Danzo._

But whatever his dealings, and I knew he had them with Orochimaru… it didn't make sense for him to let Sasuke out of the village. His driving force was to make the village as strong as possible and Sasuke was the last of the Uchiha…

He'd been involved in the whole Uchiha Massacre thing, though, and that was a _clusterfuck_ and a half.

Something niggled in the back of my mind. Danzo. The Uchiha Massacre. The Sharingan? No, he already had many of them, didn't he? Had he given some to Orochimaru then? The implantation had been his work, hadn't it? But that wasn't… that wasn't what bothered me…

What was it then?

Danzo. Uchiha. Itachi.

_Itachi_.

My eyes turned to Sasuke, almost automatically. Itachi had left Sasuke alive despite everything. Had _kept_ him alive from whatever clean up procedures could have happened. Had come back to Konoha to remind them of that.

Itachi was dangerous. There was no doubt about that.

If Orochimaru just _happened_ to take Sasuke… just _happened_ to do whatever… well, that wasn't anything that could be Konoha's fault, was it?

It was a chilling thought. Pure supposition, though. Sheer guesswork.

It was good timing, too, with the mess at the border. All the high level ninja occupied either there or on missions…

Or was it?

_You can't think everything is part of a conspiracy._ He had managed to stir Sand into attacking us, but that didn't mean Orochimaru was behind every skirmish that happened. Even though it provided an excellent opening for the Sound Four…

And the attack on Waterfall…

_That way lies paranoia. _I scolded myself.

"At approximately 1700 hours, I encountered four shinobi in Training Ground Eighty Five," Sasuke said formally. This was a briefing now, not a conversation. "They identified themselves as the Sound Four; Tayuya, Kidomaru, Sakon and Jiroubou. They knew who I was and appeared to be looking for me." He shifted a little, uncomfortable. "Their goal appeared to be to convince me to leave Konoha and return to Hidden Sound with them. They were skilled fighters and at least one of them had a curse seal."

So they had fought. But four against one…

"They left?" Tsunade asked.

Sasuke shrugged. "They didn't seem to want to take me by force. They could have," he admitted, though it was grudging.

"You think they're waiting for you outside?" She asked, steepling her fingers.

This can't have been easy for Sasuke, admitting that they thought he would defect. It wasn't a good look. Bad enough to have someone else cast doubts on your loyalty, but worse to have to do it yourself.

He shrugged. "That was the implication."

"How long?" Tsunade asked. I could almost see her mind whirling. "How long did they give you to decide?"

Sasuke looked a little startled. "I… they didn't say. But they didn't seem like patient people."

Tsunade nodded, scribbling something on a piece of paper then jabbing a finger at Naruto. "You. Go to this address. Find Ibiki. Tell him to be here ASAP." She turned to us. "You two, put together a list of available Genin for a combat capture and retrieval mission." She turned to Sasuke. "And you, will tell me _everything._"


	59. Chapter 58

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Valerie - I didn't really intend to break for that long between chapters, honestly, which is half the reason that it was so short. I figured putting something up was better than nothing for another week. But I think this might be the only fic on the internet where an update in two weeks is considered _slow._ :P

Nemesis Jedi - as one of my other reviewers put it 'Danzo, in his efforts to make Konoha a better, safer place, basically manufactured every major threat ever encountered in the series proper.'

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Chapter 58

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_Three things never trust in:_

_The maiden sworn as pure;_

_The vows a king has given;_

_And the ambush that is sure ~ Threes; Mercedes Lackey_

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It was fairly amazing how fast a mission could be put together when there was no other choice. We put together a list, had it approved by the Hokage and then darted all over Konoha _finding_ those people, while stopping home to grab our gear and deliver a half-garbled explanation to a worried mum.

Shino was, most unfortunately, on a mission with his father and Lee was still in the hospital. That left Team 10, Team 7, Kiba and Neji. We'd considered both Tenten and Hinata, but neither were that extraordinary, and taking an unsealed Byakugan up against Orochimaru's people might have been just asking for trouble. He hadn't expressed any interest in it, but his minions could probably come up with a clever idea like that on their own.

"This is a classified A-rank mission," Ibiki started, once we were all together in one of the briefing rooms. "In better circumstances, this mission team would be compromised of Jounin and high level Chunin. However, by necessity, you are here." His eyes swept over us. "In order for this mission to succeed, you will need to commit _fully._ There can be no hesitation. If you have doubts, this is the _only_ chance you will get to withdraw."

Kiba smirked. "I think you've asked us this question before. Same answer. We're in."

_Cocky bastard,_ I thought, mildly irritated. He really had no idea what we were about to come up against. But I didn't think any of them would have pulled out, regardless. There was a _reason_ Ibiki had made that the final question.

"Damn right we are," Naruto agreed loudly. "So what are we doing?"

Ibiki had a great poker face, but the lift of his lips was definitely amused. "This afternoon, four shinobi from Hidden Sound made contact with Sasuke Uchiha, with the express purpose of taking him to Orochimaru. These four are known to be high ranking members of his organisation, and would therefore possess highly sensitive information. Our mission is to capture them and return them to Konoha for interrogation."

There was momentary silence as they absorbed this.

"They came to get Sasuke?" Chouji asked.

"Indeed." Ibiki nodded. "That fact is crucial to our plan."

"You're going to use him as bait," Ino said, eyes darting to Sasuke. "Is that safe?" It wasn't really a surprise that Ino had picked up on it, or that she was the one to worry about it. Information gathering was where the Yamanaka speciality came in handy, and sometimes that meant dangling bait.

I couldn't say I _really_ liked the idea, either, considering we were basically going to hand them exactly what they wanted then hope that we could take it back. Still, the Sound Four would probably have a fair amount of insight into where Orochimaru was, what he was up to and so forth. Failing that, it would also be possible to study their curse marks, which might help with Sasuke.

"There are many missions you will be asked to complete that are not 'safe'," Ibiki said. "This is one of them. However, we will take all possible precautions to ensure nothing happens to him."

Sasuke looked mostly indifferent to this statement, but his arms were folded a tad too tightly across his chest to be completely casual.

Ibiki proceeded to lay out the plan and a surprising amount of information about the four, some of which had to have come from Sasuke's brief encounter. Aside from their basic body types - Sakon's two heads and Kidomaru's six arms merited more than one mention - and a brief taijutsu encounter, Kidomaru had utilised his webs and at least one of them had revealed a curse mark with the implication that the others had them too. It was certainly better than _no_ information.

We would leave Konoha at about two in the morning, travelling north to hopefully get ahead of the Sound Four. Unfortunately for us, there were no chokepoints or pathways that they _had_ to take, so we needed to spread out to cover all possible paths of travel.

Sasuke would slip out of the village at four, the time of night when people were least alert. Given that there had been no directed meeting place, he'd head north in an attempt to find the Sound Four. That was one of the weaker parts of the plan. We couldn't just look for them and attack, because if they were camping out close to Konoha, then they'd have the entire area around them trapped and would notice us coming a mile out. If we could even find them in the first place. The fact that the patrols and guards hadn't spotted them didn't look good for us. That was why we actually had to risk sending Sasuke out to them.

Sasuke would be wearing an Intelligence Division hidden radio transmitter, that was similar but different to the radios we sometimes used. For one, it was one way, and would only send _from_ Sasuke to us. For another, it had a sensitive microphone and could pick up nearby conversations. Once he met up with them, Sasuke would attempt to get a verbal confirmation of their direction, and if that failed, Ibiki had placed a tracking seal on him.

We'd then move to intercept, and ambush them just after dawn, giving us light to work with.

"With four of them and eight of us," Ibiki continued. "It would be best for us to work in pairs, rather than squads. If the ambush fails, the first priority will be in separating them and taking them down individually. Orochimaru maintains enough Konoha teachings to structure teams so that each member covers the weaknesses of the rest. The full squad was able to compete with ANBU as they left Konoha during the invasion. All attempts will be made to prevent you from having to face them, but _be aware_ that they are dangerous."

Establishing team pairs would be awkward. We had more close combat fighters than ranged. Added to that… "Chouji and Ino need to be teamed with Shikamaru and I for best effect," I said, thinking out loud. "Chouji with Shikamaru, and Ino with me, probably, since I have more close quarters abilities. Neji's Byakugan is probably most useful to the team leader, but that leaves Naruto and Kiba…" Who were both too hot headed. Naruto was _better_ but he was still rash. Additionally, they were both close fighters, but had _some_ range with Naruto's Shadow Clones and Kiba's Tunnelling Fang. "So Naruto and Neji together… and that'd leave Kiba with Ibiki." Which put Kiba with the strongest, most experienced person, since he was arguably weaker than the other two. And his ability to track made him just as valuable as Neji.

I blinked, noticing everyone staring at me. "Or whatever you suggest," I added, sinking low in my chair.

His lips quirked. "Valid suggestions," he noted. "Second in command will be Shikamaru Nara -" He ignored my brother's muttered 'troublesome' "- and the teams will be as follows. Team one, myself and Kiba Inuzuka. Team two, Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi. Team three, Shikako Nara and Ino Yamanaka. Team four, Neji Hyuuga and Naruto Uzumaki."

I wasn't sure whether he'd listened to me, or whether he'd already decided on the same teams. It wasn't, really, that hard of a conclusion to come to.

"For now, I suggest you prepare and rest."

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"_So this is where you are, right on top of the Hokage Mountain. I'm surprised you got so close to the village."_

"_Hmph. Your pathetic little village has miserable security."_

"_We would teach them a lesson, but that's not why we're here. Orochimaru-sama is waiting for you."_

"_I see. So how are we going? Straight north, or do you plan on evasion trails?"_

I held my breath as Sasuke's voice crackled over my earpiece, exchanging looks with Ino. We were all staggered through the forest, and our next move would depend on their answer. Hopefully it would be a place that all four teams could get to in time.

"_There's no need to lay false trails. Hidden Leaf is so weak they couldn't send a pursuit squad even if they wanted to."_

_Not a pursuit squad, _I thought, _but your arrogance will be your undoing._

I hoped.

"_All teams move to position three,"_ Ibiki's voice crackled over the radio. _"Repeat. All teams to position three."_

"_Team two copies."_

"Team three, acknowledged," I added.

"_Uh, yeah, this is team four. We're on it."_

"Let's go," I said to Ino, hopping down off the perch where I'd spent that last half an hour or so. I took a second to reorient myself and headed off.

"Right," Ino said, exhaling. She looked a little nervous, but not too nervous. I didn't blame her, I was feeling a little jittery myself.

We were supposed to keep comm. chatter to a minimum, which was pretty standard practice, and Sasuke's line was mostly silent. I was a little surprised that they'd asked him no questions at all, but I guess that was another mark of their arrogance. They assumed he was with them willingly, that even if he'd been spotted leaving there weren't enough forces in Konoha to challenge them.

"Do you think it'll be alright?" Ino asked.

I contemplated a variety of responses including 'no', 'probably not', and 'it's unlikely', but discarded them as being ultimately unhelpful and thoroughly pessimistic. "It'll be tricky," I said. "But if we give it our best, we'll pull through."

Better planned, better prepared, better outfitted… we had more people and more information… We even had an actual Special Jounin with us.

And given what his speciality was, I was willing to be he knew dozens of ways of detaining people for transport. It was harder to stop someone without killing them, yes, but even if we only got _one_ of them it would still be worthwhile.

We were almost at the regrouping point when one of the Sound ninja spoke again.

"_Let's stop here for a second."_

"_We're barely away from the village,"_ Sasuke's incredulous voice came over the radio. He was actually holding up pretty well; this had to be nerve wracking for him.

"_This won't take long. Before we go any further, you need to die."_

For a second, I didn't even comprehend the words. The sounds were there, but the _meaning…_

"_What?" _Naruto shouted through the comm.

"_Hold your course,"_ Ibiki said, voice calm. "_Continue on to position three."_

"_Are you kidding? We have to get to him!"_

Ino cast me a worried look. I knew, without a seconds doubt, that if I ignored Ibiki and went after Sasuke she would follow me.

My mind started racing over the possibilities. Sasuke was no use to them dead, no use at all. Orochimaru wanted to use him as a body, and for that he needed to be alive. I thumbed the switch on my radio. "Naruto. Listen to Ibiki. It could be a feint to draw out observers. They're not going to kill him."

My palms were surprisingly damp. I really hoped I was right. But Sasuke had code words and he knew enough to _run _if things looked bad_._

"_Stop being so dramatic, Sakon,"_ an irritated female voice said. Tayuya, then, the only female of the group. "_It's like we said before, that curse mark you have is only in the first state. It's consuming you. Progressing the mark to Level 2 will help stabilise it and increase its strength. Who knows, you might even be as strong as us."_ There was a faint, mocking lit to the words.

"_The problem is, strengthening the curse mark also increases its effects on the body. Such a rapid change would kill you. So instead, we will suspend you in a state of half death, while you adapt to the change."_

"_And I'm just supposed to _trust_ that this 'half death' doesn't end up being the real thing?" _

"_Don't forget who we are; Orochimaru's hand picked bodyguards. If there's anybody that knows about barrier ninjutsu, curse marks and all the rest, it'd be us."_

That wasn't really the question that Sasuke had been asking, but it was an answer in its own right. They were good enough to prevent an accidental death, and didn't want to risk Orochimaru's wrath with a purposeful one.

"_And you want to do this _now_?"_ Sasuke asked dubiously. There was no real win for him here - the curse mark was bad and, even if they used words like 'stabilise', strengthening it couldn't be good and he'd also be completely out of it for the rest of the trip. But there was very little chance to _refuse._ That was the danger of undercover assignments; you had to play the role.

"_You're no use to Orochimaru-sama as weak as you are. If we start now, the process should be over by the time we return."_

"_And if there's fighting?"_

"_There's no one that can get past us. Just take the pill already!"_

I was so focused on listening to the conversation, that I nearly overshot the meeting point. A quick application of chakra helped slow me down, but it was a less than graceful landing.

Team one was already there, having had the central point so they could move in any direction, and team two wasn't far away.

"_Four Black Fog Formation!"_

"Sasuke Uchiha is currently incapacitated," Ibiki said once we were all there. His face was serious but he didn't look overly worried. "He will not be able to participate in, or escape from, the ambush. Therefore, when teams two and three are trapping the enemy, team four will be removing Sasuke from the group to stop him from being caught in the crossfire."

Naruto and Neji nodded. Naruto didn't look too happy about the way things were going - clenching and unclenching his fists - but he wasn't saying anything and he hadn't broke cover to go attack.

I wasn't exactly too happy with having Sasuke in their grasp either, but I'd much prefer to have as many advantages as possible when we did fight.

It didn't take long - we weren't that far ahead - but it felt like it. Apprehension was a killer, drawing the seconds out as we stayed tense and alert.

I could feel the chakra signals moving, and Neji gave the alert when he spotted them coming with his Byakugan. We all adjusted our positions and exchanged nervous glances.

_This is it._ It was hardly the first fight I'd been in, and not even the most dangerous _really. _That didn't mean I wasn't edgy.

"Wait!" Kidomaru said, sounding weirdly doubled as I heard it through both the radio and air. The group was close, not quite in the middle of our formation but nearly. "There's something-"

Ibiki dropped his hand. That was the signal.

Kiba and Akamaru spun into action, leaping out of the treetops. "Fang Over Fang!" They didn't head straight for the group and attempt to hit them, for fear of hitting Sasuke, but the high speed drills careenered around the ground, circling them randomly and carefully keeping them together in a group.

At the height of his third arc, he threw down a smoke bomb that billowed thick purple smoke everywhere, completely covering the four shinobi.

"That's not going to help you, trash!" Tayuya shouted.

Shikamaru and I dropped down to the ground on opposite sides of the group. Funnily enough, smoke in no way impedes our shadows. I made four connections, and felt Shikamaru do the same, the weird echo of chakra connecting me to him. Three of the possessions were solid, but the last…

It was tugging, pulling…

I'd felt that before, against Kisame. He was using the connection to drain the jutsu of chakra. It was much slower than the rapid consuming of Samehada, but still worrying. Against him, Shadow Possession would be weaker at best… and dangerous at worst.

I could feel the sudden blip of Naruto's chakra as he moved Sasuke out of the way. The smoke was already starting to clear, but it's job was done. Then Ibiki was there, hands slapping down on the ground, ink blooming out around them.

"Summoning; Torture Chamber!"

Usually, summons are creatures with whom you've signed a contract but it isn't impossible to summon other things. Inanimate objects. It isn't _storage_ like sealing scrolls, and the objects usually have some special abilities or uses. Orochimaru's Rashamon Gates are a prime example. What they actually _are_, where they come from, how you get them… that's something I don't actually know. Maybe you have to make them, through seals, or building them then sealing them, or maybe they do exist _somewhere_ and they are being called, just like creature summons. You can do practically _anything_ with seals, so it wouldn't surprise me.

This technique was one of those.

The area around them blacked out, twisted into some self-contained chakra-space, as wires whipped out of nowhere and encircled the four prisoners. It pulled them harshly into a square, one on each wall, leaving Ibiki in the centre, and glowing with chakra, the walls of the cage unfolded and surrounded them.

It was fast and _impressive. _A complete prison out of nowhere. The thing was still there-but-not, in that black chakra-space, but I had no doubt that Ibiki could send it away and call it back once he was somewhere more… useful.

My eyes narrowed as I contemplated the scene. We had Sasuke. They were all caught. "Too easy," I said pessimistically.

_It _couldn't _be so easy._

Regretfully, I was pretty much right. They started thrashing heavily in the chains. It didn't get them anywhere; the place looked like it was built to withstand that. But then the black smudges of the curse marks started spreading across their skin.

"You are going to regret this," Sakon snarled, yanking his arms. The wire was probably cutting into them good, but the pain just seemed to enrage them more than it deterred them.

Ibiki ran through a set of hand seals and started slowly sinking into the floor. I guessed that was his exit strategy.

The blotches spread right across their faces, blurring until there was more ink than skin.

Then they started to glow.

They mutated. The surge in chakra was sickening. It felt _polluted_, like smog or dirty water. But there was so _much_ of it.

"What the _hell_ is that?" Kiba yelped.

In Level 2 state, they looked formidable, and as much as their chakra had increased so had their strength and speed. Now, the thrashing about was actually _working. _The wires started snapping with a sound that echoed like a thunderclap through the clearing.

As Kidomaru pulled himself free of the wires, a flaw in Ibiki's jutsu became clear.

He was still in there with them.

Kidomaru lurched forward, fisting one hand in Ibiki's jacket and hauling him back inside. He spat web but Ibiki curled around the arm holding him, bracing himself on it and kicking out towards the curse mark bearers face.

"I can't _believe_ we're forced to use this against trash like you," Sakon said derisively. Three of them attacked Ibiki, boxing him in and using the small space to their advantage, but I was more worried that Jiroubou _didn't._

I frowned, then realised what he was doing. "The big one is draining the chakra from the jutsu! He's going to make it collapse."

Shikamaru muttered something under his breath that might have been a curse. With Ibiki … occupied, he was in charge. His hands flexed and formed a circle.

"Naruto! Can you get Ibiki out of there?" I asked, the thought suddenly occurring to me. In the cage, Sakon landed a solid kick that threw Ibiki flat on the barred _ceiling_. The wires snapped out, clearly under his control and trying to catch the prisoners again, or at least prevent them from touching him.

Naruto's eyes widened, and he formed a hand seal. There was a seconds pause, and a burst of chakra smoke beside him, but nothing happened. "Not while that cage is there," he said, crestfallen.

It wasn't unexpected. The point of caging things was to make sure that they couldn't get out, after all.

"Whatever that transformation is, there's no doubt that it's made them stronger," Shikamaru said. "The fact that they've broken Ibiki's jutsu means that our chances of restraining them like this are incredibly low. That means our objective has changed. The most important thing now is to keep Sasuke away from them." His eyes were serious as he looked over us. "Kiba, you've got the best speed and stamina out of all of us. Take the barrel, and head back to Konoha. Sasuke is helpless and probably needs medical attention. Of course, if you can rustle up some back up, that'd be good too."

Kiba didn't exactly look too happy to be the one running off, but he couldn't exactly _argue_ with that reasoning. I might have been faster, in the short term, and Naruto might have had more stamina, but Kiba had the best of both and was the undeniable best choice to carry something as bulky as the barrel.

"You got it," he said. "Just leave it to me. I'll be back before you know it." He moved Akamaru to the sentry position on his head, and awkwardly secured his arms around the barrel.

"That leaves us a team down," Shikamaru said, watching him go. "Naruto, Neji… are you alright to be split up?"

"Of course!" Naruto beamed even as Neji replied in the affirmative.

"Good. You two are our strongest solo fighters. We need to split them up, stall them and prevent them from going after Sasuke and Kiba. If it's possible to capture them, do it… but this is more than we expected. We need some way to scatter them. Shikako?"

"I can blow the clearing," I confirmed. "Once Naruto gets Ibiki out of the way."

I could set the seal right now, actually.

"Timer?" Shikamaru asked briskly.

"No. Manual activation." It was handier, sometimes, to be able to control what went off when. It got tricky when you had multiple seals about, but it was worth it.

"Alright. Naruto, flood the place with clones, and when the summoning drops, get Ibiki out of there. Shikako will blow them up and hopefully injure them and scatter them. The we separate. The big guy drains chakra, so our shadow techniques aren't going to work on him and probably not Naruto's clones either. That leaves him to Neji." He paused very briefly as though waiting for protest, but there was none. "Sakon seems to be close range, so he's yours Naruto. The web shooter isn't good for Chouji's manoeuvrability -"

"We've got him," I said quickly. Pinning Chouji down would limit him drastically, where as it wasn't nearly so bad a thought for Ino and I.

"Right. That leaves us with the unknown girl. Great."

The cage was starting to flicker now, becoming insubstantial as it lost chakra. It was almost impressive that it had lasted so long. Either that or his ability to drain chakra didn't work that _quickly_.

We leapt up into the trees, putting distance between us and them.

"Look at that, trash," Tayuya mocked. "Your comrades have abandoned you. Guess you weren't much of a leader."

We waited. Then the assembled Naruto clones sent up a battle cry, and Ibiki was suddenly among us, slung over Naruto's shoulder, bloody and injured.

I slammed my hands together in a seal and pulsed my chakra. "Explode!"

I hadn't skimped on the power and though the blast didn't reach us, the gust of wind it caused still plastered my bangs flat.

It wasn't enough to kill them, unfortunately, and I could still feel their chakra pulsing, though they had been thrown around by it.

Neji had his Byakugan active and rapidly gave us their new locations.

"Right. Let's go," Shikamaru said.

We moved out.

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So, new FFNet layout. I've put one of lucife56's pictures as the image, but I think it gets chopped a bit. I will… work something out. Speaking of Fanart, Lollyst did some for me as well. Links in my profile as normal.

I did have a mission planning scene at the start, with all the 'who, what, where' but it just kept going over the same ground and was really boring, hence the fast forward. Hmm, what else? I did, in fact, have a lot I wanted to say, but when it comes time to write the notes I always forget. Terrible of me.

Hope everything makes sense, etc.


	60. Chapter 59

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: I think I'm in the wrong fandom for this, but the fight scenes are killing me.

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Chapter 59

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_As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes. ― Mel Brooks_

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The thing about combat was, once it was started it went _fast._ There was no time to stop and discuss strategies or tactics; any analysing had to be done on the run. We couldn't delay because our goal and theirs were completely different. _They_ were after Sasuke, which meant that the instant they were back on their feet, they'd head after Kiba.

Given that they were in Level 2 of the curse mark, and the ridiculous jump in strength and speed that that gave them, it probably wouldn't take all that long to catch up, either.

Ino and I bounced from tree branch to tree branch, the forest blurring around us as we powered through. We weren't exactly being stealthy, but in this case stealth lost to speed.

I could hear the movement of the others as they did the same, which made sense because the Sound Four hadn't necessarily been separated far from each other, and any decent ninja would try and regroup. We'd have to do something about that, lead them off, separate them, if we didn't want to get stuck in a team vs team battle. We'd already seen how that went down.

"Ino," I said quietly. "This curse state… if it affects the mind as they seem to imply… what would that do to your jutsu?" Given that it was part of Orochimaru's possession jutsu, I was almost certain that nothing good could come of it.

She bit her lip. "Maybe nothing."

_Maybe._

You couldn't quantify the mind, so determining what would and would not have an effect… it was all guesswork.

"That's… not good," I said. That was an understatement. I didn't _know_ what would happen, but the danger…

"We can't just _not_ use it because it _might_ be dangerous," Ino said, like she knew exactly what I was thinking. "This is pretty much a textbook case. Nara, Yamanaka, single person non-lethal takedown. It's pretty much what the Mind-Body Switch was created for."

"Except if it puts you in danger," I pointed out.

"You don't know that it will," she refuted.

Know? No, I didn't. But the likelihood was pretty damn high.

"Tell me, with one hundred percent certainty that it won't hurt you," I said, knowing she couldn't.

"Tell me, with one hundred percent certainty, that you have a plan that will work without either of us getting injured," she shot back.

_Snap._

I couldn't do that either.

"You can't ground me just because it _might_ be dangerous," she said flatly. "You can't afford to. Not now."

She was right. Mind-Body Switch was her trump card.

There was no more time to argue anyway, as we passed out of the destruction zone and zeroed in on the chakra signal that was our target. With the way it felt, there was no way to miss it. Unwillingly, I shivered. If I'd thought that the curse seal had felt bad in the Forest when Sasuke had been given it, it was nothing compared to this. It was like pollution, like smog or filthy water, so strong you wondered how you could breathe in it.

Kidomaru didn't look injured, though maybe a little disorientated, and there was a golden substance flaking off his skin that gave a clue as to why. It reminded me a little of Gaara's sand armour, which was all the comparison I needed.

_One day, my explosions are going to actually hurt someone and I will be _incredibly_ surprised,_ I thought, offhand.

"Che," he snorted. "That's what they send after me? This won't even be any fun. And here I was thinking I'd have time to play a game or two, but it's just not worth it when there's no challenge."

I'd have protested, maybe said something snarky, but this was going to be a hell of a fight on our end and I knew it.

Neji had almost died fighting Kidomaru, in canon, and despite how his fight with Naruto had gone, he was not a pushover.

He spat a wad of white, all six hands manipulating it with speed, and threw.

"_Spider Web Unrolling!"_

_Fast!_ I thought, alarmed. The sticky thread funnelled out away from him, spreading wider and wider every second it travelled. There was no way we'd manage to escaped the net before it caught us.

I raced through the seals of the replacement jutsu, launching myself into the trees behind him. Ino didn't make it, ending up pinned to a tree trunk with limited mobility.

_Arms free,_ I noticed. _Enough to make a hand seal._

It wasn't ideal.

But I was too busy dodging the sudden barrage of double layered nets flying at me, ducking behind trees to put an obstacle in between us. I couldn't keep it up forever, though, because otherwise he'd turn on Ino. Which, no.

Even then, I did appreciate the complexity of his jutsu. The webs - sticky and strong - had threads of his chakra running through it, precise and well balanced. Given that they were completely separated from him, it was an extreme level of chakra control. Added to the speed and agility with which he produced them, there was no doubt that Kidomaru had earnt his place among Orochimaru's top echelon.

It was a fact that was easy to forget when you knew he'd been beaten by a Genin, but it was no less true for it.

"I already know how your jutsu works," Kidomaru said, circling. "Using your shadow to control the movements of your opponent. It's a clever trick, but easy to defeat. All I have to do is keep my distance."

"You would think, wouldn't you?" I said levelly. Given that he'd managed to survive - uninjured - the previous explosion, his armour could soak up a lot of damage, and he could probably activate it pretty damn quickly. So explosions weren't going to get me anywhere. Probably not projectiles either. The closer I got, the harder it would be to avoid his sticky webs, and six arms would give a crazy taijutsu bonus.

"One," he said. I caught the brief glint of light on metal and reflexively threw a kunai to intercept it. The _clang_ that echoed was definitely the sound of metal on metal, but as they spun off track I noticed that the kunai he used was unusually coloured - gold like the armour that had protected him.

"Two," he said, and I crouched, deflecting both weapons and gritting my teeth. There was no point asking 'is this just a game to you?' because it was clear what the answer was. Yes.

That could be exploited. It was clear that he didn't even consider the fact that he could lose. The thing about games was that you played because they were fun, and you played until they weren't fun anymore. He wasn't going for the kill, not really, and that was something I could use.

"Four."

_Doubles. _And they were coming from different angles. He wasn't moving though, so he must have been controlling the release with threads.

"Eight." At this speed and range, that was starting to get too many. I ducked and twisted and deflected, but one sliced a line of fire across my shin and another became lodged in the material of my jacket, pressing against my ribs but not penetrating. Thankfully.

Kidomaru laughed. "Not long now. _Sixteen_," he said with relish.

I dropped my kunai. "Earth Release; Earth Style Wall." It grew out of the ground, curving around me slightly, and I pressed my back flat against it, rearming myself. The earth wall faced him, and I was out of sight for a brief time. It was now or never.

I pressed both hands against the wall. "Touch Blast," I murmured as quietly as possible.

Then I sank underground, barely hearing the count of "Thirty two."

I pushed myself through the ground, moving along barely under the surface. Speed, not depth was key here. Kidomaru hadn't moved yet, hadn't seemed to notice that I had gone. True or not, I couldn't pass up the chance and my hands burst the surface, grasping for his ankles.

He wrenched away with strength that jarred my wrists, pulling me _out_ of the ground, and I stumbled awkwardly as the ground sank beneath my feet before I could cancel the jutsu.

"Not bad," he said, smirking. He'd measured the distance well, he was too far away for me to get without a boost to my shadow. He looked over his shoulder to see the wall that was perforated with gold kunai. "Block my sight, then escape to attack me from underground. Seems like shadows aren't the only trick you have after all."

"No," I agreed, just as the wall exploded.

Gold soaked across his skin almost instantly, shielding him from the damage that blew chunks of earth sky high and toppled the mighty tree behind it, but I hadn't done it to hurt him. Explosions, giant balls of fire, created light.

His shadow stretched towards me, even as mine stretched towards him.

"Un," I grunted as it connected, feeling like lead weights constricting my limbs. We struggled, grappling for control, chakra vs chakra.

I was only winning because I had experience.

I twisted my neck sideways, even as he spat a web from his mouth. It splattered harmlessly against the ground. He didn't need hand seals for it, and that made him dangerous even now.

His arms were twitching. It was hard for me to _not move_ limbs that I didn't have. He was slowly, but surely, overcoming me.

"Ino! Now!" I shouted.

The dust of the explosion was settling. The tree that had toppled, ripped out of the ground, left a clean line of sight between the two of them. Ino might have still be stuck to the tree, all but forgotten, but she didn't need to move for this.

I felt her gather her chakra. "Mind-Body Switch Jutsu!" She cried.

I felt her chakra surge. I felt it travel. I felt it hit.

I felt the weakening in the resistance to my jutsu, and almost sagged in relief.

I didn't drop it, though. Not yet. Not until she gave confirmation.

The moment stretched. I felt my apprehension build.

"Ino?"

Kidomaru twitched.

"That," he said. "Wasn't very nice."

I swallowed, mouth suddenly dry.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Ino's body hanging limply in it's bindings. Her chakra was still halved, still _there_ trying to possess him.

_Bad idea. I knew it was a bad idea…_

He jerked against my hold. His strugglers were weaker, less controlled, but still so strong. He was moving. I could see the gold pooling in his hands, shaping into kunai.

"Ino?" I repeated.

"Your friend is… having a tougher time that she expected," he said. His face twitched, grimacing.

He pushed against my hold. I pushed back, automatically, keeping him still. I could feel my chakra draining for every second I held the jutsu, but as long as Ino was in there I couldn't let go.

Because if she was in there… I couldn't attack him.

_Shit, shit, shit, shit._

"Ino," I said clearly. "If it isn't working, abort the jutsu."

If she could hear me. If she even _could_ cancel the jutsu.

_Okay, new plan._ For a second, my mind was terrifyingly blank. I couldn't hurt him, not without hurting Ino. And I'd need to protect Ino's body, which was still pinned to the tree.

The kunai in his hands were ready. The extra sets of arms twitched and I felt the phantom pull on my back as I tried to stop them. The angle wasn't good, or the power of the throw. I tried to twist out of the way and _couldn't._

_He's fighting against me,_ I realised with alarm. _Powering opposite where I want to go._

One slammed into the muscle of my thigh, two into my chest - most of the momentum killed by the thick padding of my jacket and probably ruining the scroll that was tucked into my pocket - but the most dangerous one grazed my neck.

I felt blood trickling down my collar and swallowed heavily.

"This jutsu works both ways, doesn't it?" He asked, even as more gold pooled in his hands. "You can stop me moving… but I can stop _you_ from moving."

He grinned, sharp and nasty. "Game over."

I eyed the kunai in his hands. My thigh trembled and the cut on my neck itched. He'd have better aim this time.

I cut the jutsu and dove to the side just as he released them. My hand pressed onto the ground and I murmured "Flashbang," before flipping to my feet. There was a momentary flare of pride at the speed and ease that I'd managed to place it while moving, but it was buried under the sheer urgency of the situation.

I cushioned chakra around my ears, blocking sound just as the seal went off behind me. Even so, I could _feel_ the wave of sound rattling my bones, and the bright light seared through my eyelids.

_Ram, snake, tiger. Illusionary Clone Jutsu!_

My clone darted sideways, leaping through the trees as I hightailed it for Ino. Kidomaru was stumbling behind me, and once I dropped the chakra cushion I could hear him _cursing._

_Go, go, go_, I chanted.

Ino was so still, barely breathing, but unharmed. I tried to slash the web with a kunai, but it didn't budge.

_How did-? Jyuuken._ But I couldn't do that. And the time it would take for me to _try_ that method would be too long. Kidomaru wouldn't be staggered for long, and it would be a poor ninja that was truly fooled by an illusionary clone.

Then I remembered and dug furiously into my jacket pocket for something I probably shouldn't have had with me. Ibiki had debriefed us on the boat, and I hadn't had to go into the Missions Office to hand in my report yet…

_It can cut even chakra!_ Aoi had boasted.

I pulled the cylinder out and activated the Sword of the Thunder God. Using an unknown weapon in combat was a dumb idea, especially if you weren't trained for it, and I'd mostly grabbed it on a whim because it was cool.

Carefully, I set the stable lightning blade against the webbing and nearly sighed in relief as it parted easily. I curved it around Ino, slicing as carefully as I could. It carved great gashes in the tree but she was free. I caught her awkwardly, cancelling the blade and stuffing it back in my pocket before slinging her over my shoulder and hightailing it.

I felt the _flare_ of chakra, and dove to the side, just as the branch where I had been standing nearly _exploded. _There was a brief flash of gold, and the trail of destruction continued through the canopy.

_Highly destructive projectile,_ I analysed.

I zigzagged, pouring as much speed on as I could, trying to put as many obstacles between us as possible.

I sent off more clones, and most of them ended up dead fairly quickly, which was not reassuring. I didn't have the concentration to make them evade in complex ways, not while keeping _us_ alive.

"Come on, Ino," I murmured. "Give it up, it's done, come back, its not working-"

I couldn't fight while she was in there. Couldn't fight while I was carrying her. The only thing I could do was run, lead him further and further away, and that wouldn't last forever. Once we hit a break in the trees… once we hit a river or meadow… once there was nothing to hide behind…

_Fuck,_ I thought miserably.

Ino gasped.

I felt her chakra surge and nearly stumbled.

"Ino?"

_Please let her have ended the jutsu._

Another of Kidomaru's arrows whirled past, and I jerked to the side.

"Why do you run?" He called. "It's futile. You're going to die, regardless of whether you struggle or not."

He was close. No time.

I spun around the tree trunk, slapping my palms down on the bark. "Flashbang. Touch Blast." I called up a posse of Illusionary Clones and sent them all off in different directions. It wasn't much, but it would have to do.

Then I dove downwards and bore us both deep into the ground, as the light _flared_. Ino wasn't moving, wasn't doing anything. I needed distance to put her somewhere safe.

She struggled against me, thrashing at barely more than an instinctual level as the ground closed around us. I curved a bubble of chakra around our faces, trapping the air there so she could breathe.

"Relax, Ino," I hissed. "It's me! Stop fighting."

"Itaidōshin," she muttered, but absently, like she wasn't really talking to me at all. "Itaidōshin."

_Different body; same mind._ It was an idiom, but she was muttering it like a mantra, which couldn't be good. It had been _years_ since Ino had needed a mantra to focus well enough to do her Mind-Body Switch.

I pulled her deeper underground, sifting the dirt to keep pulling oxygen to our faces. Moving two people was a hell of a lot harder than moving myself, and many orders of magnitude more difficult than just pulling someone underground.

All the while, I kept a steady focus on Kidomaru's chakra. It staggered around above us, which was probably the result of taking a second Flashbang straight to the face, and the follow up explosion. I really hoped that he took the bait and followed one of the clones off. They couldn't really go far - Illusionary Clones didn't have much of a range - but all it would take would be a single sighting for him to follow up. Hell, as long as he didn't just start shooting the ground up.

I shuffled us along, slowly moving around the tree roots and rocks.

I waited as he moved, waited until he was gone, then waited some more, just in case it was a trap. Then I hauled us to the surface, because you could only spend so long underground, and my chakra was starting to run really low.

"Ino? Come on, Ino," I said, crouching next to her on the grass. "I need you here with me."

"Itaidōshin," she chanted. It was hard to tell with pupil-less eyes, but she was staring vacantly. She wasn't tracking movement.

I ran a hand through my bangs in frustration and tried to think. She was out. She was definitely out. I needed to get her somewhere safe before Kidomaru came back or-

_Damnit, our mission isn't their mission._

I cursed and thumbed the switch on my comm. "Kiba, look out. Kidomaru is probably incoming your way." Then, because the others were probably listening, and imagination could be so _much_ more distracting than the truth, I added, "Ino is down but not badly hurt. I'll be with you in a second."

I hoped that the comm distance was enough to reach him.

"_I hear you. Akamaru's on lookout."_

I nodded, breathed deeply, and hauled Ino over my shoulder again. "Let's get you somewhere safe."

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I've been pretty bad about answering reviews recently, but I do appreciate them all. Uh, I'll try and go over them if anyone has any actual questions that they wanted answered, or y'know, just ask again. XD


	61. Chapter 60

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: So my intention of having this chapter done faster than the last one didn't really work out. My laptop seems to be about a few days from complete collapse, so there are a few issues. Sorry 'bout that, it can't really be helped.

Norumai and Diamond Pawn have started a website with a chapter guide to DOS. It's got some neat summaries and links to all the other stuff people have done, so you should check it out. Link is, as always, in my profile.

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Chapter 60

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_The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. ~ Vincent van Gogh_

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I stashed Ino in the roots of a tree where she would hopefully be out of the way until she was aware again. It was the best I could do on short notice, and I trapped the entrance, but it was far from perfect.

There wasn't really any other option, though. I couldn't keep carting her around.

Then I cut back towards Konoha, hoping I could reach Kiba before Kidomaru did. It would largely depend on how quickly Kidomaru gave up searching for us, or realised that the trails were all fake. It was a tossup; if he got bored of it quickly, then he wouldn't keep it up. But on the other hand, if I _had_ annoyed him really badly, he'd want to kill me over completing the mission.

Funny how I was _hoping_ for that.

I leapt through the trees, calculating the distance that the fight had taken us, the direction Kiba had gone and his speed to come up with a likely intercept vector. Depending on how fast Kidomaru was… how long it took him to turn back… well. I _might_ get there first.

Kiba had managed to cover a surprising amount of distance, and I had to pace myself in running or I'd be no use by the time I got there. It was frustrating, with a side order of panic, because if we lost Sasuke…

_Not going to happen,_ I thought firmly. _We're not going to lose anyone._

I breathed in and out, and the last pulse of adrenaline settled, as I fell into the measured pace that would let you run all day.

It was a little odd being alone after heading out with a partner and group. It left me feeling tense, anxious, knowing there were enemies out there and I had no one to watch my back.

"_Shit,"_ Kiba cursed through the comm. It was a little fuzzy, so it was probably coming through Sasuke's microphone rather than a deliberate activation.

"Almost there, Kiba," I said, estimating how much further ahead he was. I'd found his trail, and while I wasn't exactly a tracker, he wasn't being stealthy either.

I could hear scuffling, but there were no shouts or cries of pain. That was… well, probably a good sign.

I put on a burst of speed, bounding through the trees and zeroing in on Kiba's chakra. I knew something was wrong when I couldn't sense Kidomaru, but there was _someone_ there.

Or _something,_ rather, as I got close enough to see the giant spider.

Giant, as in, the size of a horse, rather than your regular 'giant' spiders.

_Eww._ Was my first thought. Then _summon, of course he has a summon._

There was no sign of Sasuke's barrel either, which added up to a not so pretty picture.

_First problem first,_ I thought, hanging back to take in the scene. The spider was high in the trees, supported easily on a thick strand of web about as thick as my wrist. That wouldn't have been enough to protect it, but it was highly mobile, swinging to a new position every time it was attacked, and letting loose a rain of freshly hatched spiderlings that were about as big as Akamaru normally was.

Akamaru and Kiba were both in their Beast Human Clone and even I couldn't tell them apart. Actually… there was some kind of chakra bond between them, which only made more sense the longer I thought about it. How else did they merge characteristics like that otherwise? No wonder the Inuzuka were so attached to their dogs.

They were fighting well, but the smaller spiders were leaving trails of sticky web everywhere, and just kept converging, no matter how many of them they fought off. Sooner of later, they'd step on something and get stuck and then it would only be a matter of time before they ended up cocooned in silk.

Given the vast number of them, I was doubtful that Shadow Possession would be helpful. It _was_ possible to contain multiple targets but there was a marked difference between ten and a hundred. And with my chakra running low I wouldn't be able to hold it long even if I _did_ manage to catch them…

But the smaller spiders were coming from the larger one, which meant it was the anchor for the summoning jutsu. Get rid of that, and you got rid of them.

I cast another look down at Kiba and Akamaru, before tucking my fingers into my weapons pouch and spooling out lengths of ninja wire.

Shurikenjutsu and ninja wire were incredibly overlooked skills, I thought idly, as my shuriken arched through the air, trailing wire behind them. The fingers of my off hand clamped down on the wire, chakra holding and protecting the skin from the razor edge.

The shuriken reached the end of their freedom and curved, pulling back and winding around and around.

_Gotcha._

I hauled backwards, taking the slack out of the line, and the spider made a squealing sound as its legs were compressed together.

"Kiba!" I shouted.

The two of them gathered themselves and _jumped_, twisting free of the mass of spiders on the ground and into a spin.

"_Fang Over Fang_!"

They drilled through the air, curving around until they crashed into the spider, equal force on opposite sides. I admired the precision and timing of it, even as the force of the attack caused the trees to shake.

Then it exploded into web.

"Gah!" I cried, flinging my arm up to shield my face. Kiba and Akamaru tore through it, the spinning of their attack sending it everywhere, even as it wound it tighter around them. They lost control of the technique, unable to change directions and crashed aimlessly around in the branches before burying themselves in the ground and coming to a stop.

I blinked, shook my hair out of my eyes, scanned the clearing to double check that everything was gone, and jumped after them.

"Have a nice trip?" I sardonically asked Kiba's foot, where it was kicking half-heartedly out of the ground.

He made a muffled sound in reply that I chose to translate as '_please help me'. _His foot kicked again, and I gripped his ankle and hauled him backwards, a shower of dirt and debris and Kiba half wrapped like a coocoon.

I snickered. "Comfortable?"

He gave me a disgruntled glare. "Where's Akamaru?"

Akamaru, having released his Beast Human Clone form, had had much better luck wiggling out of his bindings. He barked once, in reassurance.

"Better off than you are," I said, kneeling and taking out the lightsaber to help cut away the web. "So what happened?"

"Dude appeared out of nowhere," Kiba said gruffly, holding still. "Did some freaky shit with kunai and everything, but I couldn't really fight back while holding the barrel. Course, once I put it down, he summoned that thing and nicked off with it."

"And even if you won, you'd have been too tied up to come after him…" I finished. _Clever._ Of course, that assumed he hadn't been able to just take Kiba out right away. "Was he still transformed?"

Kiba frowned. "Actually, no. He wasn't doing that weird black ink thing either. That important?"

I shrugged. "It means there's at least a time or usage limit to the curse mark. That's good news."

"Hallelujah. At least _something_ is good." He grimaced and stood up, shaking as much dirt off as he could.

"Ready to go after him?" I asked, standing and stretching. Everything was starting to ache, now that I had a moment to breathe, but it was all minor injuries.

"When you are," Kiba said, with an assessing glance. His gaze lingered on my neck for a second, but the cut had clotted up and was no longer bleeding. He scooped up Akamaru and tucked him into his jacket.

I nodded. "Lead the way, then. The faster we catch up to him the better."

Them in possession of Sasuke was bad, but we were still at an advantage. They were separated. We were a hell of a lot closer to Konoha than to Sound. Kiba and I weren't far behind Kidomaru. We could still turn this to a victory.

Kiba led, jumping back to the spider mess, presumably to get a scent trail before taking off at an angle. I followed easily, trusting Kiba to be able to track our target.

"Well," Kiba said, breaking the silence as we bounced through the trees. "I tell you what… I'm not going to let Shino know I just killed a giant spider."

The unexpectedness of the comment caused me to snort. "Afraid he'll smother you in your sleep?"

"Nah, just make me feel like a horrible, heartless person." He grinned. "It's just as bad as making Hinata upset. And Kurenai-sensei backs them both up." He shook his head.

"Like you've never hit them with the puppy eyes," I bantered back. "You'd think you'd be safe with spiders, though. Arachnids eat insects and all that. Well, most of them."

He shrugged. "I just don't want to risk it." He wasn't really serious about it. It wasn't like it was something we _could_ leave out of the report, and anyway, Shino was ninja enough to understand that an enemy was an enemy, no matter what they looked like. But the joke was… relaxing.

I smirked. "So, what? You pinned it down, and then me and Akamaru hit it with a Fang Over Fang?"

Kiba barked a startled laugh. "Yeah, lets go with that. Can't deny Akamaru the glory, right?"

"Exactly. And no one can be angry at him. It's a win-win situation."

Akamaru barked happily, sticking his head out of Kiba's jacket. He didn't look any worse for wear, and I was glad about that.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay, so, a rundown of abilities. Summons, obviously. You've seen the webs. Super strong, sticky and infused with chakra; they're beyond our ability to break with brute force. He seems to be able to manufacture weapons through a second type of secretion - the gold one - with a preference for projectiles, kunai, arrows, that kind of thing."

"I did wonder…" Kiba said, trailing off. "I mean, anytime you see non-standard equipment it usually means _something._"

"Right. He can also use that one as a form of armour, coating it over his body. I don't know what it would take to damage it, but he shook off a couple of explosions." The kunai it made had _acted_ like kunai, meaning it probably had equivalent strength of metal, otherwise they would have broken or shattered when blocked with real metal. They hadn't.

Kiba frowned. "Akamaru and I have been working on a new move," he said. "It'll tear through pretty much anything but we won't be much good for anything else afterwards. It kinda takes a lot out of us."

I nodded thoughtfully. "Alright. So we have to make sure it works if we use it." I hesitated then added, "I threw pretty much everything at him. I don't know if we really have many options. Given that's he's in possession of Sasuke, I think taking him out is probably the priority. We'll just have to hope that the others have better luck at capturing their targets."

Because if it came down to blowing the mission, and letting him get away with Sasuke, I knew which option I was going to take.

"Works for me," Kiba said, with a nod.

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"I think he's stopped moving," Kiba said, sniffing the air.

I nodded. "Let's be on high alert then. If he's resting, he'll have trapped the area. No doubt about that."

"Good point," Kiba said, shifting Akamaru to sit on his head in a sentry position. "We won't let him get away this time."

"No, we won't," I agreed.

We cut our speed down and edged closer, eyes peeled for traps.

"Tripwires," Kiba said softly.

"Wait." I held up a hand and crouched down to look at it. "They're doubled. But…" I eyed the wires curiously, then stood and scanned the forest. I could see light glinting off several other wires, covering all the easy paths in.

I frowned.

Heavy in the air was the feeling of Kidomaru's chakra. It was too … thin, too dispersed for me to pinpoint exactly, like a haze or mist, but it was there. And knowing that he embued his webs with it led me to the easy conclusion.

"I think he has web traps as well. Web tripwires? I don't think it's thick enough to actually trap us…" I trailed off. "It's much lighter and thinner than the webs he used before. But it is _everywhere._"

"So, what? Like a warning system?" Kiba frowned at the trees, like he could see it.

"Exactly like," I agreed.

"So do we go around, or do we go through?" He cast a glance at me.

I breathed in, thinking swiftly. If we went around, we might get the advantage of surprise. _Might._ Depending on how far in each direction he had trapped, and how good we were at noticing it. If we went through, he'd know we were coming, but we wouldn't lose any time. We'd have to face whatever traps and plans he had for us, though.

"Through," I decided. "Try to avoid the actual traps though."

Kiba grinned, a little fierce and wild. "Now we're talking."

We crept forward, avoiding the traps we could see, and being wary of any surprises. Eventually, Kidomaru came into my range, along with Sasuke. Both were exerting some kind of _drain_ or _pull_ on the chakra around them, which made sense. The curse seal _had_ been based on some kind of bastardised sage mode, after all. They were recuperating.

He'd chosen a good spot for it, too. Kidomaru sat atop the barrel in the middle of a field, far from the shadows of the trees. More than a clearing, it was probably a firebreak, a huge swath of clear ground between sections of the forest to stop the seasonal wildfires from travelling.

"So you've finished with Kyodaigumo already," he said. "That's … faster than I expected." There was an edge of irritation in his voice, but no particularly worry.

"Jerk," Kiba growled, and launched himself out of the trees and across the open ground. By the time he hit the dirt he was already running on four legs, the extra stabilisation and agility of the Inuzuka style taijutsu letting him pivot and dodge the incoming projectiles with increased ease.

And because Kiba was so much like Naruto, I had half expected 'tackle it head on' to be his opening move anyway.

Kidomaru wasn't using his curse seal - not even the first state - which was promising as long as we didn't let it lure us into a false state of security. He was plenty deadly without it.

I sprung left, trying to circle around and hit him from the other side. We had superior numbers and we _had_ to take advantage of it.

It wasn't easy. For every attack I dodged, it seemed like there were another two coming. For every earth wall I created to block, my chakra drained just that little bit more. Every step closer I took, I was forced back again.

_Play the long game,_ I could remember dad advising me. _Use each move as a set up for the next._

The field of battle wasn't a shogi match, wasn't anything _like_ a shogi match in the strictest of terms, but it was still good advice. For a second, I took it all in. Me standing _here,_ Kiba _there_, the barrel with Sasuke, Kidomaru, my half crumbling maze of earth walls. It wasn't shogi but for a second it seemed like connect the dots.

I caught Kiba's eye, little passing between us except '_now'._

On his next pivot his hand reached back, grabbing a handful of smoke bombs and hurling them forward. My shadow lashed out, wall to wall to wall, around and closer and closer.

_Shadow Possession Complete._

"Akamaru!" Kiba shouted. "Dynamic Marking!"

Akamaru howled in response and I heard Kidomaru's cry of disgust. The smoke was starting to clear now, and I could see their outlines once more.

"Alright boy," Kiba said, crouching down. "_Inuzuka style; Human Beast Combination Transformation; Double-Headed Wolf!"_

A huge cloud of chakra smoke gusted out and their chakra merged and combined. It was stronger, _far stronger_, than either of them had been before.

_Synergy,_ I thought. _The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts._

The result wolf was huge, too, maybe twice the height of a man at the shoulders, with wicked looking teeth and claws.

Kidomaru's chakra flared, the black ink of the first level curse seal spilling across his skin. But as I'd expected, it was weaker than it had been before, and even with the additional distance of my shadow, he wasn't able to escape.

"_FANG WOLF FANG!" _They howled, and leapt forward, spinning violently.

Wind blasted at me, gusts created my the spiralling, even before the drill _slammed_ into Kidomaru. It happened too fast for me to disengage and I tumbled across the grass, thrown back brutally with the relayed force acting on him, the jutsu broken from the sheer strength of it.

I rolled, disorientated, pulling my arms and legs in close and tasting dirt.

Then everything went silent. I wobbled up onto an arm and knee, ready to _try_ and fight if our last gambit had failed.

No attacks happened.

I pushed myself up, shaking my head as my ears started ringing and made my way back across the clearing. Kiba and Akamaru had severed the jutsu and were back to themselves, panting on the ground.

Kidomaru…

Kidomaru was in several pieces. There was scattered gold plating around that told me he'd tried to protect himself but it hadn't worked.

"That attack," Kiba said hoarsely. "Is so strong that it creates a vortex that can rip a man apart without even touching them. The spin is so fast we can't see while we're doing it."

"Good work," I said, eventually. "Are you okay to move? We need to-"

"-head back, yeah, I know," he said. "Give me a few minutes?" He looked wiped out, and his chakra was barely there at all. He hadn't been kidding when he'd said it took a lot out of them.

I nodded and went over to Sasuke's barrel to right it. It had been knocked over by the attack, just the same as I had, but seemed to be unharmed.

Then I straightened apprehensively and stared at the horizon.

"Kiba?" I said, and tried not to let fear tinge my voice. "We need to move. _Now."_

Because there was someone incoming, and fast.

And they were coming from the wrong direction to be _our_ backup.


	62. Chapter 61

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: So, as an aside… does anyone else think that Kabuto poisoned Kimimaro? Just something about his smug, smirky air during those episodes made it seem like he was gloating. Granted, there's no particular _reason_ that it would benefit him to take Kimimaro out of the picture, but Kabuto is hard to understand.

Anemos - Shikako at this stage is only capable of the general illusionary clone, which in my head canon at least, requires immediate direction and isn't capable of doing much, anyway. So leaving a clone wouldn't have been helpful. Kidomaru's summon was the giant spider that they fought, which he used to distract Kiba before grabbing the barrel. He couldn't actually summon the barrel, sorry if it seemed that way.

Nemesis Jedi - yes, Kiba's attack should have been seen again. It was awesome. Although, I'm not sure I remember him ever having another _fight scene_ so…

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Chapter 61

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_Hold your head up high - for there is no greater love_

_Think of the faces of the people you defend_

_And promise me, they will never see the tears within our eyes_

_Although we are men, with mortal sins, angels never cry ~ Winterbourne; Cruxshadows._

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I grabbed Sasuke's barrel, hefting it awkwardly in my arms and turning to run, even as I doubted that I would get away. They were already so close.

But standing our ground wasn't any better of an option. Not with Kiba out of chakra, and myself close behind. Defeating Kidomaru hadn't left us in a very good situation for having to fight again.

I hadn't even made it to the tree line when something heavy landed atop the barrel, forcing it to the ground and barely missing my exposed toes. I froze.

For a split second, everything was still.

I stared into green, green eyes, narrowed with the faintest hint of interest; could feel warm air puffing on my face as we breathed; could smell blood and disinfectant, the sharp, impersonal tang of a hospital; could feel his chakra, hard and dense, yet strangely stripped bare, like bones exposed to the elements.

Then I dove to the side, ducking and rolling as his hand whistled sharply through the place where my head had been, and time resumed.

_Kimimaro._

Kimimaro. Last of the Kaguya Clan. Wielder of the Shikotsumyaku - the Dead Bone Pulse Bloodline limit - that let him manipulate his own skeleton. Who was capable of fighting Gaara and Lee to a standstill.

_We are in trouble._

"Who the hell are you?" Kiba barked, struggling to his feet.

Kimimaro ignored him, eyes flickering over the clearing until they landed on Kidomaru. "How pathetic," he observed, voice detached and almost clinical. "To have died without completing his duty."

"No compassion for the death of a comrade?" I asked, cynically. I needed to stall, bargaining on the hope that the others would finish with their opponents soon. There were three other teams, if even _one_ of them had finished fighting and was in any condition to continue then they'd come after us.

His eyes came back to me, and there was something in them that was heavy and intense. "His only worth was that which he could give to Orochimaru-sama. To have failed in that purpose erases any value he may have had."

He really, truly meant it, I realised, with the absolute certainty of conviction that you would use to say 'the grass is green' or 'the sky is blue'. This thing is so. It wasn't fervour, he wasn't even trying to convince me… it just _was._

Typical of Orochimaru, to have claimed their absolute loyalty for himself and left them nothing for each other. It was also worrisome. If all their 'worth' was tied up in completing the mission… if failure was worse than death…

_Well, I already knew he wasn't going to give up or back down._

"That must be lonely," I remarked, instead of questioning whether it was worth it. I was trying to stall, not antagonise him.

_Something_ flickered across his face, too fast to understand.

"It is irrelevant," he said. "The only thing that matters now is for me to return Orochimaru-sama's favoured vessel to him."

"Like we're just going to _let_ you do that," Kiba scoffed, voice low and almost growling.

The look Kimimaro gave him, slow and disinterested, was the epitome of 'and just what do you think you could do to stop me?'

The answer was somewhere along the lines of 'not a lot'. Heck, even if we'd been at full strength - which we most definitely were not - the odds would have been against us.

"This is the body that Orochimaru-sama desires as his vessel. I will bring it to him. That is my purpose," he explained.

"This body, the vessel," Kiba spat. "You talk like he isn't even a person. Sasuke is our comrade, and I _won't let you take him._"

He dragged up the last, straggling remains of his chakra and crouched down, teeth and nails lengthening. "Beast Mimicry; Four Legs Jutsu!"

My shadow, which had been pooling innocuously on the ground, and sneaking up the sides of the barrel, lashed out, trying to cover the distance to Kimimaro. I gritted my teeth at the sudden strain, aware of how low my own chakra was falling.

Kimimaro _moved,_ swift, agile and effortless. One foot caught the edge of the barrel as he leapt, pressing back and down, ripping it from my shadowy grip and forcing the whole thing into the air. He landed, gracefully, on the grass, one hand grabbing Kiba's outstretched arm as he lunged, sliding around the attack like water around a stone and pulling Kiba off balance and open. My eyes caught the barest glimpse of something sharp and white in the end of his long sleeve before Kimimaro buried a bone dagger in his gut.

Then he turned, finishing his rotation, and caught Sasuke's barrel as it started to descend, tucking it under one arm.

All of it in a second, maybe less.

"Kiba!" I shouted, eyes wide as he collapsed onto the ground, on hand tight around his abdomen. Akamaru _howled._

I wanted to check on him. Depending on where he got hit, how deep and how hard… that was all the difference between a minor wound and a fatal blow.

Except Kimimaro had Sasuke.

_Who do you chose?_

If Kimimaro was fast enough to get here, fast enough to do that… if he got away with Sasuke we'd never catch him. If he got away, it'd all be for nothing.

_Sorry, Kiba,_ I thought apologetically.

Given Kimimaro's show of prowess at close combat fighting, the tactical thing would have been to withdraw and keep to mid or long range combat and hope to find a weakness there. Mid range combat was the speciality of the Shadow Possession jutsu, after all. The trouble with that, though, was that my chakra was running too low to hold someone in Possession for very long - _if_ I could catch him - and if Kidomaru could break my hold with it, then there was no doubt that Kimimaro could do the same.

Given the flat ground, lack of shadows and lack of cover… the numerous directions which Kimimaro could take to leave… our _objectives_… He could evade any traps I tried to set ahead of him. I doubted I had the energy for a pursuit either, if he managed to slip past me. I had to actually be able to engage, delay or stop him.

_Focus,_ I thought. _Focus. There is a way to do this. There is _always_ a way._

It was just that, right now, when I was low on chakra with my team mate injured, with no indication when or _if_ there was ever going to be backup, that seemed like a meaningless platitude.

I felt very small and alone.

"Trash like you cannot hope to stand in the way of Orochimaru-sama's desires," Kimimaro said blandly.

"I really don't care what Orochimaru desires," I said. "Sasuke is my friend, and Orochimaru wants to destroy him in a very fundamental way. So I can't let that happen."

Saying it… putting it in to words like that… made it real. Made it true. I _couldn't_ let that happen. Not because it would bring about a bad future, or because it would strengthen Orochimaru or weaken Konoha, not because of any ideal of 'the mission' or 'comrades', but because it was _Sasuke._ He was my friend, my team mate and we'd spent the past few months living, working, _trusting_ together.

I _couldn't._

It didn't magically give me the solution to defeat him, but it gave me resolve.

I sprung forward, without tensing to telegraph my moves, curving low towards the side that held the barrel where he'd have less sight and mobility. There was only a slim possibility that he _wasn't_ expecting it, because it was such an _obvious_ attack path.

He leapt over my sweeping leg kick, coming down as I spun upwards, leading with a back fist that he caught easily with a forearm block. My arm juddered against his, and I knew in a contest of strength that I would lose. There was no give to him, not at all.

That was alright. I didn't need to make it a contest of strength.

I twisted my arm around, palm coming to lay flat on his forearm, fingers curling into the curve of the muscle there.

"Touch Blast," I breathed. I had to set it properly; I'd only get one shot at this.

His chakra system nearly disrupted the seal even as I was setting it, but I forced it down, overriding it with gritted teeth. His eyes widened, just slightly, and I felt his chakra spike even as I felt the flesh beneath my hands ripple. I tried to pull back the second the seal was set, but I was too slow to get completely clear. Bones burst from his arm, curving slightly upwards towards his hand. The first went straight through my palm, grating along my metacarpals and puncturing the protective plate sewn on to the back of my gloves. The second dug into the soft flesh of my underarm, and I felt the wet slide of blood start immediately.

The pain was a thundering roar of terror and adrenaline. My arm burnt hot, hot, _hot_, making the rest of me feel cold and dark.

Then he ripped his arm away.

I _shrieked._

His foot hammered into my ribs, a solid blow that was thankfully lacking in spikes, sending me tumbling backwards across the grass. I rolled with the movement, knowing I had to get away, had to get distance.

Then the seal went up.

The explosion kicked up a lot of smoke and dust, but I didn't dare take my eyes off the spot where Kimimaro was. I felt another chakra signature brush my senses, clear and bright like glass or crystal - a Hyuuga? God, I hoped Neji had finished with his fight - but I couldn't spare the attention to track it. I needed everything, right here, right now.

The dust settled, and I despaired.

Kimimaro glanced down at his arm with detachment, flexing his hand, looking at the bone plating over his forearm where skin _should_ have been, slick with blood, and at the dish shaped growth out of his upper arm that had caught and redirected most of the explosions effects. His shirt had been shredded, and there were burns littered across his chest and legs, but he barely appeared to notice them.

_How vexing._

"This bone is as hard as tempered steel," he said. "And I can form and reform it at will. Your attacks are quite useless."

I'd set the seal _on_ him. No way to evade it, or escape the effects, and it had _still_ barely damaged him. Even if - and that was a big if - I managed to get him again, what good would it do?

I struggled onto my knees, hand clamped on top of my bleeding wrist, aware that it shouldn't have taken so much effort to get upright.

_Blood loss?_ I hoped not. If it was hitting me so fast, then he had _definitely_ sliced something important. I swallowed a sharp bite of fear at the thought. _Could just be chakra exhaustion. Pain. Concussion. You've been thrown around a lot. _

Not that it would matter if I didn't do something _now._ No point worrying about what my injuries would do if I didn't survive the fight.

"Akamaru," a hoarse voice ordered. "Tunnelling Fang!"

I whipped my head around to see Kiba, half propped up and grimacing with pain. Akamaru was growing, bigger and redder, the same way he had during the preliminaries after eating a soldier pill.

I felt a surge of hope as he snarled and leapt forward, spinning into the attack and charging at Kimimaro.

Who slapped him out of the air.

My breath froze in my lungs and that surge of hope died, like a fluttering candle in the wind.

Akamaru tumbled across the ground, regaining his feet and snarling angrily. He darted forwards, low and agile, teeth bared.

I couldn't make a hand seal, but that didn't mean I couldn't do _anything._ I focused chakra into my shadow, forehead crinkling with the extra effort that it took, and sent it forward. Maybe if he was distracted I could catch him…

It stretched, and stretched…

Then slowly, agonisingly, no matter how much I tried to force it forward, it returned to me.

_Out of chakra._

_Out. Of. Chakra._

"You are… annoyingly persistent," Kimimaro said, knocking Akamaru back _again_. He held up his ruined hand, fingers splayed wide. "Five-Finger Drilling Bullets."

The small bones from the tips of his fingers - phalanges, a distant part of my mind noted - shot out, rotating like drills. Although they were small, I had no doubt that they could do a whole lot of damage, given they way that a stationary attack had ripped up my arm.

I dropped to the ground, awkwardly trying to roll even as I realised that the others wouldn't be able to.

But they never hit. Someone leapt, full speed, from the trees and dropped down into the grass, striking the bones out of the air with lightning fast Gentle Fist.

The chakra that I had noticed before but not really registered.

_We have backup!_

"I won't let you hurt my friends," a quiet voice said, sounding surprisingly firm.

"Hinata?" Kiba choked out. "What are you doing here?"

I stalled, torn between relief and horror. _Hinata?_

She didn't glance at him, though with a Hyuuga that was redundant. I didn't doubt she had her Byakugan active. She was standing tall and straight, arms held out ready in a classic Jyuuken pose, chin high and eyes _blazing._

"When I heard that your mission had gone badly," Hinata said softly. "I knew I had to come."

"You're going to get hurt!" Kiba objected, sounding anguished. "Hinata..."

She only lifted her head higher, and for a second she looked almost regal. "I, too, want to protect those people that are precious to me. My friends and comrades… I can't just stand back and watch!"

_The Will of Fire…_

She was shining with it. The utter, burning determination to never give up. The heat that forged the steel of our backbone, the light that blazed from our eyes. It was the motivation that drove you that extra mile, extra ten miles, hundred miles _when it mattered._ When everything was on the line, your family behind you, an army in front of you and you just planted your feet and refused to move-

That was the Will of Fire.

We talked about it like it was spiritual, like it was religious, like it was something magical and special - that was probably why it got discounted so much by the other nations - but it wasn't, not really.

Well. We _believed_ in it. That was important, in its own way.

In the simplest of terms… it was a chakra focusing technique.

Chakra is a mix of physical and mental energies. Therefore, something that focuses mental energy, that hones _every ounce_ of will power, every thought, every whisper of an idea, on that one. single. target…

The result is like a wildfire where once burned a candle.

It's the reason that Naruto becomes so strong when the situation is dire. He refuses to give up and his scattered attention span comes together and _obliterates_ everything in its path.

And it looked like Hinata had found it too.

Kimimaro sighed, just softly, and put down the barrel. "To think I would have to use this," he said, holding his hand over his exposed shoulder. The skin split apart, and the bone protruded higher and higher until he could grasp it. "The Dance of the Camellia…"

He pulled, the bone sliding free of his flesh. The end was sharpened to an ominous point. Then he moved, dashing across the space between them to slash and stab, hand blurring with the speed.

And Hinata blocked it. Her face was set in concentration, but she blocked it, hands flashing out unerringly. They traded blows back and forth, bone sword to the blue flash of chakra billowing from her hands.

_Hinata…_ I thought wonderingly. But it would only take one mistake, and she wouldn't be able to keep this up forever. Already she was cutting it close, avoiding one swipe with an almost painful looking twist and not being quite fast enough to dodge the follow up that scored a painful looking stripe across her arm.

_Help. I need to help her._

I pressed my bleeding arm against my stomach, trying to keep the pressure on it and free up my other hand at the same time. Even if I couldn't fight, I could still _help._ I wasn't just going to sit by and do nothing. I pulled my kunai pouch off, settling it in front of me and opening the top. My eyes immediately zeroed in on an item I didn't use much, but were helpful enough that I still kept a few.

_Smoke bombs._

With her Byakugan on, they wouldn't inhibit Hinata at all, but they _might_ give her a bit of an edge. I only had two, and they were short lasting, especially when there was wind but …

_Better than nothing,_ I thought, pitching one forward as Hinata deflected, dodged and twisted around another barrage of attacks. The thick dark smoke billowed and obscured them from view.

"Eight Trigrams; Thirty Two Palms." Hinata's voice carried a surety that would have surprised a lot of people. I could feel Kimimaro's chakra moving, likely trying to escape the smoke and regain sight.

I readied the second smoke bomb, but before I could throw it a second one went off. I glanced over at Kiba and met his eyes for a brief second. He was pale and grimacing, but his aim had been good.

I managed to throw my last smoke bomb and a few explosive tags around the edges before Kimimaro decided to change tactics. He leapt clear of the smoke, gaining his distance and splayed his hands again.

"Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets!"

Hinata's chakra was - either by coincidence or design - between him and Kiba. But I was on my own.

_Shit, _I thought numbly.

Then a strong arm wrapped around my waist and hauled me out of the way. I couldn't stop the startled, and a little pained, squeak that escaped my mouth, but as the bullets impacted the ground and kicked up dust I was too relieved to have been pulled out of the way.

I glanced up at the familiar, green suited form of my rescuer. "Lee. That was _excellent_ timing." I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed him, had he been moving fast, or had I just not been paying attention?

He beamed, dropping me reasonably gently onto the ground beside Kiba, before unloading the passenger slung over his other shoulder. Bound and unconscious, it was Tayuya.

I very carefully didn't ask where Shikamaru and Chouji were.

"Do not worry! I shall assist Hinata in dealing with this threat and then we shall return to Konoha with Sasuke. That is a promise!" He beamed again and gave me a thumbs up, before dashing off.

I glanced at Tayuya again, checking her bindings and making sure she wouldn't be able to get up and fight. That would be the last thing we needed. Then, keeping half my attention on the fight, I struggled a roll of bandages out of my jacket and started binding my arm. It was clotting and scabbing, which was a good sign, but still bleeding, which wasn't.

Then I gave what assistance I could to Kiba. Underneath his jacket he's been wearing a protective chest plate, which had minimised _some_ of the damage but not all. The dagger hadn't been removed, and I didn't touch it because it was probably helping stop the bleeding by blocking the wound. I just pressed bandages and cloth around it and tried to press it down.

"Ah, jeeze, that hurts," Kiba groaned.

"Sorry." I grimaced and tried for a scolding tone, "but you're supposed to keep the blood on the _inside._"

He snorted. "Looks like you failed that class too."

"Remedial lessons for the both of us," I agreed. "Think Iruka-sensei would notice if we popped back into his class?" Given how much trouble Iruka-sensei had had getting Kiba to show up to class when he was _meant_ to, we'd probably give him a heart attack.

Kiba huffed, then groaned again. "Don't make me laugh."

"Sorry," I murmured again, eyes drifting over to the fight. Neither of them were injured, not like we were, and yet…

They still didn't seem to be gaining any headway.

"Think they can…?" Kiba half asked.

I bit my lip, eyes dropping down to Tayuya's form. What could I say? _No, I don't think so. Maybe they can buy us time for… _for what, exactly? Where were Shikamaru and Chouji? Where were Naruto and Neji? Had Tsunade sent Lee and Hinata instead of the Sand Siblings? How had they even been there? Would she send anyone else?

We'd had a big team. Maybe she wouldn't.

"Yeah," Kiba said when I didn't answer. "He hasn't even used his seal."

Lee and Hinata were fighting well together. It was clear that Lee had experience fighting beside a Jyuuken user, and Hinata was well trained in looking out for her team mates. But that didn't change the fact that he was supposed to be in hospital and was recovering from a career ending injury.

"Protection of the Eight Trigrams; Sixty Four Palms," Hinata incanted, moving her hand in a sweeping arc through the air. A ribbon of pale blue chakra trailed from her hand, and she moved faster and faster, _weaving_ a net like dome around herself. Kimimaro's attack hit it, the bones not just being repelled but appearing to get _shredded_ by it.

"Huh," I managed.

"I have never seen that before," Kiba replied in response to my unasked question.

It was … impressive. An ultimate defence like the Kaiten that _didn't_ require being able to expel chakra from every tenketsu, nor being able to control it after. Just your hands, and flexibility.

On the other side of the fight, behind them, I noticed that Sasuke's barrel had started giving off dark chakra, almost like it was smoking.

My eyes narrowed.

"Your style is too direct, too obvious," Kimimaro lectured, throwing Lee back as his initiating kick to the Primary Lotus was blocked by bones extending out of his ribcage. "It leaves… too… many… openings!" He punctuated each word with a strike, leaving Lee dazed and bloody. "And you," he turned to Hinata, dancing around her lashing hand so smoothly it looked effortless. Chakra expelled harmlessly into the air, punctuating the fight with booms and flashes. "Too defensive. Too hesitant. Every opening you refuse to take is a mistake. Are you so afraid of being hurt that you will not attack?"

"I'm not afraid," Hinata said quietly, lifting her hands back into an attacking position.

There was a flicker of chakra - red as fire, red as anger - but despite the fact that it made my heart skip a beat, it also made me grin with relief. "You tell him, Hinata," Naruto said, landing in a crouch that was a little too stooped to be completely human. Red chakra was burning around him, not yet forming a tail or cloak, but enough to be visible. If you looked closely, the lines on his face were deep marks, and his teeth and nails more like fangs and claws.

"Another one?" Kimimaro asked, his blank mask of disdain creasing with irritation for a second. "There sure is a lot of trash around here."

"The only trash here is you!" Naruto retorted, the edge of a snarl in his voice. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

"Multiplying zero still makes zero," Kimimaro said, glancing at the horde of clones.

"We're taking Sasuke back," Naruto growled, the statement coming from more than one throat.

"Do try," Kimimaro said.

Two of the Naruto's darted forward, coming at Kimimaro with a pincer attack. A few more echoed them, waiting for an opening caused by the first. The rest paired off and began forming Rasengan between them.

I couldn't tell which Naruto was the real one, and there were too many people moving about, orange and yellow and red and Hinata was sliding through the bodies to attack and retreat and Lee was on his feet again -

- and one of the clones, inches from being stabbed, instead of ducking and dodging, used an almost seamless Replacement Jutsu with one of the Rasengan holding clones -

- and Kimimaro _twisted_ changing directions on a dime, letting it sail harmlessly over his shoulder -

- and in the instant the others tried to take advantage of his movement, spikes as long as spears shot out from his sides and he _spun_ -

Hinata's hand flashed through the air, forming a protective cage of chakra around her, Lee threw himself backwards, evading the circle of death, and Naruto snarled, tumbling backwards with clones shredding where they stood.

"His taijutsu," Lee murmured. "There's not a single movement wasted…"

Kimimaro didn't pause, sliding so smoothly across the ground that it barely seemed like he was touching it, spike protruding from the palm of his hand and aimed directly for Naruto's heart -

"Summoning Jutsu: Gamatoutou!" Naruto howled, slamming his hands down on the ground.

The explosion of chakra smoke cleared to reveal a toad, as tall as a man, dressed in a samurai style cuirass and pauldrons, with two swords crossed defensively in front of it, Kimimaro's attack caught in block.

Gamatoutou's mouth opened and his tongue shot out lightning fast, trying to wrap around Kimimaro. The Sound ninja dodged backwards, slicing at the thick and slimy appendage. Naruto crouched atop the toads head, glowering downwards and bleeding red chakra into the air.

And then, with a final surge of black chakra, the coffin holding Sasuke fell apart.

The fighting paused, everyone turning to stare at Sasuke, standing with his head bowed amidst the wreckage of the barrel, his limbs trembling and shaking.

"Sasuke Uchiha," Kimimaro said. "Orochimaru-sama awaits you. Go; I will fight this trash."

Sasuke flexed his hands, then peered up through his bangs. "The thing is…" he said, voice a little raspy. "I never intended on going to Orochimaru."

Kimimaro's face cooled. "I see," he said. "My purpose becomes clear. If I cannot be the vessel he requires, then I must deliver you to him, regardless of your cooperation. My lord's magnificent dream must not be denied!"

His chakra surged, ink spreading out from the mark in the hollow of his collar bone, ascending straight into the second level, morphing his body into something demonic looking.

"Oh, shit," Kiba muttered, as Akamaru whimpered. "This is going to be bad."

"First; you," Kimimaro said, staring at Naruto. He reached up with one hand to the back of his neck and _pulled_, the bones of his spine sliding out. His other arm grew bones thick around it, forming a twisting cone, like a drill or a spear. "The Dance of the Clematis; Flower and Vine."

Naruto bared his teeth in a snarl, shifting his stance in preparation to attack -

- Kimimaro lashed out with the spine, the vertebra sliding against each other, sections between them stretching, and the motion resembled a whip more than a sword. It wrapped around Naruto, binding his arms to his side -

- he growled, red chakra surging higher -

- and Kimimaro _pulled_ yanking him forwards, off of his toad, across the ground, and straight into the lance of his other arm.

"_NARUTO_!"

Our voices mingled in combined horror as we shouted, all drowned out by Naruto's scream of anguish, so full of pain it barely even sounded human any more.

_No, no, no,_ I chanted in my mind. _It's not- It can't - Naruto!_

I was frozen. I couldn't move. I couldn't -

It couldn't-

Kimimaro flicked the whip away, unbinding Naruto and letting him slide backwards with a wet cough -

- Gamatoutou leapt forward, coming to a defence that was far too late -

- Hinata pushed off the ground, flying forward, eyes wide with horror -

- and Sasuke _screamed_, bursting forward, lightning crackling in his hand, ink bleeding across his skin and Sharingan eyes spinning so fast I couldn't even see the tomoe any longer -

- I was on my feet, helplessly straining for _something_ to do, help _someone, please -_

- the Chidori impacted, flaring eye searingly bright -

- and Sasuke tumbled across the ground.

"You're strong," Kimimaro said. "Good. I would hate for Orochimaru-sama's next vessel to be weak."

"I will _kill you,"_ Sasuke screamed. The transformation had taken hold, darkening his skin and blacking his eyes. There was a blue star spreading across the bridge of his nose and his lips were bruised dark purple. He looked _furious._ He hurled himself forward again, spitting a great tongue of fire ahead of him -

- Kimimaro wove and dodged -

- then there was a great, earth shaking _roar,_ and red, redred_red _chakra blossomed, so thick it was tangible, was solid, was heavy like gravity -

_- and Naruto stood up._

"You're really," he rasped. "Pissing me off!" His chakra folded in, wrapping around him like a shroud as he crouched on all fours, looking more feral than Kiba ever managed. It shaped around him, body first, then dragging out into a tail_, _then claws and ears…

I collapsed down to my knees, relief and terror warring within me. _He's okay, he's okay, he'sokay…_

"Took you long enough, dead last," Sasuke said unevenly.

"I was… just letting you have a turn," Naruto growled. "Because now, it's going to be _over._"

The two of them attacked together, almost seamlessly despite these new levels of power, as if they'd been doing it every day of their lives. And… it was working.

Kimimaro retreated, and retreated, and retreated.

"This is the last attack," he said, flipping away from them and crouching down. "Dance of the Seedling Fern!"

His chakra rippled, sinking into the ground, then spreading out.

My eyes widened. "Everyone move! Get off the ground!"

I spun, hauling Kiba to his feet despite his groan of pain. But he must have believed the urgency, because he clapped his hand around his stomach and moved. Behind us, Gamatoutou swept Lee and Hinata up into his hands and jumped, powerful toad legs sending him soaring high.

The ground surged, and we had the barest of warnings as it cracked open, leaping up as bone spikes started protruding outwards.

_We're not going to make the trees,_ I realised. We were too far, hadn't - _couldn't have- _jumped hard enough. We were going to come down on the spikes and be shredded.

_Earth Jutsu?_ I wondered frantically, trying to dredge up enough chakra to make us a safe landing point. But if I'd had chakra, I would have been fighting.

And then we landed on sand, hitting awkwardly and rolling.

_Sand?_ I thought bemused, turning to look at the tree line.

"Everyone is making such dramatic entrances today," I said, dropping my head back down onto the sand.

A black suited form landed on the sand beside us. "These two don't look good, Gaara," Kankurou called out.

"You wish you looked as good as me," Kiba grumbled back. "You guys nearly missed the party, you know."

Two others drifted closer, hovering above the deadly spikes on clouds of sand. "I don't know, I'd say we showed up just in time," Temari said, fan held open and ready.

I turned back to the fight. Naruto was holding himself above the spikes, huge red claws and tail extending downwards and holding himself safely in the air. Sasuke was… Sasuke was _flying._ Huge, hand shaped wings extended from his back, beating slowly and letting him hover. It looked awkward though, and I wondered how much mobility he had.

Sand surged across the ground, filling the cracks between the spikes, homing in on Kimimaro -

- high in the sky, Sasuke created another Chidori and began to dive -

- Naruto reached out one giant red chakra claw and grabbed a spike, using it to slingshot himself forward across the ground, a Rasengan blooming in his hand -

- Kimimaro froze, trapped in the sand, extending the spikes around him to form a protective cage of bone -

- and Naruto and Sasuke punched right through it, from opposite directions, attacking with eerie synchronism and crushing Kimimaro between them. Chakra flared, bright and powerful, waves of backlash emanating away from the point of the conflict.

I blinked, white spots dancing painfully in front of my eyes from the sheer intensity of it.

"Fucking crazy," Kiba breathed.

I couldn't help but agree.

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><p>.<p>

On Kimimaro's power level - in canon, he defeated hundreds of Kyuubi enhanced shadow clones, and held off Gaara and Lee, tanking at least a sand coffin/burial and being buried however far underground. We know that he can fight all the other Sound Four at once, and that, given the Sasuke vs. Naruto fight, the Level 2 is equivalent to a one tailed state. Yeah, just think about it for a second. If he wasn't dying from a mysterious illness they'd all have been screwed.

I think Kimimaro was far more interested in allowing Sasuke to get to Sound than in actually fighting. That was his goal, and he knew he had limited time/strength, so as canon Sasuke was heading there himself, he merely drew out the pursuers as long as he could.

Blah, fight scene done.


	63. Chapter 62

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: So according to the counter on this, it's been a year since I started writing. Wow. Back when I started writing this I hardly thought it would get this long, or hold my attention for a full year. I didn't think it would get much beyond ten chapters and now look at it. XD DOS started as an attempt at a 'realistic' Self Insert, like Cage of Blood and Circumstance and Only a Moron, and to world build and expand within the bounds of canon and explain the how's and why's that things happened the way they did. It was never really intended as a 'butterfly effect' fic, and indeed a few people have complained that nothing seems to change. Still, it's grown.

Anemos - Given that we see different ninja using varying amounts of hand seals for the same technique - from many to few to none - I've always seen the hand seals as a focusing technique more than a absolute requisite. Haku probably mastered the skill of thinking a 'half' seal as the same as the 'full' one, allowing him to use two hands separately, but not the same 'mastery' that let him use a jutsu without seals.

Just Some Random - I think the little things matter a lot. Most Naruto fanfic focus on the battle part - getting strong enough/tricky enough to win - which is fair enough, but there's also the point that they're people who are _living_ this fulltime and have to gain enough life experience to make good decisions as they go, which for most teams is probably more important than learning jutsu at genin level. Desperate is probably a good word for it, actually. There's a difference between 'I need to get stronger' and 'three years till Pein'…

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 62

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><p>.<p>

_Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. ~Dale Carnegie_

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><p>.<p>

The crash of silence after the fighting stopped was in some ways worse than the fighting itself. Everything was poised with stillness; a brief moment stretched out longer and longer as no one moved.

I could hear the beat of my pulse, loud in my ears but fast and thready; could hear the dry catch of my throat as I swallowed. I could still see afterimages, flickers of light imprinted on my eyes by the flaring of the chidori, making everything left seem somehow darker.

"Gaara," Naruto said tersely, "what are you doing here?" It was probably only the Kyuubi chakra that made his voice edge into a threatening snarl, but then again, the last time we had seen the Sand trio we had been enemies. He had landed on the sand, but was crouched and wary, ready to get free if it proved to be a trap.

"Your Hokage sent us," Temari answered quickly, eyeing him almost uneasily. She was probably remembering how much destruction an angry or out of control Jinchuriki could cause. "She thought you could use some backup. We were bringing a message to Leaf from the Council of Elders when we were asked to take this mission to assist you."

"Oh," Naruto said, releasing his hold on the Kyuubi's chakra. The red chakra cloak faded away, and the physical changes went away with it.

Then he tipped over and faceplanted in the sand.

I spasmed reflexively, sitting up, wanting to check up on him, to help him but not being close enough to actually do anything.

Sasuke touched down gently beside him, his own enhancements fading away, and rolled him over. "Chakra exhaustion, I think," he said, frowning. Gingerly, he touched the front of Naruto's jacket, where it was ripped and bloody.

"Moron. Giving everyone a heart attack like that," Kiba groused beside me. He shifted about, trying to find a position that hurt the least. Akamaru whimpered as he was jostled, curling himself into a tiny ball.

I glanced at Kiba, taking note of how pale and clammy his skin was. "Yeah, well, you know Naruto," I said lightly to hide my worry. The fight might have been over, but that didn't mean things were totally okay.

The sand platforms drifted gently towards the tree line, taking us towards Lee and Hinata. Naruto's toad summon seemed to have vanished, either because he was unconscious or having run out of chakra.

"Kiba needs to get back to Konoha ASAP," I said bluntly, as soon as we were in comfortable speaking distance.

"Don't give me that," Kiba scoffed. "You're injured too. I saw your arm."

"It's not so bad," I said. Kiba really, _really_ needed medical attention. "I'll last till we get back."

"How about you let me be the judge of that?" Kankurou asked, crouching down and taking my wrist with a grip that was surprisingly gentle but firm enough to stop the reflexive jerk away I made as he prodded my hand. The bandages on my forearm were wet but not completely soaked through. He frowned as he moved a hand up to my neck to take my pulse but nodded reluctantly. "Alright, I'll give you this one. We'll move faster with just one anyway."

I recognized the concession for what it was; a delicate balancing act of probabilities, trying to get the best possible outcome for the greatest number of people. He could take both of us; but that would mean travelling slower and reducing the chances of reaching medical attention in time for Kiba. Two of them could go, but that would leave only one with the main group which would put them in danger if there were any further attacks.

"You take Inuzuka back," Temari suggested. "Gaara and I will stay with the rest of them."

Kankurou's gaze flickered to Gaara, but he didn't object or make any other suggestions. "Sounds like a plan," he agreed, hopping down onto the bone free ground. He hauled one of Kiba's arms over his shoulder and pulled him up, taking most of the Inuzuka's weight. "Come on, you'll be home free in no time."

He leapt away in a blur of speed, heading on a direct path back to Konoha.

"We are most fortunate you arrived when you did," Lee said carefully. I could practically feel the awkward tension in the air but at least he didn't appear to be upset or aggressive. Considering Gaara had nearly ended his ninja career, Lee had a huge capacity for forgiveness.

"It was our mission," Temari said, shrugging awkwardly and closing her fan. "Speaking of which, what do you want done with her?" she gestured at the red haired girl wrapped up in Gaara's sand. Even if she woke, she wasn't getting far.

_Tayuya._ I'd nearly forgotten about her. It was lucky she hadn't ended up impaled on the spikes.

Lee glanced at me and I blinked, realizing that with Kiba gone and Naruto out of it, only Sasuke and I were part of the original mission, and he'd just undergone an unknown and possibly mind-altering procedure. _Right. Up to me, then._

"We have to take her back with us," I said. "Capturing them was the whole point of the mission." I hesitated, then decided to push my luck. "Can you seal bodies away?"

They weren't part of our mission, and I couldn't really _make _them do it. It depended on how helpful they wanted to be.

"Yes," Gaara said flatly, the first time he'd spoken.

Temari looked a little surprised at his intercession, but nodded. "You want to take him as well?" she asked, nodding at Kimimaro.

I nodded. "There should be a second corpse close by as well. And… remnants of a wooden barrel, if any survived. They have seals on them which might be important."

Temari nodded dubiously, glancing at the field. "We'll try," was all she said, stepping out onto the sand cloud that had formed once again beside Gaara.

I nodded in acceptance, and turned back to the others. "Hinata."

"Naruto is fine," she said softly, deactivating her Byakugan that she'd been using to stare intensely at him. "I mean, as far as I can tell."

"That's good," I said, a little bit more worry being chased away. "Are you injured?"

She shook her head mutely.

"Unless one of the others managed to find her, Ino is still out there alone," I explained. "She was knocked out and I had to leave her behind." I gave as accurate directions as I could to where she had been left. Now that the adrenaline focused clarity of battle was fading, things were becoming muddled. Had we gone north or north east? How far? How much had I doubled back?

"I will find her," Hinata said reassuringly, looking quietly determined. She was a good choice for this, with her Byakugan and tracking skills, she'd be able to locate Ino even without completely accurate directions.

"Watch out for the traps," I cautioned as she jumped away. Then I sighed wearily, feeling all the aches and pains accumulated over the mission all at once. Exhaustion settled heavily on my limbs, making my hands fumble as I pulled a pill out of one of the inside pockets of my jacket. However tempting it would have been to take a soldier pill, they reacted badly with injuries, aggravating them horribly, which limited their practical usage quite a lot. This was a Blood Replenishing Pill - containing erythropoietin to stimulate red blood cell formation, large proteins and starches to help regulate blood pressure and artificial oxygen carrying compounds, they were a 'quick fix' pill for shinobi who were injured on missions. However, they didn't solve all the problems, and were more of a stopgap measure than a cure. Then I wiggled my canteen free and dumped a sachet of re-hydrating powder in it, with glucose and sodium for quick uptake and energy, it made a decent fluid replacement.

_We'll be alright,_ I thought, taking a second to let it sink in. _We'll be alright now._

The mission had gone from bad to worse to insane, knocking us around at every opportunity, but… we'd made it through.

"Lee?" I asked softly. "When you got Tayuya… Shikamaru and Chouji…"

He seemed to understand what I was asking. "Your brother was uninjured. Chouji required medical attention, however, and Shikamaru was having trouble carrying both people. Rather than leave the prisoner unguarded, I volunteered to take her and assist you."

I slumped a little with relief. It wasn't _good_ that Chouji was hurt, but it could have been so much worse. I had been half-dreading the truth ever since Lee had shown up with her.

_They're both alive. Mobile enough to return to Konoha. _Anything else… well, we had to get back to Konoha too. Anything else would be dealt with then.

My attention was dragged back into the present as Temari dropped back down onto the ground, Gaara hovering silently and stoically behind her.

"We got what we could," she said, tucking a scroll away with brisk efficiency. She didn't look at all bothered by what had to have been an unpleasant job. Kidomaru hadn't been in one piece after Kiba hit him, let alone adding in the damage that Kimimaro's spikes would have done. "There wasn't much that could be retrieved, though."

"Anything is good," I said. "If they're really bothered they can send someone out to scrape the rest off the ground." Hopefully not us, though. I'd had enough of this place.

Temari smirked. "Right. Let's go, then."

I staggered to my feet, fighting to keep my face neutral as my _everything_ protested the movement. I doubted it escaped anyone's attention, but considering that Lee and Sasuke were equally battered and bedraggled, they had no room to comment on it.

We set a slow limping pace as we headed back, mostly silent. I knew I should have tried to talk to them, or at least to Gaara, and that I might not get another chance for a while, but I could hardly start talking about Akatsuki with so many ears around and the longer I left it, the deeper the silence feel and the harder it was to try and break it. Eventually, everything settled into a tired daze of moving, and it was long gone dark by the time we reached the village gates, probably _early_ rather than _late. _

I felt completely and utterly exhausted, bone deep and achingly weary. I was out of chakra, having used all my reserves and started drawing on that last vital supply of stamina somewhere along the line, and it made me feel strangely hollow and empty. My muscles trembled with fatigue and pain and too much adrenaline, and for one desperate moment, I just wanted to cry.

I fought against the feeling of having been pushed _too far_, against the stinging eyes and tightness of my throat, reminding myself that everyone here had gone through the same. If they could keep on being strong, so could I.

The gate guards took one look at us and then we were suddenly being whisked away to the hospital. I lost track of the others pretty much immediately, being shuffled around until I ended up in a diagnostics room, sitting on the bed while a nurse cut my jacket and glove away, and another placed a breathing mask over my face.

"Count backwards from ten," she suggested, as it hissed. I could feel the air circulating, and thought I could _taste_ it, faintly sweet and chemical.

"Ten," I began obediently, eyes sliding closed, "nine, eight… seven…"

_Six…_

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><p>.<p>

Sound washed over me like the babbling of a river, like a tide coming in and out, present but formless, meaningless. Sleep was a warm weight holding me down and I stirred slowly, groggy with both exhaustion and chemicals.

Sound became voices and voices became words, familiar but just beyond the reach of understanding.

I blinked.

"Hey," Shikamaru said, leaning his elbows on the bed. He had a smudge of mud across his forehead, and what looked like the remnants of shredded leaves in his ponytail. He was still 'fresh off a mission' regardless of how long I'd been out.

"Hey," I echoed back.

"How are you feeling?"

I sorted through the returning stimuli; dull aches and pains, bruises, the barest trickle of chakra, too small to grasp. "Tired," I answered. Most of all, _tired._

He nodded and I looked past him, to see who he had been talking too. "Temari," I said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

She shrugged lightly, leaning back in her chair and crossing her ankles, all casual elegance. "Gaara wants to talk to Uzumaki when he wakes up," she explained. "And no one's kicked us out yet."

I nodded, vaguely pleased that they hadn't left yet. I didn't exactly have a _plan_ but having an opportunity was better than none. More importantly, though, Temari mentioning Naruto reminded me that I didn't know what had happened to everyone.

I levered myself up, leaning against the headboard even as several muscles protested the change in position. "How's Chouji?"

"He's fine," he said, tangling his fingers with those of my good hand. "He took two of the pills."

I nodded. I'd hoped otherwise but given the level of opponent it wasn't exactly surprising.

Shikamaru let out a breath that was halfway between a snort and a sigh. "He was _this close_ to taking the third," he said, voice low, and I half wished that Temari wasn't here to see this. "It was such a mess. I was bringing him home and he just kept losing weight…"

I squeezed his fingers. I could imagine it, a desperate race back, pushing past the limits of exhaustion, the building horror of _too light, too light, I might not be in time…_

"But he's okay now?" I asked, gently reminding him.

"Yeah. Tsunade-sama was here. I gave her unrestricted access to the Nara Medical Encyclopaedia. Dad's not going to be very happy when he gets back." He shrugged, not in the least bit sorry.

It took me a second to put the disjointed sentences together. Of the Akimichi Three Coloured Pills, only the third was absolutely fatal, but the first two still supercharged the metabolism and could have extremely adverse effects – they _could _be fatal, they just weren't always. And even if they weren't, there was still the chance for permanent, crippling injury. The clan Medical Encyclopaedia was exactly what it said it was, and had a lot of information on the Pills, including what they were made of and how they worked. That right there was a highly guarded secret, let alone what _else_ was in the book. Shikamaru was the heir, and with Dad away, technically he _did_ have the right to give access to it… but that didn't mean it was _done._

"I think he'll understand," I said. If it saved Chouji's life… he'd understand.

"Yeah, so. Kiba got out of surgery about the same time you went in," Shikamaru continued, almost changing the subject. "Naruto is just down with chakra exhaustion and they took Sasuke to the secure wing, but I don't think he was hurt. Lee got told off for leaving, but he's fine. Neji wasn't hurt, but he and Tenten stopped by for a while. Same with Hinata."

Which left one glaring exception. "And Ino?"

His eyes dropped. "She hasn't woken up."

My heart sank. I remembered the half whispered mantra, the empty gaze. I'd just _left her there. _If she'd gone catatonic… if it was my fault…

"I see," I managed.

"The doctors are hoping you can give them more information about what she was hit with."

I nodded mutely, the statement hitting like a blow. Not only had they been unable to help her, _they didn't even know what was wrong. _

"She'll be alright though, right?" Shikamaru asked, raising his eyes to mine.

"Yeah," I said huskily, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. "It's Ino. She won't let something like this keep her down." Because even if Shikamaru would be the first person to call Ino troublesome, they were teammates and close friends besides; I couldn't look him in the eye and say 'I don't know'.

And I didn't know. I trusted the medics here, trusted Tsunade, but _I didn't know._ I had no fall back, no safety net of information telling me that this would be okay. I'd always known, intellectually, that things were changing, that I needed to work with information gathered in the present, but it had still been there, narrowing the outcomes, helping me anticipate things. I'd expected the sand siblings to come – doubted it, in the face of danger, but expected all the same – but not Hinata. I hadn't expected Ino to get hurt.

I didn't know if she'd get better.

It scared me.

_Be okay, Ino. Please be okay._

I _had_ considered that using Mind-Body Switch on him was a bad idea. I _had. Why _hadn'tI-?

"It's not your fault," Shikamaru said, cutting through my thoughts.

"You don't even know what happened," I quipped back, tiredly.

"Yeah. But I know you. And I know Ino." His eyes were steady, exhausted but steady.

Temari snorted, shifting in her chair and drawing attention back to herself. "Didn't any of you receive emotional training? Or is that too brutal for Hidden Leaf?"

I wanted to sink back, to let Shikamaru handle it. I didn't _want_ to argue with her. But there was an evaluating look in her eye that tugged at me and I mustered the energy to play this game.

"Sure, we did," I replied, mostly calmly. "People get hurt on missions, that much is true… we just prefer it when those people aren't _us._" Words within words; don't mistake caring for weakness, we can fight when we need to. It wasn't exactly a hostile exchange, more… testing; probing and deflecting, like the first feints of battle to see where we each stood.

My smile might have been a tad sharp at the edges, an unspoken reminder that she'd been on the opposite side of the fight from us once, and hadn't come off the better for it. That probably had a lot to do with it, actually.

"And when it is?" she asked coolly.

I gestured at myself wordlessly. _See for yourself._

She gave a low 'hmph' of acknowledgement before standing. "I'm going to go get something to eat," she said. "Maybe make sure Kankurou hasn't gotten into trouble."

I gave her a commiserating smile. "Brothers. They take so much looking after."

"I'm not the one in a hospital bed, _sister,_" Shikamaru said dryly.

I laughed, listening to the fading footsteps as she walked down the hall. "Speaking of. Have you slept?"

"What do you think?" he asked, drolly. Yeah, I could see his point. Both team mates and a sister in hospital – surgery for two of us – and it wouldn't have been on my list of priorities either. Still, light was pouring into the room, which meant early to mid-morning, and we'd only managed a few hours sleep between planning the mission and moving out.

"I think you probably should," I said pragmatically.

"Trying to get rid of me already?" Shikamaru asked a little archly. "You only just woke up."

"Hardly," I said. "I'm glad you're here." And I was; visual confirmation that he was okay. "You just look tired, that's all."

"I can't. Just… not yet." He rubbed his face tiredly. "Not till everyone…"

_Not till everyone wakes up._

That could be a long time, but for now it wasn't worth pushing. "Sorry," I said. "Talk to me?"

He shrugged half-heartedly and looked away and I thought he wasn't going to answer, but after a minute he spoke. "We weren't ready. Not for fighting like that." It was a bland statement, but there was a hint of bitterness hiding behind it.

I felt a pang of guilt, because I had been _so confident._ Thought that because it _had_ happened, we would be fine. Arguably it had gone well; we'd succeeded, no one was dead… but that was cold comfort. I didn't like to take risks, and it occurred to me that this was a _massive _one.

"If they hadn't had the second state… it would have been fine," I said. "The ambush went… almost perfectly."

"Yeah. That's why I can't be too angry at them," Shikamaru agreed. "I still think Genin shouldn't have been sent on a mission like this… but it wasn't intentional." He snorted suddenly. "That's what all your missions have been like, haven't they?"

"Kinda, yeah. It never _starts out_ as 'go fight these Jounin-level ninja' or anything… but this one seemed a lot worse." Maybe because we got injured, maybe simply because it was the most recent.

"Joy," he said sarcastically. "And if I tell you I feel guilty that Chouji got hurt, what are you going to say?"

"I don't know, what did you say ten minutes ago about me and Ino?" I asked dryly.

"That's what I thought," he said.

"What a pair we are," I sighed.

We were silent for a bit, not really eager to go digging through the mess that had resulted from this mission. I still didn't know what exactly had happened, but everyone was okay and there would be a debriefing later. Later was fine.

I'd nearly fallen back asleep, eyelids too heavy to keep open, when someone rapped, brisk and efficient, on the door before stepping inside.

"Oh, good," Tsunade said. "You are awake." She lifted the clipboard from the end of the bed and checked several things off, then set a hand on my arm. I shivered a little at her chakra sinking below the skin. "Reconstruction of blood vessels appears to be holding; no weakening of the walls or leakages. Muscle lacerations are healing nicely, too." She nodded a little in approval. "The hand is much trickier. There are a lot of small moving parts that need to be taken care of. We'll be watching closely for infections and you'll be in physiotherapy for that for the next week or two for the very least."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama," I said obediently.

She scribbled several more comments onto the patient record, then slipped it back into its holder. Looking at her, you couldn't tell that she'd probably been awake and conducting surgery all night; she looked as settled and composed as normal. "Now, what can you tell me about the attack that Ino Yamanaka was hit with?"

I cleared my throat nervously. "It wasn't an attack," I rasped. "Ino used her Mind-Body Switch on Kidomaru when he was in the second state of the curse seal. It didn't… it didn't _work._" I looked down. Shikamaru's hand tightened on mine. "We thought that the … psychological aspects of the seal might make it dangerous, but it was still the best option we had."

I chanced a glance upwards at her face, and something in me relaxed, just a little. There was a little surprise, but no judgement.

"I pinned him down, and she definitely _hit_ her target," I continued. "It stunned him for maybe a second or two, but she never established any control over him, and he didn't appear significantly impaired. After, I don't know, a few minutes, maybe," the words tumbled out of my mouth artlessly. It had seemed so _fast_ and so _long_ at the same time. I couldn't tell how long it had really taken. "her chakra returned to her body and she spoke but she seemed neither conscious nor aware of her surroundings."

"I see," Tsunade said thoughtfully. "Well that changes things, doesn't it." And it did, because if you were testing for physical reasons and there were none…

I hoped desperately that Tsunade might be able to _fix_ her.

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><p>.<p>

Yeah, it took a while to get this update out. I can't promise that the next one is going to be any faster, either. Sorry.


	64. Chapter 63

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: I've recently started a new job, so my writing time has decreased a fair bit. Things may speed back up when I get into a routine, but for now things are a bit hectic.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 63

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_How do you feel? That is the question _

_But I forget you don't expect an easy answer ~ Stone Sour_

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Later, after Mum had come to scold me for getting injured – again! – and dragged Shikamaru home with a flurry of nagging 'suggestions', I mustered up the energy to move and padded slowly down the hospital corridors. There was no way to move that didn't hurt, everything stressed, strained, overworked and cramped and I thought longingly of going back to sleep until I had recovered enough chakra to alleviate some of it, but my sense of time was nagging at me. I knew if I left it too long – procrastinated – then I would miss my chance, and I couldn't risk that.

Gingerly, I pushed the door to the roof open, blinking and squinting at the bright sunlight. The rooftop was mostly covered in clotheslines, hanging the masses of white sheets that the hospital went through out to dry. It gave the place an almost eerie maze like quality.

I hesitated for a second in the open door, wanting to turn around and retreat, then pushed myself forward. My palms started to sweat and I rubbed them on the legs of my pants; I was hardly in any condition to fight, would hardly even be able to _run_, and for all that the Sand Siblings had rescued us, not too long ago they had been our enemies.

_You wanted to talk to him,_ I reminded myself.

I wound my way through the maze of flapping white sheets, heading unerringly for the edge of the building and the person I knew was there. My chakra sense was a _sense_, like sight, like hearing, it was absolutely passive and didn't require me to expend any chakra, for which I was grateful. I had no chakra to spare, right now, and being without it would be like being blind.

I cleared my throat awkwardly, as I approached. "Hi."

Gaara turned to look at me. There was none of the bloodlust, the untamed killer intent, that there had been last time he was in Konoha and I relaxed a fraction. There was a difference between _expecting_ something – based on information that might not even be relevant anymore, even – and seeing.

"I, ah, I wanted to thank you for helping us."

Gaara blinked and looked – mildly – baffled. "You came up here to say… thank you?"

I might not have ever been _brilliant _at small talk, but it wasn't strange was it? There was a reason I'd chosen it as my segue into conversation. Start a conversation, get it rolling, then drop the bomb about Akatsuki…

"Well, I came up here to get some fresh air, but when I saw you I thought I should say thanks," I said, which wasn't entirely the truth but, you know, made me seem less like a weird stalker.

Somehow I had the feeling that this conversation wasn't going to go in the direction I envisioned it.

"It was a pretty nasty mission," I continued, as the silence drew out. "We were lucky you showed up when you did."

Actually, by the time the Sand Siblings had shown up, Naruto and Sasuke probably had things under control. _Probably._ Although, they'd definitely helped in getting us all home in one piece.

I sighed, leaning on the railing at the edge of the roof and arranging my arm so it dangled in the least painful way. This wasn't working. Maybe I should skip the lead in and go straight to the warning about Akatsuki. I cast my senses out, but I couldn't feel anyone else around. That didn't mean no one was there, however. This was Konoha, the chances of being overheard were _so much_ higher… but if Tsunade didn't have the manpower to send with us, she hardly had the manpower to have people watch the Sand Siblings while they were in the village. Right?

I chewed on my lip.

"You were injured on this mission," Gaara said, breaking the silence.

I almost started. "Yeah," I said, twitching my bandaged arm at him. He was looking almost directly at it, so it was hardly necessary. "Got stabbed trying to pin an explosive tag on him. It was pretty stupid," I said. "But it was after Kiba went down and before Hinata showed up, so I didn't have a lot of choice."

_That_ seemed to interest him. Oh yeah. This was one of Gaara's _things,_ wasn't it? The bonds between people, friendship, altruism.

"You were injured trying to protect him," he said lowly. "Why? Doesn't it hurt?"

I stared thoughtfully at my arm, wiggled my fingers and, like an idiot, poked it. "Yup," I hissed between gritted teeth. Okay, so that was not as healed as I thought it was. "But if I hadn't done anything… it would have been worse, because other people would have gotten hurt."

Maybe Kimimaro would have left Kiba and I alone, he hadn't been interested in us at all, but Sasuke would have been delivered straight to Orochimaru. That… no, I couldn't have let that happen.

"You would… feel their pain."

I blinked. "I guess? Not literally but … it would have hurt. It does hurt," I amended. It sounded terribly lame; _hurt_ didn't even begin to cover it. Fear, guilt, anguish, the twisting, sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, the lump in your throat…

I swallowed. Gaara was watching me, gaze steady and disconcerting.

"It's worse," I finished.

"A wound of the heart," he murmured. "When you care about someone so much that every hurt inflicted on them is inflicted on you as well. And the closer they are, the more it hurts."

I had a feeling he wasn't even really talking to me anymore. It was a little worrying. And I couldn't let that kind of bleak assessment pass without comment. "There are a lot of good things about having people that close too, though." My mouth twisted a little. "It's not just pain."

"And even that pain is preferable to loneliness," Gaara mused.

"Yeah, because loneliness like that… is there all the time." Like waking up and remembering _they're gone, they're gone, it's all gone._ I shoved the thought away, annoyed with myself. "Look Gaara… I know we didn't start off on the right foot or anything… but Konoha and Hidden Sand are allies now – _we_ are allies now." I fumbled the words. This wasn't going right. Nothing I'd planned to say fit, and everything was moving too fast to take the time to plot out a speech. "And I know that you're a Jinchuriki. So I wanted to warn you. There is a group called Akatsuki, made up of S-rank missing-nin, that is hunting you. One of them is Sasori of Red Sand…"

That was so very far from smooth. I grimaced. "I don't think I'm really supposed to be telling you this, but I thought you should know."

Gaara was staring at me, eyes wide – not crazy-wide, thankfully – and I looked away. "They're after Naruto too, that's how I know."

Was that enough information? Was it too much? How could I even tell? Mentioning Sasori was important, he was _from_ Sand, they probably had the most information on him…

My head ached. I wanted to go lie down. Maybe I should have left this till later.

"You would," Gaara rasped, "feel pain… for me?"

My brain stalled, running back over our conversation and trying to find the links. _Oh, hell._ "I don't think anyone should get hurt," I said. "It doesn't… It shouldn't have to be like that."

And oh, wasn't that something strange? I came from a world where everything that hurt people was _bad._ Everything was regulated, everything dangerous was minimised, even prisoners were kept safe and unharmed. There was no – or very little – 'they deserved it'. Here, it was different. Sometimes it was close enough that I missed the cultural difference, but sometimes it was so obvious. I'd learnt to live with it, it had crept into my thought processes until I barely even noticed, but sometimes… sometimes I felt so _other._

"Is that why you let us leave?" Gaara accused, suddenly, eyes narrowing.

I sighed. "I killed thirteen people between the stadium and finding you in the forest," I said, tiredly. I hated saying it, hated knowing the total number was even higher than that. "I didn't let you go because I wanted to keep my hands clean." That was what he was asking – did you because you _couldn't?_ "I made a _choice, _Gaara. I thought it would be _better._ It was, wasn't it? You wouldn't have come to help us now if things had been different then."

The look of accusation had faded, but I couldn't tell if he got it. I pushed myself off the rail. "Look, I'm tired. Just… think about it. And you probably shouldn't let anyone know I told you." I grimaced again; it gave him something to hold over me, but it couldn't be helped.

I walked away, the back of my neck prickling as I turned my back on him.

_That could have gone better._

I limped down the stairs and fully intended on going back to my room and sleeping, but I passed by a room with familiar chakra inside and couldn't resist the urge to go in.

Kiba looked up as the door opened. "Yo. Man, you're up already? They won't even let me get out of bed." He scoffed in good natured disgust.

I stepped around the small dog bed on the floor, where Akamaru was bandaged and curled up, and settled into the visitors chair. "Only just," I muttered with a yawn. "I feel like I could sleep for a week. How's Akamaru?"

"What not going to ask how _I_ am?"

"You're awake and complaining," I shot back dryly. "Sounds like you're just fine to me."

Kiba smirked. "Yeah, whatever. He's fine. Hana was here, she checked him out. Said we were both lucky to not be worse off." The smirk left his face.

"Most of us were lucky," I said sombrely.

"Yeah. Most of us were," he echoed. "Though I tell you what, Mum's going to kick my ass in training for letting this happen. Not cool, and I thought flunking the Chunin Exams was bad enough…"

"Mmm," I agreed, eyes sliding closed. These chairs weren't actually that uncomfortable after all…

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I woke to a very familiar chakra presence brushing my senses.

"Sensei?" I murmured sleepily. "Aren't you supposed to be at the border?"

Kakashi-sensei was leaning casually against the door frame, hands in his pockets. He looked absolutely normal, but he didn't have his book out, and there was something indefinable about him that read as weary.

"Sa, they sent the first responders home," he said. "I got to come back with a team of Chunin that had been in Land of Stone for the past month."

I nodded, covering a yawn and rubbing the crust from my eyes. It made sense, to relieve the ones that had already _been_ on a mission when they'd been called out, especially if it had been a long one. That didn't really explain sensei, but I was just _glad_ he was there.

"Have you seen the boys?" I asked, hopefully.

His eye curved into a smile. "Not yet. I was just on my way there." The invitation was pretty implicit and I unravelled myself out of the chair. If I'd felt terrible before, it was nothing compared to how I felt after several hours sitting in the same position. My stomach gave an angry growl, reminding me that sometime during my nap, lunch had passed.

"And maybe some food," I said, slightly embarrassed.

Kakashi-sensei cocked his head thoughtfully, and reached into one of the pockets of his vest. The ration bar he withdrew was slightly crushed and battered enough that the lettering was starting to fade off the packaging – and really, who ate ration bars when they didn't have to? – but I took it with a slightly bemused, slightly fond smile. "Thanks sensei."

Kiba coughed, a little awkwardly. "Ne, Kakashi-sensei. Didja see Kurenai-sensei while you were there?"

"No," Kakashi-sensei replied. "But I did see some of her genjutsu work. She's doing well."

Which made me curious as to what he was talking about, but it was overruled by more pressing matters. I _did_ want to know about what was happening at the border, but it could wait.

"I think Sasuke's in the secure ward, again," I said, leaning into Kakashi-sensei's side, half for support, half just for a hug.

He ruffled my hair awkwardly. "They're looking at the changes in the seal," he said. "It's a complicated process."

I'd never actually been to the secure ward, and Kakashi-sensei led me – slowly – down the stairs and through a series of twisting corridors that made me doubt we were even still _in_ the hospital anymore. The secure ward was for things that were dangerous or _in_ danger, so I guess it made sense not to have it near the other patients. There was a single ANBU standing guard by the door as we signed into the 'visitors' log under Kakashi-sensei's clearance. I suspected – but had no proof – that there was at least one more for backup somewhere nearby.

Kakashi-sensei took us to an observation room, overlooking a giant, sealing room, empty save for Sasuke in the centre and Jiraiya and several scribes around the edges. The floor was painted with incredibly intricate patterns of black ink, coiling up Sasuke's body until they reached his neck and then… illuminating. I couldn't think of any other way to describe it. It reminded me of the OHP's – overhead projectors – that had been common when I'd been at primary school, using a light source and lenses to magnify writing onto another surface. In this case, the roof was showing a wavering, and in some cases blurred, projection of a seal.

It was fascinating. The air fairly thrummed with chakra.

Sasuke's eye flickered towards the observation window as we came in.

"Don't move!" Jiraiya barked. There was a crease of concentration between his eyes.

"That's… the curse mark?" I asked, squinting at it.

"The expanded form, yes," Kakashi-sensei said. I watched as he nonchalantly pushed his headband up and stared at it with his Sharingan eye. "The process to even view it is quite complicated."

I could see that, just from the sheer size of the room involved. It also gave me an idea of how complicated the curse seal really was… it covered the entire roof, and I thought some of the blurry spots might have been compacted seals _inside_ the seal.

"The image is reversed… but that's just part of this process, isn't it?" It made understanding some of the parts a little trickier, but it was a minor inconvenience at best. My eyes flickered over the seal, applying what minor sealing knowledge I had. "Circular sealing… Kanji based… Scientific and mathematical calculations common in medical sealing… tri-part… Chakra sealing? Mind/Soul and Body and … Nature?" I squinted at the Kanji. Those three were compressed again, right in the centre of the image. "That's a … storage seal… for…" I hesitated. "A spirit? A soul? The chakra goes _through_ it, so whatever it is, it's probably what was described as 'consuming' and what gives it the _taint._" And what let Orochimaru use it for his body jumping technique. "It has a one-way isolation seal on it… it might actually be able to get _out._" I think I sounded a little horrified. Then again, I'd almost known that, what with Kajika's possession on one of our earlier missions and in canon, the snakes that had burst from Sasuke's seal…

"Jiraiya is the best there is at this," Kakashi-sensei said. It was scant reassurance, since no one had ever been able to do anything about Anko's seal.

Staring at the seal, I had to admit that I would have no idea where to start unravelling it, either. Orochimaru might have been completely without ethics or morals, but he was a genius.

It took about an hour for them to finish up, the seal on the ceiling wavering and bits expanding and contracting as they focused on different parts, and it was slow going so clearly they'd been at it for a while before we showed up. I did, in fact, end up eating Kakashi-sensei's ration bar.

I wished I had paper and a pen to write notes with but somehow I suspected I technically wasn't supposed to be seeing this. Or at least, not in enough depth to understand it.

Eventually, the sealing stopped, the ink crawling back down off Sasuke and returning to inert lines on the floor.

"Finally," Sasuke sighed, slumping a little.

"Don't smudge the ink, kid," Jiraiya said. "You know how long it'll take me to redo all that?"

"_Yes_," Sasuke said, annoyance staining the word. "I was here the whole time. Not moving."

It was nice to see they were getting on _so well._

Sasuke picked his way – carefully! – out of the sealing diagram and headed towards the door.

"Hey," he said, dark eyes flickering over me. "You're okay? They haven't really told me much of anything." He shrugged, irritated.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "Kiba and Chouji had surgery, but they're expected to recover. The only one we're worried about… is Ino."

His eyes widened a little at that. That hadn't been who he was expecting. "I see."

"And you?" I asked, a little anxious. Obviously he wasn't _hurt_ but…

Sasuke shrugged again. "They've run so many tests I think they have half my blood right now. And well," he flicked a hand back at the sealing room. "That." He looked quite bored with it all, which was probably a reaction to not having been able to move for hours on end.

"Really, Kakashi?" Jiraiya said, holding one of the recently written scrolls. "You think it's a good idea to bring her here?"

Kakashi-sensei shrugged lackadaisically. "I can vouch for her."

"Not really what I meant," Jiraiya said, rolling his eyes. He didn't seem that perturbed or surprised, though. "So what'd you think?" That seemed to be directed at me, and though his voice was light, his stare was calculating.

It was a test. Of course it was a test, but what was it testing?

"I think," I said slowly. "I would have no idea where to start unravelling a seal like that." I racked my brains for what he could be looking for. I _wanted_ to impress Jiraiya, if I really thought about it, especially when it came to sealing. He had helped me, and I didn't want him to think it had gone to waste. "The compressed seal is always a tri-part seal. Not just Sasuke's, all the other Sound ninja had a three part design as well, even if it was different otherwise. That's because of the chakra storage part, isn't it? Mind, Body, and that third kanji 'nature'… when Sasuke was in the barrel, and when Kidomaru was recovering, it was like they were sucking the chakra out of the air… that's how it manages to provide such a huge strength boost." That was the bloodlimit of Juugo, wasn't it? An uncontrolled sage mode type thing that Orochimaru had studied to make the second state. "And, we saw Orochimaru possess Kajika… that's what the 'soul' component is there for, isn't it? And the more you use the seal, the stronger it gets?"

Jiraiya looked… I wasn't sure, suddenly.

"Go back to that part about the chakra in the air," he said slowly, and I realised, suddenly, that I had just described natural chakra to Jiraiya. The Toad Sage.

_Sometimes you should just learn to keep your mouth shut,_ I thought to myself. Which was strange, since my natural inclination _was_ to keep my mouth shut.

"Umm," I said intelligently. "It's just sort of there? Everything gives off chakra just from being alive." I fumbled the words. It was… It wasn't easy to describe and it wasn't a conversation topic that I had anticipated.

Jiraiya looked pained. Definitely pained. "You haven't tried to … use this … chakra in the air, have you?"

I shook my head. "It's not _mine,_" I said. "I don't – maybe calling it chakra is the wrong thing." It was _like_ chakra more than it was like physical or mental energy but it still wasn't…

"It's called natural energy," Jiraiya said. "And you _shouldn't_ be able to sense it. Dammit, this is not something Genin should be messing with." He gave an exasperated glance at sensei, as though it were his fault. "_Don't_ try and use it without training." His face was unusually serious and I nodded silently. Naruto's sage training had been dangerous, I remembered that much. "I'm not kidding here, natural energy can do worse than kill you – and it can do _that_ too. That's part of the reason we're not doing more than try to contain that curse seal; it's balanced right now but the slightest push will send it crashing down."

Beside me, Sasuke had gone still and pale. "What," he asked, "is natural energy?" His eyes darted from me to Jiraiya and back again.

Jiraiya lifted his lips in a humourless smirk. "Exactly what it sounds like. The energy produced by nature as it goes about its daily business of surviving. Sometimes, after _many, many_ years of study, people can learn to sense and manipulate it to become a Sage. Monks, usually, who spend decades meditating daily and pondering the sound of one hand clapping."

"You're one, though, aren't you?" I asked. "The Toad Sage."

"That's even rarer. Some Summon animals have the ability to teach… if they think you're worthy. The Toads won't take another Summoner though, not for your generation." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Some of the other Great Summons might. Tsunade-hime might know if the slugs…" he trailed off. "But the chances of finding a summon that _does_ know, and having them _agree_ to teach you… you might have better luck trying at the Fire Temple. Most temples have some unique sealing techniques, so I'd recommend visiting them anyway."

That was… more information that I had expected I would get. Not just theoretical, but real world applicable. These people know. Suddenly… it seemed more than 'one day it might be possible'.

Something must have shown on my face because Sasuke spoke. "Shikako, don't," he said, with something close to urgency in his voice.

"It's okay," I said quickly. "I understand that you need a teacher. I've already had one close call, you know. I'm not looking for another."

"And it didn't stop you," Sasuke said flatly. "You still kept training."

I blinked. Well what had he expected me to do? Stop? That hardly seemed like something Sasuke would consider.

He looked exasperated. "It's like you don't even see the danger."

"Of course I do," I said back, puzzled. "Given what we just went through, I'm _very_ aware of how dangerous everything is." And it was only going to get worse, which was why I _was_ looking at high level training, even if I wasn't able to take advantage of the opportunities it presented yet.

Above our heads, Jiraiya and Kakashi-sensei were exchanging looks, seeming to have an entire conversation.

"Right," Jiraiya said. "I can't keep Tsunade-hime waiting." He shook his head with a sigh. "You kids do seem to land yourselves right in the middle of some serious messes."

"You don't know half of it," Kakashi-sensei said with a sigh. "I've been gone for a week and come back to find they've done an A-rank without me."

Any other time, I would have been all over that opening, but I found I just didn't have the will for mischief right now.

But Sasuke smirked. "Three," he said. "Technically, we did three A-ranks without you."

Kakashi-sensei stared.

"One of them started about… half an hour after you left," Sasuke added.

"Stop talking," Sensei instructed. "Just… stop."

A grin tugged at the corner of my mouth. _Team Trouble Magnet, alright._

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The next day I was wandering again - still tired, still exhausted, but restless – making my way from room to room. Ino wasn't allowed visitors and I worried, but Chouji seemed to be in good spirits and Lee had been resigned to the scolding of the nurses.

I hadn't visited them in any particular order, simply meandering around and talking to whoever I found first. I also hadn't exactly been paying one hundred percent attention to where I was going, which lead to me nearly walking straight into Neji Hyuuga as he exited the room I was about to enter.

"Sorry," I said awkwardly. _Well, that's a little embarrassing, isn't it?_

He shook it off. "Hokage-sama has sent me to inform you that we will be debriefing in an hour in conference room seven, now that everyone is awake."

I nodded, accepting the information, then paused. "Everyone? Is Ino awake?" I hoped so.

"I have no more information than that," he said evenly though I thought I might have detected a hint of apology in his tone.

"Thank you," I said, moving to the side so he could get past.

But Neji paused. "I have heard," he started carefully. "That Hinata-sama was one of those that assisted you." It wasn't exactly a question, but his gaze was very intense as it settled on me.

I nodded. "She did. She was brilliant," I said. I meant it, too. "If it hadn't been for her arrival, both Kiba and I would be dead and Sasuke would be gone."

"Hiashi-sama was… not pleased at her impulsive actions," Neji ventured flatly.

"He should be," I said, a tad sharply. "She fought Kimimaro one on one and was barely injured where the rest of us nearly died. She was _brilliant._"

Neji just nodded thoughtfully, and it occurred to me that he hadn't mentioned it was his _own _opinion. Truthfully, I hadn't really had much to do with Neji, even if my team mates had, and most of that had been at the Chunin Exams anyway. While it hadn't been that long ago, Neji had had some major life changes.

Neji hesitated for a second longer, then moved off with a clipped farewell. I watched him go, thoughtfully, then slipped into the room that he'd just exited.

"Hey, Naruto," I said.

"Shikako-chan! Man, you're up already?" Naruto practically wiggled in place. He was wrapped in so many bandages I was surprised he could _bend._ "Baa-chan said she'd kick my ass if I even thought about it."

"Sa, you got hurt a lot worse than I did," I said. "And you pulled on a lot more chakra than you have before."

Naruto's grin faltered a bit. "Yeah, that was a bit… yeah."

_Okay, wrong topic._ "I've been to see Sasuke," I offered. "He's fine. Jiraiya-sama was looking at the seal."

"Yeah, the pervy sage was in here before, complaining about baa-chan overworking him." He made a 'pffft' sound, clearly not very impressed by it. And Kaka-sensei was back too!"

I settled into the chair, chatting away. Nothing kept Naruto down for long.

About three quarters of an hour later, a nurse came in to help Naruto into a wheelchair and escorted us to the conference room. Kiba and Chouji in wheelchairs as well and it struck me again at how very _thin_ Chouji was, and how wrong it looked on him. The others drifted in, Hinata and Neji together looking reasonably at ease with each other, Shikamaru slouching into a seat next to his team mate with a muted yawn, Ibiki-taicho bandaged and moving stiffly. Sasuke was escorted in by Jiraiya, who grinned and ruffled his hair, earning himself a lethal looking glare.

"I want out of here," Sasuke said flatly, sliding in between the two of us. The room was starting to get crowded, and we were pressed knee to knee.

"Jiraiya-sama isn't that bad," I said, carefully smothering my amusement. Naruto didn't even bother and snickered loudly.

"He's just as bad as Naruto." Sasuke scowled, disgruntled. And where, with Naruto, he could at least retaliate, Jiraiya had both rank and experience against him.

The rest of the squads trickled in until Tsunade hustled in, followed shortly by Ino and her father.

I couldn't stop myself hissing a breath, and I wasn't the only one.

It was relieving to see Ino awake and aware and on her feet, yes… but as she lifted her eyes to scan the room I saw she wasn't unchanged. In the middle of each of her beautiful blue eyes was a long, slitted pupil.

_The eyes are the windows to the soul._

It's a sentiment that's repeated often. Doujutsu have an almost legendary status, and more power than their complexity would suggest but it doesn't stop there. Even when the eyes are not the focal point for a change, they can still reflect differences. Sage mode, as an example I had recently been considering, did the exact same thing.

Which meant that there was something really wrong here.

Inoichi rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder and guided her to a seat.

"Alright," Tsunade said, silencing any whispers that had been about to start up. "Sorry to pull you away, Inoichi, but I want to get this wrapped up as soon as possible. First off, congratulations on mission success and zero fatalities." Her eyes swept over us all. "You went above and beyond the expectations of your rank, and I am very proud to call you all ninja of Konoha."

I could almost see everyone straightening their backs at her words.

"Secondly, we'll be running a full debriefing. That means we'll be covering details that are classified to the back of beyond and are _not_ to become public knowledge. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to cover the entire mission, and I imagine most of the village is already aware that _something_ went down." Given that we'd had several groups come bursting through the front gate in various states of injury, as well as prisoners, it wasn't too much of a stretch to say that. _What_ they knew was the important part.

Ibiki started the recap of the mission beginning, how we'd started and what we'd planned to do, and took it all the way up to when we'd left the village.

Then it was Sasuke's turn and he got to lay out exactly where the Sound Four had been and where they'd headed, information which brought dark casts to the faces of the adults in the room.

"Then they made me take the pill, and I don't remember anything until the fighting," he finished flatly.

"According to the medical reports," Tsunade said, shuffling some of the papers. "That was an enzyme that catalysed a full body change which requires an enormous amount of chakra to initiate. By rights, altering the body that much _should_ have killed you and we're still in the process of working out _what exactly_ was changed."

Ibiki took over again, continuing to the failed ambush. "They were able to overpower my summoning," he said with a grimace. "I wouldn't be confident in anything short of complete immobilisation and chakra deprivation or suppression being used to incarcerate them."

Tsunade nodded at his recommendation. "Jiraiya had already applied seals to the prisoners. We don't want them to escape."

We covered the ambush and splitting up, and Naruto sending Ibiki back to Konoha with a clone. Then we paused, unsure who should go next.

"Let's start with Team Three," Tsunade said. "Since that's where everyone ended up."

I swallowed at being so suddenly put on the spot. "Uh, Ino and I went after Kidomaru; the shinobi with six arms. He had sticky webs with high tensile strength as well as ranged projectiles." I struggled to describe the fight concisely. "I was able to pin him down and line him up for Ino to take a shot at him, but…"

"I was…" Ino said hesitantly, frowning as she tried to put words to something that couldn't really be described. "… diverted. Instead of finding Kidomaru, there was… a snake. A white snake. It attacked me and I couldn't… I was…"

Her father squeezed her shoulder. "Take it slowly; it's okay."

"I was injured," she said precisely. _Injured _could mean a whole lot of things, and I had a sinking feeling as I tried to contemplate the kind of _injured_ that could come from that. "I tried to pull back, but we got… tangled up. Kidomaru too – he was still there it just wasn't him…." Her hands clenched into fists in her lap. "I brought some of it back with me. Dad… The Intelligence Division has been helping me go through it."

_Information goldmine,_ I thought and then was immediately ashamed of myself when it was so clear that Ino was not okay.

"According to Ino's testimony, as well as the analysis provided by Jiraiya on the seals themselves," Tsunade said. "We have reason to believe that each curse seal possesses a fragment of mental and spiritual energy. Enough to potentially sustain a personality template and gather and retain information. Without a substantial boost, it wouldn't be able to completely possess anyone, but there could be bleed through effects." Her voice was sombre. "It's also unknown how much information can be transmitted between fragments, or to the real Orochimaru."

I cast a glance at Sasuke, who was pale. It was _interesting_ that they were telling us all this…

"It leaves us with several problems," Tsunade concluded. "But we'll deal with those later." She looked at me expectantly and I started, realising I was expected to continue.

I ran through the rest of the fight with Kidomaru, about hiding Ino and going back for Kiba, all the way up to the beginning of the fight with Kimimaro.

"Okay," Tsunade cut in, holding up her hand. "Now Team Two."

Shikamaru folded his hands on the table and slumped over them, seeming no more excited than I was to speak.

"We went after Tayuya," he said. "The sole female of the group. She claimed to be the second strongest, after Sakon." He glanced towards Naruto, just a quick flick of the eyes. "She was predominantly a genjutsu type, using sound from her flute to carry the illusions, but she also had a set of large summons she called 'Doki'. They were controlled by her flute, and could consume physical energy."

At the second state, Tayayu had been a formidable opponent, capable of near-unbreakable full immobilisation genjutsu. Shikamaru's recital was dry and lacked emotion, but they'd been run through the ringer with several genjutsu simply because she was toying with them. The Doki had been strong, too, and Chouji had ended up taking the first of the three pills to be able to hold them off while Shikamaru attacked Tayuya herself. He'd ended up taking the second to defeat them when it turned out that even with short distance and as many advantages as he could stack up for himself, Shikamaru still hadn't been able to overpower Tayuya with his Shadow Neck-Binding Technique.

"Between the two of us, we were able to knock her out, and I made the decision to return to Konoha for medical aid rather than search for the other members of the squad," Shikamaru finished emotionlessly.

"It was the right decision," Tsunade said. "Naruto?"

"Right! So I was fighting the weird two headed guy, which was totally not just a head but an actual _other person_ who could like, slither inside you." Naruto shivered. "He was pretty strong and just kept slicing through my clones and I didn't want to bring out the toads once I found out that he could get inside you and possess you then kill you. It was going okay, but then they split apart and he got me."

The adults all went still. I didn't even _want_ to see what was on Jiraiya's face.

"He was like, crawling inside me, making my arms do stuff… so I pulled on…" he glanced around then firmed up. "I pulled on the Kyuubi's chakra and it pretty much just _burnt_ him straight out of me."

He looked a little sick and I closed my eyes.

_Hell._

The Kyuubi's chakra was poisonous, no doubt about that. What it would do to somebody trying to invade the body of its host… _burnt_ might be too kind a word for it.

Half the room already knew the truth about him, anyway. Hinata didn't look at all surprised, but she had _been _there for the fighting and had _seen_ him heal. Didn't mean there wasn't a sudden burst of noise, but much less than it could have been.

Tsunade thumped a hand on the table. "Naruto."

He smiled shakily. "I'm allowed to tell people, baa-chan! I'm the host of the Kyuubi, just like Gaara is the host of the Ichibi."

"Yes, yes," she rolled her eyes. "Let's drop another S-rank secret on the table. Why not."

"If Gaara became so angry because of his treatment," Lee spoke up, holding a fist into the air. "Then you have overcome much hardship to have such a positive outlook, Naruto! You inspire me!"

Naruto fidgeted. "Ahh, thanks, bushy-brows."

"'To carry a seal that can never be removed'," Neji said quietly. "I see. I apologise."

Naruto shrugged. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it. So… ah, after that, I took out Sakon and summoned one of the transport toads to take him back to Konoha." He looked eager to get back to talking about the mission and not himself.

"We have him," Tsunade said. "Though its uncertain if he'll survive the loss of his… partner."

Neji was then the last of the original squad to go. Jiroubou had apparently had quite an arsenal of earth ninjutsu to go with brutal taijutsu, including some that drained chakra, though they had been quite slow and avoidable, and Neji had had some trouble getting in to range for his Jyuuken to be effective. The fight had dragged out for quite some time when Tenten showed up to offer support. After that, they had had a much better time of it. Between the two of them, they had managed to bring him back, but by the time they arrived, there was little point in heading back out again.

"When we heard that our team mate was on a mission," Lee started when it was his turn. "Tenten and I went down to the gates to see if there was word of him! Then we became aware that the mission was in danger and felt it was our duty as shinobi to offer assistance! Hinata joined us, and the three of us went after our comrades! With much wisdom Tenten decided to assist Neji with his opponent, while I collected the prisoner off Shikamaru so that he could return to the village more quickly. Hinata went ahead to assist Kiba and Shikako!" He beamed.

This was where all the stories started coming back together again.

"I intercepted several attacks," Hinata said softly, a hint of her usual stammer. "Both Shikako and Kiba were heavily injured, a-and…" She tapped her fingers together. "I didn't do very well, but then Lee came."

I begged to disagree. "If you don't mind me asking," I said politely. "What was the attack you used… Protection of…"

Hinata looked down. "Protection of the Eight Trigrams; Sixty Four Palms. I-it is my failing that I cannot use the Kaiten, b-but I will not give up!" There was a spark of defiance in her eyes. "So I trained very hard and I created my own defence."

Neji's eyes widened.

"Well, I think it was awesome," Kiba said stubbornly. "Don't give me any of that 'not very good' crap."

Hinata went red and didn't speak.

Tsunade looked mostly amused at the by play. "Then?" she asked.

"Then I returned!" Lee said. "I too agree that Hinata was fighting excellently! Unfortunately, we were not able to overcome our opponent and Naruto also joined in the fight."

"Yeah, that guy was way tougher than Sakon," Naruto agreed. "All of us were fighting and pretty much not getting anywhere at all, and he wasn't even _using_ his curse seal." Naruto rubbed his torso, almost unconsciously. "Then Sasuke was finished baking or whatever," Naruto said with a quick grin causing snorts of amusement, "and popped out. Then he pissed the bone guy off pretty bad. He stabbed me and you know, _ouch_, but it healed up pretty quickly."

It _had _been really bad. Beside me Sasuke stiffened, obviously remembering just _how_ bad.

"I utilised the second stage of the curse mark," Sasuke said stiffly, gaining disapproving looks from Tsunade and Jiraiya. He'd probably already been told off for that. "Between the two of us, we regained the upper hand, and when the Sand shinobi showed up, we were able to defeat him."

It seemed… not enough. We'd said everything, but it still didn't encompass the terror and adrenaline and fear and pain… didn't cover the recovery most of us were still going through.

"Any questions?" Tsunade asked and though there was general shifting and glancing, no one wanted to ask. "Then I call this meeting over. You're all free to leave."

Ino was whisked off almost immediately, before any of us could try and talk to her. Shikamaru had a brief and hushed conversation with Chouji before hurrying after her.

"So that's what happened," Sasuke said. "That was the first time I heard…"

"Me too," I agreed. "I mean, I knew everyone was fine but I didn't know how the fights had gone." Everything had been so… rushed that _fine_ was fine. But now that I knew… "Are you… okay, Naruto?"

He looked surprised. "Yeah, of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

"It just sounded pretty awful, that's all," I said carefully. "Having someone try and possess you like that." It wasn't like possession techniques were all that uncommon, but that had been an entirely different flavour to any he'd been exposed to before.

"Hah! No one can overpower the awesome that is Naruto Uzumaki!" He nearly bounced to his feet.

"You and your awesome better stay in that chair!" Tsunade threatened with a pointed finger. Naruto froze and slunk back down.

"Idiot," Sasuke muttered with a smirk. "Don't aggravate your injuries."

I let it go. Maybe I could have pushed the issue, but did I need to? Would it help? Would it make things worse? Sometimes 'fine' really meant 'fine'.

And the boys were bickering and the moment was gone…

Sometimes it was just easier to _not._

"I don't want to go back down there," Sasuke said with a sigh, glancing at Jiraiya. "I'm not going to _do_ anything."

"I think it's for your safety," I said quietly. "Not to confine you."

Sasuke glanced at me sharply. "You think he'll send more people?"

I hummed noncommittally. "Maybe. But… they had to get so close to Konoha somehow. It might be that there's already someone here."

They couldn't keep Sasuke tucked away forever though. And would the prisoners be able to _identify _… whoever it was? Was there a backup plan? I couldn't even begin to guess, and it was all, frustratingly, out of my hands.

Sasuke's hands were clenched into fists. He hated this, I knew, being a target and having other people in danger for him. He hated being helpless.

"Sorry," I whispered, unable to come up with anything reassuring.

We fell silent. Most of the others had drifted out of the room, leaving it feeling strangely empty and echoing after having been so full.

"Common, kiddo," Jiraiya said, jerking his thumb at the door. "Enough chit-chat. We've got places to be."

Sasuke rose, resigned. I hoped this didn't go on for too long, because he was starting to chafe under it already.

Awkwardly, I rose and approached Tsunade. I'd been putting this off, but it was probably time to fess up. "Ah, Hokage-sama. On our mission to the Land of Tea I … recovered a village artefact. The Sword of the Thunder God-"

"Kid, I've got bigger things to worry about right now," she cut in, a little wearily. "And I sure as hell don't want it. It's fine, you can keep it. There are probably some Special Jounin that'll rage about it, but fuck 'em, if they wanted it they could have got it back themselves."

I opened and closed my mouth soundlessly. I'd only been going to ask where she wanted me to hand it in. It was a village artefact! It was, in fact, a Senju family artefact. And she was-

I bowed hastily. "Thank you, Tsunade-sama."

_She was letting me keep it._

I wandered away, dazed. I hadn't even entertained the possibility. Much. Not seriously, anyway. It had come in handy, but it wasn't like I was a sword fighter.

"I need to learn kenjutsu," I muttered out loud. _Or the tanto._ It had been on my list of things to learn eventually, which grew longer by the day.

There was a whole world of possibilities here. _What happens when a sword that cuts chakra meets a sword that _eats_ chakra?_ Which would win, the legendary sword of the leaf or the legendary sword of the mist? I couldn't even begin to guess. And that wasn't even starting on other circumstances where it could come in handy.

I breathed in, breathed out. There was still so much going wrong. But, maybe, the future wasn't hopeless.


	65. Chapter 64

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Nemesis Jedi – Tobirama is totally Shikako's favorite Hokage. Just saying. Even if inventing Zombie no Jutsu was a terribad move and the Uchiha Police Force thing didn't turn out so great either.

Anemos – I did hint at Shikako being able to sense natural chakra in one of the earlier chapters, and basically knew not to touch it until she could get instruction. And while she knew about the toads, she _didn't_ know that monks basically did the same thing. But yes, using it is still a long way off. Sealing is an area that I think not a lot of shinobi get into. Mostly, I'd wager that seals are _copied._ You make an explosive tag by making it identical to _that_ reference tag, rather than by understanding that this bit goes boom. Medical ninja would study medical seals, but probably wouldn't _create_ new ones all that often, which makes Tsunade special. On the SotTG, well, Aoi had it despite it being his supposed bargaining chip into Hidden Rain, and it was implied that before that it was kept in a dusty storage room somewhere, so I can't see it being _that_ important, despite all our reactions of _lightsaber. _XD

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Chapter 64

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_I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies  
>This is the dawning of the rest of our lives ~ Green Day, Holiday<em>

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"Good," the medic-nin said, ticking off something on his clipboard. "Now again."

Obediently, I ran through the exercise again, pressing my palm flat to the table and lifting each finger in turn. It was surprisingly difficult for something so simple, and the muscles in my hand twinged with pain.

"It looks like you're right on track," he said. "Don't forget to do your exercises, and treat the scar tissue to keep it supple."

"I won't," I promised, slipping my compression glove back on and picking up the squeezy stress ball from the table.

"Try not to overdo it, either," he said with a wry smile. "It might seem slow, but you are healing well."

Objectively I knew he was probably right. It was just frustrating to be barely able to do anything.

It wasn't _just_ because of my injuries; I was still rather lacking in chakra which made training difficult. I still had plenty to do, seal work mostly; the Sound Four had reminded me of barrier ninjutsu and I _was_ rather lacking in defensive capabilities. Not to mention the other dozen or so ideas that had been kicking around in my head. Every time I accomplished one thing, it led to half a dozen more ideas about where it could go from there.

I left physiotherapy, absently rolling the ball over my fingers, and headed upwards. Ino was finally allowed visitors and I _had_ to see her.

"Hey, Ino," I said, hovering in the doorway.

She was sitting quietly on her hospital bed, staring blankly at an open book on her lap. Her eyes were still slitted and I felt guilty for wishing that the physical sign of change had gone away.

She glanced up, reflexively, before lowering her eyes again. Her bangs were brushed forward, loose across her face, almost as if she were trying to hide.

"Hi," she said dully. She looked better than she had at the briefing but still not… quite herself. And I knew what if felt like, to realise that your very _self_ was malleable, that what made you _you_ could be _changed _so easily…

I had been lucky enough to come back to myself unharmed. Ino… hadn't been.

How much, and how badly, she'd been changed… that I didn't know.

I crept forward, feeling as if I was intruding. The silence in the room was suffocating. "I-" I cleared my throat. "I'm sorry. I should have come up with a better plan."

For a second, I thought she wasn't going to respond. I wasn't even sure she heard me. But then Ino took a shaky breath. "I should have listened," she said, eventually. "You warned me that it would be dangerous. But." She blew out a breath. "I was… so sure it would work. It _should_ have worked. It's… Mind-Body Switch isn't _easy_ you know. I trained _hard_ to be able to do that." She looked frustrated, maybe even on the verge of tears. "It's not a lot, not compared to you or Sasuke or even _Chouji_ can do but it's all I _have_." Her voice cracked on the last word. "Without it I don't have _anything_ and I'm not – I don't want to be useless."

"Oh, Ino. You're not-" I hurried to reassure her, startled at the sudden turn the conversation had taken.

"No," she bit out. "Don't. Just, don't, okay? I really screwed up. I know…" she hiccupped and buried her face in her hands.

I stared at her in bewilderment and perched on the side of the bed, hugging her awkwardly. I was at a loss for what to do. Of all of us, Sakura had been the one prone to tears, not Ino. Never Ino. "You did _fine,_ Ino. No one could have known about the curse seal. It doesn't make you useless."

"I was nothing but dead weight," she said, still muffled. "The whole mission, I did nothing to help. I –" she choked and shuddered. "I was so happy when I made the finals. My first try, as a rookie. Dad didn't even manage that. The only Konoha kunoichi… but I _lost_ and, and you've all come so _far_-"

I listened in confusion, stroking her back soothingly.

"You don't even _need me_ anymore. You're… you've changed _so much_ and you're so strong now and I don't even know when that happened. And Sakura is advancing so fast and you know there's talk about apprenticing her to one of the medics? _No one_ does that anymore. Even Hinata is… and I'm still just _me, _and you don't need me anymore!"

This wasn't just about this mission. It wasn't even _mostly_ about this mission.

"I – of course we do, Ino," I said. "You're my best friend. And Sakura would say the same." I hadn't changed that much since becoming a Genin, had I? "And you just had a bad matchup. It _happens._ It doesn't mean you're weak."

"You don't." She pushed away, wiping her eyes. "You used to follow me or Shikamaru around. You'd hardly even _speak_ to anyone else. And now you're helping plan A-ranks or whatever and you're like a completely different person."

I stared at her. Of all the ways this conversation could have gone, this wasn't one I had been prepared for.

"It was easier," I said haltingly. "To let you take charge when you were there. You're good at… at people and at organising things. Like our study group. None of the rest of us could have made it happen. But that's not the only reason… I'm _sorry_ if you feel… if we haven't made it clear that… you're important, Ino. Not for what you do but just for being Ino." I felt clumsy and useless, trying to put into words something so simple and so complicated at the same time.

Ino just gave a watery smile. "That's the Shikako I remember. 'Good at people'. Heh."

"That's what I get for trying to give a heart-to-heart speech?" I asked, trying for indignant, but mostly just feeling relieved that Ino was _listening_ and joking. "Maybe I should just have gone to get Sakura."

"Sakura doesn't get it," Ino said, voice low, fingers twisting the edge of the blanket. "She hasn't seen-"

She gave me a helpless look.

"We're all growing apart," I said. And that was the problem, wasn't it? It wasn't something that you could counter, all of us having different experiences, but Ino was reaching out, trying to find something familiar to hold herself to and… it wasn't quite what she was expecting. "Sakura hasn't had to fight; she's still studying." She might have had to see the aftermath, at the hospital, but it wasn't the same. And maybe she was thinking the same, having seen things in the hospital that we hadn't seen in the field.

"Yeah," Ino agreed, subdued. "I just didn't expect it to happen so fast."

She went silent, and after a while, I tentatively breached a question. "Are you… okay though? With … everything." I waved a hand aimlessly, trying to refer to what had just happened without words. If Inoichi wasn't working with her any longer, and she was allowed visitors, I was pretty sure that meant she was on the road to recovery, but that didn't mean she thought she was fine.

Ino glanced at me. "No," she said, as if testing the word. "No, I'm not."

I stalled. I hadn't been expecting a negative answer – truthful or not.

"I just…" Ino began. "I don't know how you did it… I didn't think about it then, but when Tsunade came back and healed you, you just… got up. Started training again, like nothing had happened. But, I can't." She laughed, sounding a little too desperate and hysterical to be entirely comforting. "I _can't._ I lost bits of myself and I _don't even_ _know what's missing. _How can I be okay? How can I just _get up_? How did you do it?"

And how could I explain? How could I say that Tsukiyomi had been awful…That the press of foreign chakra and that forced sharp perception had been damaging… That in the short term the horror of watching so many people die so messily had _hurt…_ that waking up to find a month gone, people moving on, had been confusing, but … I'd had _years_ of waking up knowing that I'd lost _everything._ Family, friends, pets, home, _places, language, culture…_ so much that I hadn't even acknowledged, just taken for granted as being there. It wasn't something I thought about, even now when I loved what I had, when the loss was merely painful rather than completely and utterly incomprehensible.

How could I explain that I had gotten up, reached out, kept _trying_ because by now it was all I could do to keep moving onwards.

I swallowed. I didn't really like thinking about it, especially in those terms. It had been _years…_ "Sometimes… if I look out the window at sunset and the sky is red…" I said quietly. "It feels like I never left." That wasn't something I had ever voiced aloud. But if Ino needed to hear it… "It's not like it didn't affect me. I just… got up. I get up. Every morning. That's the hardest part." My lips twisted into something that probably wasn't a smile. I couldn't really look at Ino, staring blankly past her at the wall. "You set a goal, something that you have to do, even if it's just something small. 'I have to get up, because I have to visit Ino today'. After that, it's just momentum to keep yourself going."

That one was an old trick. _I have to get up because I have class. I have to get up because I have work. _Ninja didn't have such a schedule, and without one I had to set my own goals for the day, otherwise I'd laze about in bed all day and I knew it.

"Oh," Ino breathed in surprise.

"It is okay to not be okay, you know," I added quietly. "You don't have to get up right away. And… you can ask us to help you. Or… if you don't want to ask… we'll help anyway." Because I had trouble asking for help and I didn't know if Ino was the same. Probably not; she'd never had any problem telling people what she wanted but… just in case.

Ino slumped back against the headboard. "Thanks," she said softly. "I just realised… I never asked. You said you were fine and that was it."

"It's okay," I said with a shrug. "I was fine."

"You mean you wouldn't have fessed up if I didn't need to hear it," she corrected, a little sadly.

I tried to weigh up if that was a good response or a bad one and what I needed to say in return. I didn't want to set her off again, and she was being… changeable. It was like walking in a minefield. There were things you didn't want to step on, but you didn't know where.

"Never mind." Ino sighed. "Look, I just… need some time to think, okay? I'll talk to you about it some other time."

I nodded, said my goodbyes and left. I didn't kid myself into thinking one conversation had fixed everything. But maybe it was headed in the right direction.

I slipped away from Ino's room, feeling wrung out. How could visiting a friend be more exhausting than physical rehabilitation?

I brought myself a drink from the vending machine and settled into the courtyard to drink it. There was bright sunshine, gentle wind, birds singing in the tree and the low chatter of other people enjoying the day, and none of it could ease the unhappy tightness inside me.

I stayed longer than I meant to – not that I had concrete plans – and eventually a gaggle of students spilled out into the courtyard, carrying books and food.

"Shikako!" Sakura said brightly, waving goodbye to the others and ducking out of the crowd. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey." I managed a smile. "Friends of yours?"

Sakura sank down onto the ground next to me, setting her books in a stack. "They're the third year medical students," she said, glancing away and tucking her hair behind her ear. "They're alright, I guess."

They did look a bit older, I noted, maybe sixteen on average, though a few were older than that. They hadn't looked particularly surprised when Sakura had broken off from the group, though a few had waved at her. Not close friends, no, but friendly, at least.

"I'm glad I came outside, then," Sakura said. "Usually I go to the library at lunch."

She was peering at me, green eyes bright and slightly anxious and I was at a loss for what to say. "Ah," I agreed, taking a sip of my drink to cover the pause. "Lucky."

"I heard about what happened," she said, slightly hushed after a pause. "A bit, I mean. But you were hurt, weren't you?" She made an aborted move towards my arm. "Can I?"

I held it out to her mutely, but instead of unwrapping the bandages or inspecting it like I had anticipated, her chakra sank into my arm. I jerked a little, in surprise, not _quite_ yanking my arm from her light grip.

Had Sakura _ever_ used her chakra on me? I didn't think so. It was unlikely she'd known how to do this prior to joining the Medical Corps and I didn't think there had been an opportunity since. Maybe it was just the timing of it, but her chakra reminded me of the sleeping gas they'd used to knock me out for surgery, faintly sweet and chemical, light enough to overlook if I didn't remember how fast it had worked.

Something in her face eased and she drew back. "I thought it would be worse," she admitted, a little shyly.

I thought about the pounding terror, the slick feeling of blood sliding between my fingers, the sharp pain of the initial injury and the repeated star bursts as I moved it. I thought about pressing it to my stomach and hoping it wasn't deep. I thought about the long, dark walk home and the contrast to where we were sitting now. It barely seemed real.

"Ah," I said staring down at my neatly bandaged forearm; hand tucked away in a compression glove. My fingers flexed. "It could have been worse."

"Have you seen Ino?" Sakura asked, sitting back and unpacking her bento box. She offered me some, and I waved her off. "I did this morning. She seemed… quiet."

Quiet wouldn't have been the word I would have used, but she probably hadn't ranted at Sakura like she had at me.

"Just now," I said, wondering if I should share. But… it _was_ personal, wasn't it? It wasn't something that should be gossiped about… "We should do something for her."

"Something?" Sakura queried. "Like what?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. A get well present? Dinner? A day out?" Something that said 'we're friends. Even if everything is changing, we're still friends'.

"That could be fun," Sakura agreed. "Maybe we could go to the onsen. Or, ooh, shopping. It's been a while since we've all just hung out."

I was content to stay silent and let her eat, my attention drifting off.

"So what have you been working on? And don't say 'nothing much'. I'll never believe you."

"Seals, mostly," I said. "Can't do much physical training at the moment, or hand seals so…" I shrugged. "Actually, maybe there's something you can help with. If you've got time or whatever." She was the only other person I knew with supposed 'perfect' chakra control, and well, this was something she _had_ been able to master. I hadn't intended to broach the subject so soon, not until I had a chance to test her reaction.

Sakura looked interested. "Yeah? I don't know much about seals."

"It's not sealing," I said. I grabbed a piece of blank paper and started sketching a rough limb and chakra movement. "Most people use chakra enhancements to increase their strength, right? But there's a limit to the amount that you can do so, before you actually start damaging muscles and tendons by putting too much strain on them. The better you are at balancing which parts you reinforce, the higher the limit is, but it still plateaus."

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. "We learnt that at the Academy."

"Right. So, to get beyond that plateau you'd need to do something different right?" I kept sketching, drawing down the ideas I'd worked out some time ago. "Like, say, the release of precisely timed chakra bursts as kinetic energy to maximise physical damage?"

Sakura blinked. "You'd blow your arm off with the backlash!" she objected.

"Not if you were counter-reinforcing it," I returned, scribbling the key points down. Okay, my drawings were horrible and my actual calculations were encoded in my notebooks at home, but it got the general gist across.

"I guess," she said doubtfully. "But the precise chakra controlled that would be required to do _both_ at the same time would be…" she trailed off and frowned. "Where did you get the idea for this again?"

"There are quite a few famous strength enhancing techniques," I demurred.

But Sakura wasn't deterred. "This is Tsunade-sama's strength technique!" she hissed, leaning in close so no one would hear her. "You can't-"

"Not entirely," I prevaricated. "I don't know how Tsunade-sama does her technique. But I would assume that she does do something similar, yes."

Sakura didn't look impressed, but I noticed she hadn't let go of the paper. "This is impossible," she said.

"The numbers work," I countered. Of course 'in theory' was much different to 'in practice'. There was a reason I hadn't exactly _tried_ it.

"Do they?" Sakura asked doubtfully.

"If you assume one hundred per cent accuracy in chakra conversion and conservation," I conceded.

"Even medical techniques don't assume more than ninety per cent. Ninety five for the seal based techniques. And assuming you can hold effectively two techniques at the same time is just _asking_ for trouble."

"Not as much as you would think," I countered, getting into the spirit of an academic argument. "Most ninja effectively hold bodily chakra enhancements while fighting, even when using gen, tai or ninjutsu. It becomes a passive technique that requires little concentration to hold."

"True," Sakura conceded, pursing her lips. "I still think there are problems."

"Run through it, then," I suggested. "Work it out and we can trade notes, see what we both came up with and which would work. I'll have to decode mine…"

Sakura bit her lip, staring down at the paper. "I – well- it's Tsunade-sama's technique! We can't just…"

"Try and recreate it?" I asked. "You think we're the only people that have tried this?"

"So what makes you think we'll _manage_?" Sakura retorted. "If no one else has?"

Which was a good point. "Is that enough to stop you trying?"

She looked torn. On one hand, this was a _challenge_, an intellectual challenge at the moment, which was the kind she loved the most. On the other hand… yes, it did seem a little underhand to try and recreate our Hokage's technique.

"We'll get in trouble."

"It's possible," I admitted. "But we're pretty much creating it from scratch just, you know, inspired by a technique that already exists." And any ninja that told you they'd never been inspired by someone else's techniques was a dirty liar.

"That's just details and you know it." But she folded the paper up. "I'll… look at it. I'm not promising anything! But I'll look at it."

Which was saying that she was interested enough to try and work the _theory_ of the technique out. Whether or not she'd help with the practice, well, that was another bridge to cross when we got there.

I smiled. "So how's your training going?"

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* * *

><p>.<p>

"Are you going to come and see the Sand Team off?" Shikamaru asked, leaning against the doorframe casually.

"Mmm?" I hummed, half listening as I wrote. "Wait, what? They're leaving? How do you know that?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Some of us have left the house recently, you know."

"I thought you were helping out at the Academy," I said, puzzled. I was pretty sure that was what he had been complaining about recently.

"Yeah," Shikamaru agreed. "So were they."

And that was unexpected, yet brilliant at the same time. It kept foreign ninja occupied, under the watch of the few ninja in Konoha who were (debatably) able to spare an eye, showcased Konoha's strengths and exposed the kids to foreign ninja under friendly circumstances. The risks were, of course, letting foreign ninja who had recently been enemies around Konoha's children.

Some might have said that the risk was too high, even if we were nominally allies.

"Huh." I blinked. "Right. Okay." I set my work down and grabbed my kunai pouch. Not that I thought I'd need it, but it felt weird not wearing it. It was like leaving the house without my keys. Or something.

We headed out to the main gates. Ninja weren't really that big on saying goodbye, or seeing people off, but it felt like the right thing to do.

"Have you been working with them a lot?" I asked curiously, because it was odd for Shikamaru to go out of his way for anything.

"A bit." Shikamaru shrugged. He cast a sideways glance at me. "Was there something you wanted to say to them?"

I shook my head. "I already said what I had to say." I wasn't sure how it had gone over, but I'd said it.

Shikamaru gave me an odd look, and yeah, okay it wasn't like he knew what I'd had to say to them. Hopefully he assumed it was something like 'thanks'.

There was a quiet bustle of activity at the gates, but at a glance there was no one I recognised. Shikamaru didn't say anything, and just propped himself up against the wall with folded arms, so I mirrored him, absently rolling my stress ball over my fingers.

"Huh," Temari said, pausing in the middle of the street and cocking a hand on her hip. She stared at Shikamaru. "What do you think you're doing here?" Her brothers halted beside her, seeming content to allow her to be the one to speak.

"Even if it's troublesome," Shikamaru said, "it's only polite to say goodbye when allies are leaving." There was a tone of familiarity to their exchange, of banter. I was strangely fascinated at the hint that Shikamaru and Temari might have become friends while she was here. It was something I hadn't seen developing, hadn't been a part of, a side to my brother that was entirely separate from me.

Although 'friends' might have been stretching it a bit. There seemed to be a mutual wariness between them all; that of foreign shinobi watching each other carefully, evaluating every word and move.

"Thank you for your help," I said, bowing shallowly. "It was lucky for us that you were here."

To my surprise, it was Gaara that bowed back, albeit very stiffly. "We were assigned this mission merely to get us out of the village now that there is no one with the power to contain us," he rasped and I knew by 'us' he meant himself, most of all. "And as a subtle discourtesy to your village. And yet…" he paused, seeming to search for words. "I am glad we were here."

Because sending an unsheathable weapon, a Jinchuriki known for insanity and one who had recently attacked our village no less, on a simple delivery errand had to have all kinds of hidden meanings. And yet, in one simple move, Tsunade had turned their insult into our victory.

Temari and Kankurou both looked slightly ataken back, but recovered quickly. "That's right," Temari agreed. "But try not to get into too much trouble. I'd hate to have to make the trip from Suna that often."

Shikamaru smirked slightly. "Likewise."

Kankurou shifted a little, adjusting the weight of his puppet on his back. "Right. Now that Temari has gotten all of her sappy goodbyes out of the way; let's blow this joint."

He ignored the dark look Temari shot his way with the ease of long practice.

They were just about to head out the gates when someone yelled "Wait! Wait" from behind us.

I turned, bemused, and watched as Konohamaru dragged a confused Naruto through the crowd.

"We had to find the Boss," Konohamaru explained, panting. "That took _forever._"

Moegi and Udon, having been apparently left in the dust as Konohamaru raced off, appeared as well. More surprisingly, Ebisu-sensei was tailing them. I was amused to note that Moegi had a obi tied over her normal outfit, dangling a large sloppily tied bow behind her much like Temari.

"Whadda you midgets want?" Kankurou demanded gruffly. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"We're here to say goodbye!" Konohamaru retorted. He marched smartly up to Gaara and nearly tripped over his own scarf. He shoved a piece of paper towards Gaara. "We made it," he added unnecessarily.

Gaara blinked.

Konohamaru was, much like Naruto, the kind of person who would react to something that intimidated him by reaching out and poking it. Of course, his run in before the Chunin Exams had mostly been with _Kankurou_ and it didn't look like he'd forgiven that.

"Thank you," Gaara said quietly. From here, I could barely see what had been handed to him, but it looked … colourful. And potentially glittery.

"Thank you for helping Ebisu-sensei teach our class," Udon sniffled. "I hope you come back soon."

Moegi beamed, clasping her hands together. "We'd like it if you visited!"

Ebisu-sensei adjusted his glasses. "Your assistance at the Academy was much appreciated. I'm sure the other teachers will agree with my assessment that you were valuable assistants."

Naruto looked uncharacteristically sombre. I recalled that Temari had mentioned Gaara wanting to speak to him, and I hoped they had. It would probably have been good for both of them. "I guess this is goodbye then," he said. "You know, when you first showed up here, I thought you were just a crazy guy. I was even a little scared of you. But we're a lot more alike than I ever would have guessed." He laughed, a little uncomfortably. "Ah, I guess what I'm trying to say is; I'm glad you found precious people of your own. Even if we didn't get to fight, I can tell that you're a lot stronger now. So, you better keep getting even stronger, because that's what I'm going to be doing!"

Gaara nodded slowly. "Yes. I think I will."

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* * *

><p>.<p>

It was mid-afternoon when I knocked on the door to the Yamanaka residence, carefully wrapped host gift in my arms. I'd been surprised to receive a _formal_ invitation from them, but the card had had touches of pure Ino all over it, so I'd hoped she was having fun planning a dinner party.

I was a little early, but Sakura was already there.

"Hey, Shikako! Come help me take this into Ino's room!" She gave an aborted wave, hands full of snack food and nibbles.

I slid the gift onto the bench and picked up an armload. "Sure. So whose coming to this thing? Do you know?"

"Not many people, actually," Sakura replied with a tiny, barely noticeable frown. "Us, Hinata… I think Tenten. That's about it."

"A real girls night out," I said. "None of her friends from the Academy are coming?"

Ino had had a much larger social circle than the two of us, and it seemed odd that they weren't here, especially compared to a recent friend like Tenten. I doubted that five months was enough time for her to completely stop talking to them.

"I don't think so," Sakura said. "I think she just wanted a small get together?" She didn't seem very certain of the fact.

I shrugged. I couldn't really blame her if she did. Even after she'd left the hospital, I hadn't seen her much; she was keeping herself quietly tucked away.

Ino's room had been rearranged, with a small table for the snacks and drinks and several kneeling cushions.

"Hullo," Ino said, beaming, as she shuffled the flower arrangement on the table. "What do you think? At the end or the middle?" She moved the vase back and forth several times.

I glanced at it. "Middle?" I offered, helping set the bowls down.

"Middle it is then. Perfect!" She looked happy; much more like herself in spirit. It was good to see.

"Having fun then?" I asked, amused. "I liked the camellia with the invitation. Victory under adversity?" There were several meanings, but I was pretty sure that was the one she intended to use.

Ino gave a secretive looking smile.

"I got a convolvulus with mine," Sakura said. "Perseverance."

"So we all got something different?" It did make sense, if she was trying to send a message.

"I'm not saying," Ino said, with a laugh. "You'll have to wait to work it out. I bet it's killing you now."

Playfully, I stuck my tongue out at her. "No, it's not!" I liked puzzles, true, but not so much that I couldn't wait.

Tenten showed up next, looking a little awkward and intimidated.

"Glad you could come," I said.

She sidled close to me, looking relieved. "I didn't know what to expect," she said lowly. No wonder she was intimidated, then. The Yamanaka might not have been a _huge_ clan, but they were fairly well entrenched into the community. For an orphan like Tenten, a formal invite might have heralded a lot of nerves. Especially considering we were just casual acquaintances.

Well, I didn't know if Ino knew her better than I did.

"Do you know Ino well?" I asked.

Tenten hesitated. "Okay, I guess. Well, we hung out a bit when… when Sasuke was on my team." She shrugged. "She was someone to talk to when I got sick of the two of them."

That … actually made more sense than 'lets invite the kunoichi who went on the last mission with us'.

"I wouldn't worry about it," I said. "I think the invites were just Ino getting carried away. If you make things too formal, it just gets boring."

A smile tugged at her lips. "Well we wouldn't want that."

Hinata arrived precisely on time, knocking timidly on the door. "Oh," she said softly, staring at us. "I'm sorry, I…" She trailed off miserably, fiddling with her sleeves.

"That's a lovely kimono," Sakura said brightly.

It was. Very much so. The problem was that none of the rest of us were anywhere _near_ as dressed up. Awkward.

"That," Ino proclaimed. "Is a _brilliant_ idea, Hinata. We should all get dressed up. It'll be fun." She bounced to her feet.

And amidst the giggling and flying cloth, as we raided Ino's wardrobe, I remembered to ask "so what flowers did you get with your invitation?"

"Chrysanthemum," Hinata demurred shyly. "Thank you, Ino. It was lovely."

Tenten shrugged. "It was blue?"

Well, colour could change the meaning, but the way Ino burst into giggles, I figured that wasn't the point.

"What? I have better things to do that memorize a billion different types of flowers," Tenten said defensively.

"It was an iris," Ino gasped out.

I nodded. "So, camellia for victory. Convolvulus for perseverance. Chrysanthemum for natural perfection. Iris for heroism." I thought about it. "Natural beauty is a warrior who perseveres and finds victory despite adversity?"

"That's so cool!" Sakura said, clasping her hands together, eyes a little starry. "A kunoichi only grows more beautiful as she fights."

Which wasn't _quite _the interpretation I would have taken from it but I guess I couldn't fault Sakura for it.

We spent ages getting ready and doing unrepentantly girly things like our hair and nails – shinobi nail protector was like the holy grail of nail polish, long lasting, non-chip enamel designed to stop your nails getting caught and tearing on things or the multitude of nasty things that could happen when you used your hands for a living.

"Don't you girls look nice," Ino's mother said when we came downstairs for dinner. "I feel underdressed."

Like my family, the Yamanaka normally at a table with chairs, which was just easier and more convenient, but for formal occasions low tables and seiza cushions were preferred.

Dinner was excellent and I ended up striking up a conversation with Tenten about seals.

"When you offered me a book," she confessed. "I thought you meant a textbook."

"There aren't many textbooks on the subject," I said. "Or at least, not that I've found." The revelation that sealing was a method that varied from person to person because of individual experiences and preconceptions probably helped to explain that. "Has it been helpful?"

"Very. I'm thinking… you've been able to modify seals right? One of the problems I have with using storage scrolls to hold weapons is that, well, I have so many of them. And throwing the scrolls is easy enough, but they make a target."

"And you either have to seal everything into one seal, and then have it all appear at once, or use a lot of separate seals," I continued, having an inkling of where she was going. It was the first place my mind had gone.

"Right. Storage seals are all in or all out. You can't, say, put two things in and then take one out. But what if you could? If you could make a permanent, partial opening seal that could be used repeatedly?"

_Hammerspace. Totally._

"Well, storage seals actually don't have any shape when they're empty. They're … collapsed, I guess, and they take the shape of the object that's put on them. Which is why you can store food in there without it going rotten, because there's no air or heat… you could try sealing, I don't know, a box and then putting things in and out of _that_ pre-sealed space, but I'm not sure how you'd go about opening it and getting things out without collapsing the whole thing," I admitted. "You might need a completely different base seal instead. Maybe combine it with summoning…"

"Yeah," Tenten said, looking animated. "I've been thinking about that. I've been calling it the door way effect. If a seal is like a room, then usually you're _building_ it around whatever you want to seal, and taking it down when you're done. And if you knock out one of the walls, then it doesn't have enough support and collapses. But most rooms have doorways, and they can support a bit of structural weakness, you just need to find a spot that will hold. And obviously, put a door in so you can open and close it."

It was a simple analogy, but I could see what she meant. Find a point in the seal where you could put a doorway or a tunnel and then pull things in and out through that. Like going through the back door instead of the trapped and guarded front gates.

Across the table, Ino moved her hands in a 'blah blah' motion. "Boring work talk," she decided.

"Hey," Tenten shot back. "I listened to you lot talk flowers before."

Eventually, Tenten and Hinata left with happy smiles to head home. Sakura and I had been invited to stay the night, like we'd done many times before.

"You know," Ino said, unrolling the extra futons while Sakura was in the bathroom brushing her teeth. "For someone who says they're no good at people, you're excellent at getting us to help each other."

I gave her a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

"Sakura told me it was your idea. To get us all together."

"Oh. Well, I meant for us to do something for you, not …" I shrugged a shoulder. "I didn't think you were going to throw a party."

"It was good though, wasn't it?" Ino asked, rhetorically. "I would have missed this."

That… wasn't quite right. "Ino?"

She glanced up. "Just hear me out, okay? I've been doing a lot of thinking these last few days and I know you're just dying to hear." Her voice took a teasing lit, though it was still serious.

"Okay," I said slowly.

"I've been thinking about quitting," she said bluntly.

I wasn't sure if I could have spoken if I'd wanted too.

"I know. I'd have to abdicate as clan heir and everything, but I have cousins who could take the role. It wouldn't be too hard." She leant back against the wall. "I really thought about it. All this stuff in my head… it taints everything. I'll never know, ever again, if something is what I want, what I like, or if its _him_. If I'm being influenced… it's not just as simple as having his memories. There's more to a person than that and I don't even _know_ which parts –" She shook her head. "There's always going to be doubt. Like, if I keep learning medical ninjutsu, is it me? Or is it something I picked up from him? Am I going to wander down the same path he did? Even something that's supposed to be for helping people is tainted now."

I wanted to speak, to reassure her that she wouldn't, but she wasn't finished yet.

"But… I always wanted to be a kunoichi. I wanted to lead the clan. I wanted to fight and to heal and to help people. If I quit now… if I quit because of him… that decision is going to be tainted too."

We were silent for a second.

"Natural beauty," I quoted quietly, "is the warrior who perseveres and finds victory despite adversity."

Ino smiled. "We're going to bloom into the most beautiful flowers of all. Just you wait."

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* * *

><p>.<p>

This chapter took forever to write, which is a shame, because this was the bit I was looking forward to writing three chapters ago. : (


	66. Chapter 65

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Anemos – Most of the meanings come of the net, from a variety of different sites. I do not even remotely claim for them to be correct, and I basically pick and choose to fit what I need. XD Its just something that I think Ino would do, especially with her 'you're like the cosmos' talk to Sakura in canon.

So this chapter took a while. We moved house, and in what shall be referred to as The Great Internet Debacle of 2013 were left without internet for two weeks. It was _terrible_ I tell you. Add that to the audit at work and things got a bit busy.

As always, the next chapter will take exactly as long as it takes me to write it. I don't sit on them once they're done guys. You get it when it's finished.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 65

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><p>.<p>

_But for every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing ~ Friedrich Nietzsche_

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><p>.<p>

"Shikako!" Naruto hollered. "The pervy sage said that they were letting Sasuke out today." He grabbed my hand and started tugging me along the street. "Come on!"

I felt a surge of relief. It had been a while, and Sasuke was _sure_ to hate being locked up. And, well, if they were letting him leave the secure ward, they had to have some kind of plan as to how to keep him safe, right?

"That's great!" I chirped, abandoning the shopping I had been about to do in order to follow Naruto.

"Yeah! We can start doing missions again! It'll be awesome!"

Personally, I wasn't quite sure I was up for a mission just yet, but I wasn't about to rain on Naruto's parade.

We waited in the reception area of the hospital – Naruto impatiently bouncing around and babbling – until Jiraiya arrived with Sasuke.

"Hey," I said, lamely as he slouched forward, hands in his pockets looking terribly, desperately bored.

"Finally!" Naruto said. "I thought we were waiting for Sensei or something. Geeze! You sure took your time."

Sasuke scoffed. "Tell that to him," he said, jerking his thumb at where Jiraiya was hanging over the reception desk. I would have assumed he was signing them out, but there was an awful lot of giggling happening.

"Glad to be out of there?" I asked dryly.

"You have no idea," Sasuke said seriously. "I was so bored."

"I did say you could read my books," Jiraiya said, suddenly standing behind Sasuke and clapping him on the shoulders. Sasuke twitched. "Action, adventure, romance! What more could you want?"

"Stop trying to get people to read your stupid pervy books!" Naruto shouted. "It's bad enough that Kakashi-sensei does." Which lead to Jiraiya protesting that his books weren't stupid, thank you very much.

Sasuke seemed to find the floor very, very interesting.

_Bored indeed, _I thought, bumping his shoulder with mine.

"Don't say a word," he ground out lowly.

I smirked. Suddenly, it seemed like everything was _right_ again, as if things had just been so slightly out of whack. If this was what a week split up was like, then Sasuke and I were going to have hell when Naruto left.

"You have no taste," Jiraiya said, turning his back on a fuming Naruto. "No appreciation for fine literature at all." He clapped his hands together. "Alright munchkins. Let's go!"

"You're coming with us, Jiraiya-sama?" I asked curiously, as the three of us fell into step behind him.

"Yeah! You said you'd teach me something!" Naruto jumped in. "Except every time I find you, you run away to perv on women or something."

"I'm a busy man," Jiraiya protested. "Things to do, people to meet, sights to, eh-he-he, see…" the grin on his face hardly countered Naruto's accusation.

It was probable that he _was_ busy though. If he'd been decrypting Sasuke seal, applying seals to the Sound Four prisoners as Tsunade had implied, probably managing whatever information his spy network was bringing in and, well, anything else that came up… the fact that he'd taken the time to see Naruto at all said something.

"Hmph." Naruto crossed his arms and scowled. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

"Hop to it, then!" He clapped his hands together. "We don't want to waste time."

We ended up at our normal training field, despite a small altercation between Naruto and Jiraiya as he tried to steer us nearer to the bath houses.

"Now what?" Naruto asked eagerly. "Are you going to teach us a cool jutsu?"

Jiraiya put his chin in his hand thoughtfully. "Actually… how's your Rasengan coming along?"

Naruto's face fell. "I can already do that!"

"One handed?" Jiraiya probed. "The trick with the clones is clever, no doubt about that, but you're hampering yourself by not being able to use it instantly."

Naruto sulked and stomped off. I could see him starting to practice though – without his clones helping him.

"Well that was easy," Jiraiya said idly, turning to the rest of us. Or rather, to me. Sasuke had already moved off, and was going through a series of warm up stretches. "Alright then. How's your sealing coming along?"

"Alright," I said with a shrug. "I've been trying to work on some barrier seals."

"Got inspired, huh?" Jiraiya said. "That's a big topic, though. Covers a hell of a lot. Anything specific that you're looking at?"

I nodded. "I wanted to make a defensive barrier – something that you could activate from a tag, maybe – that would block attacks. There are a couple of trap barriers that won't let anything pass through, but they can be complicated to set up." Like the barrier that the Sound Four had used to trap the Hokage during the Exam Finals.

"Ambitious," he commented, raising an eyebrow. "Most barriers have four corner tags, for stability purposes – and for range determination. Reducing that to a single seal will be different."

"I know," I said. "It's been slow going. At first I started trying to base it off my earth wall jutsu, but soil types have too much variability for it to work very well. So I'd either have to switch to another element or go with pure chakra. Wind would probably work best, since it's everywhere and doesn't change much, but I have no experience with wind jutsu and while it does _diverting_ well, I don't know how it would handle straight out blocking…" Temari had used wind currents to deflect things fairly well, but that wasn't what I was _really_ looking for.

Jiraiya helped, and we bounced ideas off each other for a while. "You thinking about going into R&D?" he asked. "Because otherwise the Barrier Team might snap you up, if you manage this."

I shrugged, surprised at the question. "I don't know, I never really thought about it," I said honestly. There were a few Nara in R&D, pharmacology division usually, but I wasn't really aiming for it.

"Really? Bright girl like you? You don't have any plans?"

Oh god, it was the _what do you want to do with your life_ conversation. I'd _hated_ this the first time around. At least now most people had accepted 'be a ninja' as an answer.

I hunched my shoulders a little. "I want to be a jounin," I murmured. I'd need to be strong, and while rank didn't _make_ you strong, you had to be strong to get it.

That was the other answer people accepted.

"Being a generalist isn't a _bad_ thing," Jiraiya said, softly. "But there are a lot of things the different teams and divisions can teach you. It's worth knowing what they all do, anyway."

I nodded. Regardless of what I was going to do, it was good advice.

I thought, perhaps, he was going to say something else, but then Jiraiya's eyes cut left, staring off into the distance, as though he were focusing on something that wasn't present. "Well that's excellent timing," he said quietly before raising his voice. "Sorry kids, you're on your own! Duty calls." He cackled and rubbed his hands together. "The ladies just can't wait for Jiraiya to show up!"

Naruto harrumphed. "We don't need you here, anyway!"

"Excellent! Now don't go getting yourself into trouble." He waggled a finger at us and vanished.

I frowned, just a little, and cast my senses out. I couldn't feel him anymore, couldn't feel _anyone_ around us. That didn't mean no one was there, however. I was good at sensing, and even better at identifying what I sensed, but that didn't mean I was unbeatable. All techniques had counters, in the end.

"Just like him," Naruto muttered. "Showing up, not helping then leaving."

I looked down, guiltily, realising that I had basically monopolised Jiraiya's time. He'd been helping _me_ not Naruto.

"Good riddance," Sasuke said, tone full of dismissal. "Now are you going to keep doing that, or do you want to do some _real_ training?" He drew a handful of kunai, the meaning clear.

Naruto brightened. "Yeah! Shikako?"

I laughed. "I'll sit this one out. Supposed to be going light on the taijutsu and all that." I settled myself on top of one of the three training posts and watched.

It was interesting to watch them fight, and not have to worry about participating. Naruto was getting good at his replacement technique, using it to drop himself or his clones in to take advantage of openings. There was the kunai duplication trick, and replacing himself with a moving kunai and then duplicating it – which I had no doubt would one day give someone a nasty surprise.

Sasuke's taijutsu had always been good, but it was a surprising mishmash of styles and moves now. There was a strong influence of Lee's Strong Fist, and the Uchiha style he'd started off with, but also a smattering of other attacks and deflections that had to have been copied along the way. I was sure I spotted a move that had to have a Jyuuken basis – a curving open palmed swipe – used in a way that a true Jyuuken user never would have.

Eventually they wound down and stopped.

"So, lunch?" I suggested brightly. It would be a _late_ lunch by now, but still. Food.

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered, bouncing back to his feet. "It's been _ages_ since we went to Ichiraku together."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You never eat anything else, do you?" he asked rhetorically. But it was a friendly taunt and they bumped shoulders as we headed back to town.

We were barely out of the training fields when a shadow on the ground made me look up. A hawk was flying above us, winging across the sky with lazy loops.

The message it was carrying …

_Sasuke Uchiha. Mission. Report to main gates ASAP._

I frowned.

"Aww, what? You get to go on a mission already?" Naruto groused. "That's so not fair! Why you, anyway? We should be going as a team!" He smacked his fists together.

"I don't like it," I said uneasily, exchanging glances with Sasuke. Not for the same reason that Naruto didn't, but it was suspicious. Jiraiya lets Sasuke out, vanishes, then he gets a mission request? By hawk, no less.

Sasuke nodded slowly. Ignoring a mission request was a very serious offence, but you _could_ negotiate. You could _reject_ missions, even, although it didn't happen very often. "To the mission desk?"

"I think we should at least verify it," I confirmed. "It doesn't seem right."

"You don't think it's a real mission?" Naruto asked, glancing upwards again. "That it's someone trying to get their hands on Sasuke again?" His eyes narrowed a fraction. "Orochimaru is really starting to piss me off."

"Join the club," Sasuke said dryly.

But we couldn't _get _to the Missions Desk.

"Sorry," the Chunin standing in front of the door said, slightly harried. "The Missions Desk is closed for the rest of the day. Please come back later."

Naruto started to argue that it was _really important_ but I drew back, with Sasuke.

"What kind of thing makes the Mission Desk close?" he asked in an undertone.

It was a good point. Missions were the whole _point._ Come hell or high water, missions were assigned and carried out. And for that, someone needed to do the assigning.

"I don't know," I said, eyes narrowed. No missions meant … what? All the missions were done? Unlikely. Everyone was on a mission? That suggested some kind of wide scale assemblage and we _couldn't_ have missed a signal for that. Could we?

"Whaddaya mean Baachan isn't here? Where is she then?" Naruto hollered, breaking my concentration. He huffed, turning away from the poor beleaguered door guard. "This sucks."

I nodded. "Let's go home," I suggested quietly. The Nara Clan compound was one of the safest places I knew. "Unless you want…"

Wanted to what? Go on the mission? Go and see who exactly was waiting for him by the gates? That could just be walking straight into an ambush. Try an investigate some more?

Sasuke ran a hand through his hair. "If this _is _a mission, I'm going to be in so much trouble," he muttered. "Sure. Let's go."

Naruto looked unusually serious. "Don't worry, Shikako-chan! If anyone shows up to try and take Sasuke again, we'll kick their asses just like we did before! Everything will be okay!"

"Of course it will be," I said. "As if we'd allow it to be any other way."

Home, it turned out, wasn't the bastion of serenity I'd imagined it was going to be. Mum was directing half a dozen clan members around, looking like a professional ninja, despite the pink dress and apron. "-the stock take done _immediately_ so we can work out what was stolen," she was saying as we came into hearing range.

"What happened?" I asked, alarmed.

She hesitated a fraction on seeing me, but then her face hardened as she made a decision. "The outer research labs were attacked. I've sent word to the Hokage, but it seems like we weren't the only place hit. Your brother has already gone on ahead to scout and gather information."

I nearly gaped. "Was anyone hurt?"

"Emono and Kyoogi were knocked out, but they seem like they'll be okay," she replied, easing some of my tension. "I hate to ask, but could you go after your brother…"

"Of course," I said even before she'd finished. I would have suggested going myself, but I felt off balance. I didn't know what was going on, and someone had attacked _my home._

"Yeah, you can count on us!" Naruto said, a tad loudly. "We'll make sure that lazy slacker doesn't get in any trouble." He laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.

Sasuke looked about as tense as I felt.

Funny how an hour ago, today had been a good day.

I led the way, bouncing through the tree tops as we headed across the clan grounds towards the outer walls of Konoha. The outer labs were generally for experimentation, and were fairly isolated in case they needed to be evacuated and contained. They were only moderately hidden or defended, but it still implied someone had _known_ where to look for them – and what to take.

_Worrying._

Could this be related to Jiraiya vanishing – to Sasuke's mission? But _how?_ Mum had implied we weren't the only ones attacked, so was there so kind of invasion force? I wish I'd asked, but if she'd known she would have said. An invasion didn't make sense, anyway, not for smash and grab thievery. Sure there were some dangerous or expensive chemicals and ingredients, but not in such quantities to make it worth the effort.

I shook my head. _Gotta focus. It's pointless wondering when you have no information. _

"What's that?" Sasuke asked, distracting me.

"The research lab," I answered, jumping down to the ground. "Be careful what you touch." I could sense people down there, but one of them was Shikamaru, so I guessed that they'd come ahead with him.

"Hey Shikamaru! You there?" Naruto hollered. At least we weren't trying to go the stealthy route.

After a brief pause, Shikamaru emerged from out of the building, hands in his pockets and glaring lazily at Naruto. "Geeze, I think everyone in this half of Konoha heard you," he muttered. "You nearly gave the researchers a heart attack." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, back at the building.

"What have you found?" I asked.

"Well," he drawled. "We have a list of what was taken, but hell if I know what they wanted it for. It's the most bizarre combination of ingredients; makes no sense."

I'd once told Ino that Shikamaru probably knew more about medicine than he'd care to admit and it was comments like these that made me suspect it. He wasn't _interested_ in it at all, but Shikamaru wasn't interested in many things.

"Other than that," he continued. "They didn't exactly go overboard on the subtlety. You can probably tell which direction they went by yourself."

"They?" I asked. "You think there were multiple people."

Shikamaru scratched his chin and yawned. "Not inside. There'd have been more stuff moved if there had been several people looking for things. But there could have been accomplices waiting outside."

The building wasn't a big one either, and it was going to get crowded quickly if you started adding more people.

"Shoe prints indicate an adult male; definitely someone with shinobi training," Shikamaru added. "It's hard to tell more than that, unless you want to call for a full investigation."

"We'd probably have better luck following the trail," Sasuke said, eyeing the tree tops.

"Well if you insist," Shikamaru drawled, and I realised he'd been counting on the suggestion. "Wait for me to send these two back, and we can go after them."

And although Naruto looked impatient to be going, now that we'd decided, we waited for Shikamaru to finish giving orders to the two researchers that had come with him to assess the building. "Oh," he added, once he was done. "And tell my mother that I'm heading after the intruder with Team 7, would you?"

"She's not really going to be happy about this," I said, as we leapt into the trees.

Shikamaru shrugged. "You can head back."

I scoffed. "Yeah, right." After that, we were more focused on where we were going, because although we'd had training in pursuit, tracking by physical trails wasn't exactly a skill any of us excelled in. We were all sharp eyed and intelligent though, so spotting foot prints and bent branches wasn't impossible, given that there seemed to be no attempt at hiding them.

"Is he arrogant, or is it a trap?" I asked.

"Assume it's a trap," Shikamaru said. "That way we only get a pleasant surprise."

The trail wound through several training fields where we almost lost it, to the far, far outskirts of the village, before coming to a small unnoticeable cave wedged in the side of a hill. There were two very large men sitting just outside the entrance, eating.

"There's definitely someone in there," I breathed quietly, frowning. "It's- It's almost familiar…" I just couldn't quite put my finger on _why._ The two we could see weren't familiar at all.

Sasuke gave the handsign for retreat and we backed up into the forest.

"Why are we backing up?" Naruto hissed. "We've got them now."

"We should try and get some information first," I said, biting my lip. "We don't know _anything_ about who they are or why they attacked the lab." _Or if they were involved with Orochimaru or if it was just a coincidence…_

"And we don't know who's in the cave or what he's doing," Sasuke said. "If there's another exit, he might get away."

"Alright," Shikamaru said, unfolding his hands from where they'd been clasped. "Here's what we're going to do."

I was a little surprised that neither of the boys protested at taking orders from Shikamaru – but then, we _had_ just done a mission with him, and once he started laying out the plan they seemed happy enough with it.

Actually, it was also a little surprising that Shikamaru was just… taking charge like this.

"Remember, we want to incapacitate them, so be careful," he cautioned. "Also, we don't know where the cave leads, or what's inside it, so the entering team will need to be wary of traps."

"We got it," Naruto said confidently. "These guys are going to regret messing with us."

Shikamaru sighed, looking like he was having second thoughts. "Alright then," he said. "Let's go."

Naruto sprung off several clones, one standing next to Shikamaru and Sasuke, the others circling through the trees to surround the clearing. The real Naruto and I nodded at each other and moved off, getting as close to the entrance as we could without losing cover.

The others waited for us to all get in position, then launched themselves into the clearing at speed, as if they had been racing through the tree tops.

The two large shinobi blinked placidly at them, still eating.

"Hah, we found you!" Naruto crowed.

"Look, brother," one of the shinobi said, voice drawn out. "There are people here."

"I see them, Fujin," said the other one. "Maybe they want to play a game with us?"

Naruto looked pretty dumbfounded at that lack of reaction. "Hey! I'm talking to you! What were you doing attacking the Nara Clan? And who are you, anyway?"

"We're Fujin and Raijin," the second shinobi – Raijin – said. "But we didn't attack anybody. There was no one to fight. It wasn't very fun. Hey, do you have any food? All of ours is gone, and I'm _hungry._" He sounded plaintive, almost whining.

"You're seriously asking us for food?" Sasuke asked in disbelief.

"I don't think they have any food, brother," Fujin said, leaning over to talk to Raijin, but not actually whispering.

Raijin sighed and heaved himself to his feet. "Okay then, I guess we'll play. He did say we had to make sure no one disturbed him."

Fujin stood too. "Oh, boy. I hope it's fun."

"Hah! You think you can take us?" Naruto taunted. "You don't stand a chance!"

Raijin _disappeared _with a blur of speed, and Naruto's clone vanished into a puff of chakra smoke. Beside me, the real Naruto jerked, and nearly gave jumped into the fight. I put a hand on his arm and jerked my head towards the cave entrance, which was no longer blocked.

There were more clones ready to help, and Sasuke and Shikamaru were _excellent_ fighters. That didn't stop the surge of worry, but they'd be okay. I hoped.

"That wasn't very fun," Raijin said, sadly. Sasuke drew a handful of shuriken, and Shikamaru had his hands clasped in a rat seal, shadow forming around his feet.

We waited a second, to ensure their attention was focused on the fight that was breaking out, then edged our way carefully to the cave. We had to move quickly, but carefully, which was difficult as one usually traded off for the other. The inside was dim, light reaching only the first part of the tunnel, which sloped down sharply. The floor was rocky and uneven, and I summoned chakra to my hands to illuminate our path, once I was sure we wouldn't be seen from the outside.

I couldn't sense any chakra in the tunnel, and we didn't see any traps as we edged forwards.

Eventually, we saw flickering light up coming from further in and I doused my own chakra light with a look at Naruto. This was it then.

We edged forwards in the half light, trying to see what was ahead of us before we revealed ourselves, but the tunnels were – by either fate or design – laid in such a way that the advantage was to those inside. We could see what looked like a workroom, with some metal table in the centre and various things bolted to the walls. There was a person, male, tall, with long hair of pale colour. It was difficult to tell in the low light, but I thought it might be silver.

"So Fujin and Raijin failed, I see," he said, calling out to us. He sounded mostly annoyed, rather than worried. "Did they get distracted by their stomachs?"

"Maybe I'm just that awesome," Naruto boasted with a sharp grin as he stepped into the room.

I hung back, blending against the wall. He hadn't sounded like he knew _who_ was there, so I wasn't going to reveal myself if I could retain the advantage of secrecy. I wasn't exactly hiding - there wasn't room for it – more just being unobtrusive and not drawing attention.

"You!" The person snarled, turning away from the workbench in the middle of the room. "Of all the people."

"Mizuki," Naruto said, surprised, before narrowing his eyes. "Didn't you learn your lesson about stealing things the first time?"

_Mizuki-sensei?_ Well that explained the vague familiarity. You'd think I'd remember a man who taught us for years a bit more. Then again, I already knew that rapid changes in personality could influence what your chakra was like and betraying your village was a pretty big change, even if you'd been thinking about it for a while.

But what was Mizuki doing here anyway? He'd tried to steal the Forbidden Scroll; they wouldn't have just let him walk away after that. I was, well, frankly a little stunned that he had survived at all. Surely he would at least be imprisoned somewhere.

Mizuki glared. "The only reason I was defeated in our last meeting was because I underestimated that conniving demon fox."

Naruto scoffed. "That had nothing to do with the fox. _That_ was all me. I don't need Kyuubi to deal with someone like _you._"

Mizuki looked, well, furious. "Don't lie! It's pathetic you made Genin; they should have stomped you out when you were born. I see you're wearing a Chunin vest, too. Who did you steal that from? Or did dear Iruka give that to you too?"

"I earned _this_ all by myself," Naruto shot back. "So you can just stuff it."

"This pathetic village. How many times did I try? And _you_ they just hand it to." His lips curled in disgust. "This place, it's always the same. No matter how many missions I took, how many high class enemies I defeated, they never looked at me with respect. Always looking down on me, always _judging._"

Naruto was an empathetic person. But there was no way he was going to sympathise with that. Not when his own resolve was to make people acknowledge him. "So what?" Naruto asked aggressively. "You turned on them? Betrayed your own friends, tried to hurt Iruka-sensei? That's not the kind of person that _deserves _respect!"

"Iruka was the worst," Mizuki said dismissively. "He was no one. Nothing. Always goofing off in class and failing his tests. He wouldn't have even passed if it wasn't for me. And yet, _he_ was the one the Third Hokage took an interest in. He was the one that gained all the attention, all the praise."

"Don't talk about Iruka-sensei like that!" Naruto clenched his fists.

He was goading Naruto, that was clear. He had to have some kind of plan, because he _knew_ that Naruto was strong. I couldn't see any traps. And I was looking.

"They'll see. When I have the power Orochimaru gave me, then they'll see." He grabbed a flask of red liquid off the workbench behind him and pulled the top off.

"Orochimaru! So you are working with him. Well, we beat the last guys he sent, and we'll beat you too!" Naruto shouted. "That old snake face can just get lost."

Whatever Mizuki was doing, I didn't like it. I hesitated for a second, then decided that we probably had all the information we were going to get. He _drank_ the liquid and threw the flask away, even as my shadow snared his feet.

"See my strength!" He boasted, laughing. "_This_ is what Orochimaru gave me. I'll bring him what he desires, and I will be rewarded_._"

The ground shook, suddenly, as though something had impacted heavily on the ground above us. I felt a flash of worry for Shikamaru and Sasuke. Then again, things might not be going so well for us, either. Mizuki's chakra was growing, and livid red marks reminiscent of the curse seal activating were spreading across his skin. His muscles – already larger and more defined than I remembered – were bulging. I could feel him pushing against the possession jutsu, the movements echoing in my own limbs.

"Naruto-!" I shouted, warning cut off. Because if the curse seal had boosted the strength of the Sound Four enough that they could break the Shadow Possession Jutsu, then I wasn't going to count on it holding now. _Why_ did we always seem to run into people who could break it?

Naruto had lunged at Mizuki as soon almost the same time I had started attacking, knowing the same way I did that nothing good could come of this. People taking supplements in the middle of a fight _never_ lead to anything good.

Naruto formed three clones while in motion, leading in with an agile taijutsu combination attack. I dropped my jutsu the second before they hit, not wanting to get the reflected effects, and judging that as a tactic, Shadow Possession wasn't really working anyway.

With a shout, the red marks settled into black stripes and Mizuki broke free, lashing out with impossible speed to destroy the clones and slam Naruto into the wall. Rocks and dust exploded out from where he'd hit, clouding the air, and I shut my eyes tight against it.

I released my weight seal, zigzagged left out of the tunnel and into the room, as something impacted where I had just been, _Naruto_ and _Mizuki_ shining chakra bright in my head and burning away anything else. Mizuki's chakra was drawn in lines, moving too _fast_ to sense it proper – _no _way_, how could he, how fast is that_ - to where I had been, then back to Naruto, circling around the room. I ducked, rolled under the huge heavy worktable, and slung two kunai to opposite walls, a trip line of ninja wire strung between them.

It didn't matter if he was fast. He was still running.

Naruto hauled himself out of the wall, more clones popping into existence around him. They puffed out almost as soon as they were created, victims of Mizuki's sudden speed, and the chakra smoke was almost as obscuring as the dust had been.

But the fact that all Mizuki was popping was _clones…_

"Your movements are so slow," Mizuki boasted, "it doesn't matter how many of you there are now – not one of you will be able to touch me."

"Guess again, asshole," Naruto growled from where he was crouched on the ceiling. He had a handful of kunai splayed between his fingers and he hurled them downwards. "_Now!"_

One became many, and I was glad that I was currently underneath something.

Mizuki had been prepared to block a handful, but not the _dozens_ of kunai he faced, and he jumped backwards changing tactics to avoid them at the last moment. Something heavy hit my trip line, snapping the taunt wire and yanking the kunai full out of the walls. He tumbled backwards, arms crossing over his face to protect it and taking the brunt of Naruto's kunai duplication attack.

I doubted it had seriously injured him, not with the amount of chakra he was using to reinforce his body. But it was an attack that had succeeded which said to me, that no matter what that potion did, it didn't put him in the league of the Sound Four. Whether it wasn't as strong, or whether it was simply because he had never used it before, didn't matter.

"Lightning Release; Striking Bolt!" I commanded, arm thrown out in his direction.

The sudden light in the dimness of the bunker seared my retinas, and through the afterimages I saw a horde of Naruto's leaping down to dogpile our ex-teacher.

I rolled out from under the table, panting at the sudden exertion. There had been no gentle entrance into the fight here; it had been _sudden._

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Prison!" I continued, slapping my hands down on the ground. Four slabs of stone rose out of the ground, slamming together over top of him. I grimaced at the result – a little lopsided, and I was certain that the left wall was weaker than the other three. Earth-Style Prison was a basic adaption of the Earth-Style Wall, only with more parts to it, which meant it took much more concentration. It was doubly hard, right now, because I was trying to manipulate actual _stone_ not just dirt and took a larger chunk of chakra than I wanted to lose.

But what else could I do? Explosions were right out; I'd bring that cave down on our heads. There wasn't _room_ in here for anything that required manoeuvring. I might be able to slow him down if I managed to catch him with Shadow Possession again – if, if, if – but then we'd still need to do something to take him down. I briefly wished I had my lightsaber. Not because I thought I could use it or it would help or anything. I just kind of wanted it.

Naruto was still perched on the roof, eyes fastened on the stone prison. A clone beside him was helping him form a Rasengan in one hand.

_Well. That would do it._

I was a little surprised that Naruto was willing to escalate to Rasengan so quickly, but he _had_ fought Mizuki before, and we didn't really want to be messing around with some curse seal type ability. The last ones had been dangerous enough.

The stone prison shuddered and fractured, an arm bursting out of the side. The left, of course. The black stripes winding around the limb had gone red again, writing furiously over all the exposed skin.

"You insignificant _fools!"_ Mizuki bellowed, bursting free. "I will _destroy_ you!" He sounded more than slightly unhinged. He was starting to look animalistic where the Sound Four had been demonic, though the difference was slight.

I was ready for him, my shadow latching onto his. It was a struggle, and I was distracting him more than anything. Overpowering him wasn't going to work, but if I could make him focus his attention on me…

"Rasengan!" Naruto called, hurtling downwards, arm outstretched to thrust the jutsu forward. It ploughed into Mizuki, and I dropped the Shadow Possession, letting it drive him backwards.

"Impossible-!" Mizuki gasped out.

Then he fell silent.

I wasted no time in jumping through the debris and slapping a knockout seal on him, though it was doubtful it was needed at this time. He was still alive, which said something for his strength, but getting hit with Rasengan tended to mess things up. Big time.

"Well," I said. "That… led to more questions than it answered, really."

Orochimaru was involved. How did Mizuki fit in with him? How was Mizuki here? Where had he come from? The missing ingredients had probably formed that proto-curse seal concoction, but how had he known to make it? Was this lab one of Orochimaru's?

I shook my head. There were no answers to be found here. "Let's get back to the others."

Naruto shook his head, as though chasing away heavy thoughts. "They're doing okay," he said, a reminder that he had clones in that fight too. But he summoned up a medium sized toad – about the height of our knees – and jerked his thumb at Mizuki. "Hey, Gamanidai. Got a prisoner to take back to the village. Can you help me out?"

"Another one?" the toad grumbled. "I just got the taste of the last one out of my mouth." But it hopped forward, and then its mouth _stretched_, larger than should have been possible, a quick yank of its tongue pulling Mizuki's body in.

"Thanks," Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I owe you."

We picked our way through the rubble and back down the tunnel, homing in on Shikamaru and Sasuke's fight. Like Naruto had said, by now they had things mostly handled, though there were signs that it hadn't been quite so easy earlier. There was snapped ninja wire dangling in the breeze, and the top of one tree top was smouldering gently.

Shikamaru had both of them in Shadow Possession, and they were wrapped firmly in ninja wire besides, with solid shadow hands clasped over their noses and mouths. They were both teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, and their remaining struggles were weak.

_It doesn't matter how strong they are, they still need to breathe. _

Sasuke was staring at them both, Sharingan spinning slowly, though I couldn't tell if there was genjutsu involved, or if he was just wary of an attack.

I joined my shadow to Shikamaru's to help hold the Possession while he focused on the Shadow Neck-Binding Jutsu. I was deeply impressed that he was managing to do both jutsu at once, on multiple opponents. Multitasking like that was closer to a Jounin level skill than a Chunin one.

Then they dropped. And that was that.

"So, did you find him?" Shikamaru asked, straightening from his crouch and popping his back.

"Yeah," I said. "Mizuki-sensei. Apparently he's working for Orochimaru now."

Shikamaru's eyebrow shot up, but Sasuke looked at me incredulously. Right. Obviously he hadn't actually heard the story of how Naruto graduated. I shrugged.

"So… Orochimaru sent our ex-teacher to rob our clan because…" Shikamaru drawled.

"He made some kind of super chakra potion," Naruto said. "It made him heaps faster and stronger."

"So the ingredients weren't the end goal," Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome."

Because that lead to the question of what _was_ the end goal, which we had zero chance of answering right now.

Naruto's transport toad swallowed the two brothers and we started heading back towards the Hokage's Tower. Carefully. There was no way of telling if they had had _other_ accomplices.

We were about halfway back when we ran into Iruka-sensei and a female Jounin that I didn't recognise. "Are you kids okay? You really shouldn't be out here alone. There's been a break out from the Konoha Secure Correctional Facility; we're still rounding up the prisoners."

"A breakout?" I said. "Huh. That makes more sense now."

A bit. Anyway. Mizuki was supposed to be in prison – and working for Orochimaru might have explained why they were keeping him around. If there had been other attacks, that would be the other prisoners. It _didn't_ explain how he got free or what he was intending to do, but it answered some questions.

"We ran into some people," Sasuke said, bored. "Two brothers named Fujin and Raijin, and Mizuki."

The lady Jounin gasped. "That's them," she said softly. "The Legendary Stupid Brothers."

The title tumbled over in my head, clicking with the names. They had a bingo book page, but I hadn't connected it with them because they were listed as inactive. They were supposed to be really strong, but, well, stupid. They'd frequently attacked teammates over things like food and had simply gotten uncontrollable.

"Are you all okay?" Iruka asked, sounding a little horrified.

It made me wonder, just a little, how up to date Iruka-sensei was on our adventures. Because in hindsight, this had been pretty easy so far, even if we hadn't known what we were getting ourselves into.

"Of course we're okay!" Naruto protested. "It'll take more than stupid Mizuki-sensei to take me out! I showed that last time, didn't I?"

"Please, where was he? I need to find him," the woman said, eyes creasing with worry. "He's about to do something terrible."

"It's a bit late for that," Shikamaru drawled.

"Yeah, he already attacked the Nara clan and stuff," Naruto added. "But don't worry! We caught them." He paused. "Who are you anyway, lady?"

"I'm Tsubaki," she said softly. "Mizuki was my…" she faltered, trailing off.

Naruto huffed and crossed his arms. "Then he's even _more_ of an idiot for trying to leave."

I know that Naruto meant it as 'if he had so many precious people that cared so much for him' but it did make my lips twitch in amusement. _Really,_ Naruto.

"Wait, you caught them?" Iruka-sensei asked, a little baffled.

"Yeah, yeah, Gamanidai has them," Naruto said impatiently. "We gotta go hand them in. _And_ we still gotta go talk to Baa-chan about Sasuke's… thing." He caught himself at the last moment. "Do you know where everyone is? We went to the Mission Desk before but it was shut."

"Yes, we were coordinating the recapture of the criminals," Iruka explained. "It was a big mess, so we had to get it done quickly. I'm surprised you didn't hear about it."

It _was_ a little surprising. I would have thought there would have been alarms or something. The training fields weren't _that_ out of the way.

We made it back to the village proper with no other interruptions. Tsunade, back from wherever she had been, was standing in outside of the tower.

"Iruka. Status report?" she asked.

"Mizuki, Fujin and Raijin have been apprehended, Hokage-sama," Iruka-sensei reported. "Team Tenchi is currently in pursuit of Hankou and Zenka; that's the last of them."

Tsunade relaxed half a fraction. "Good. We need to get this mess cleaned up." Her eyes flickered to us. "Now what do you brats want?"

"We were looking for you!" Naruto complained.

Tsunade groaned, hand coming up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "You three are like Lucky Sevens," she said. "When you turn up, I just know things are about to go to hell." She sighed. "Alright, hit me with it."

That was mixing metaphors a little, but the point was clear. I couldn't even say she was exactly _wrong._

"It's about the mission I was assigned," Sasuke said quietly, stepping forward a little.

The look on Tsunade's face very clearly said 'what mission'. "My office," she directed. "Tsubaki, take the prisoners back to the Correctional Facility. Iruka, keep coordinating the response. And get Izumo and Kotetsu to report back on the causes of the breakout."

The two saluted and went on their way, a hand gesture from Naruto making Gamanidai follow.

Tsunade's office wasn't empty when we got there, though. Jiraiya was there, unconscious and bound form of Tayuya slung over one shoulder. There was _something_ in his hand, but it vanished out of our sight rapidly.

_Why Tayuya? Did she get out as well? The others? Was she the goal-_ The thoughts tumbled through my head rapidly. _They were after Sasuke – he got out this morning – coincidence - prison break - _

"- a messenger hawk bearing instructions for a priority mission," Sasuke was explaining to Tsunade as I tuned back in. "It seemed… suspicious, so we came to the Tower to confirm it, but there wasn't an opportunity."

Tsunade leant on her desk. "Well at least you have some sense," she mused, tapping her long painted fingernails on the wood. The narrowed look in her eyes suggested she was going through a list of how many people had access to the hawks or could disguise one as an official Konoha hawk. "That was not assigned by me. In fact, from this point on, you will take no missions unless they are given to you by me personally. No mission scrolls, no messengers, nothing. If it doesn't come from my mouth, you don't take it."

Sasuke nodded silently.

"The same goes for Naruto," Tsunade decided. "We don't want to have to repeat this."

"Yeah, sure," Naruto shrugged. It didn't make much difference to him, since our missions usually were assigned by Tsunade anyway. "But what's this all about, anyway? How come the pervy sage has that Sound chick?"

"While everyone else was busy running around catching the Correctional Facility prisoners, there was a bit of a break in where these guys were being kept as well," Jiraiya said lightly.

_Someone tried to get Sasuke out of the village; the Konoha Secure Correctional Facility had all the prisoners escape; wherever Tayuya was being held (T&I?) had a break in..._

They were all connected by Orochimaru. That much was obvious. But how? Why now?

Something flickered across my mind. _Naruto, running through the streets, __"The pervy sage said that they were letting Sasuke out today."_

No.

"_I'll bring Orochimaru what he desires-"_

No.

I could feel my face settle into hard lines.

I had thought if they were letting Sasuke out, then the problem had been dealt with. But letting Sasuke out was an attempt to deal with the problem. He was bait.

And they hadn't even told us.

I would have said something, but I couldn't force the words out. I felt… I felt angry.

"Don't get upset, kid," Jiraiya said, looking directly at me. "You were all perfectly safe." He made a motion with his hand and a tiny frog – the size of a _normal_ frog – hopped in through the window as if it had been just outside. Unnervingly, I hadn't been able to sense it. I _still_ couldn't sense it, even though I could see it with my eyes. "If you were in any danger, Gamatate would have swallowed you and unsummoned back to Mount Myoboku. Nothing would be able to reach you there."

"Wait, what?" Naruto asked, confused.

Jiraiya and Tsunade communicated with a look.

"There are a lot of things going on in Konoha that you don't need to be concerned about," Tsunade said. "But despite our best efforts, it does appear that Orochimaru still has supporters in the village. Interrogation of the prisoners has been … enlightening, but is taking time. They have strong wills and aren't going to give up classified information easily. It simply wasn't feasible to keep Sasuke in a secure location until the situation was dealt with, so, we let him out."

"And the breakouts are because of that?" Sasuke asked, putting things together.

"We knew they would make a move," Tsunade acknowledged. "Several of the more… ambitious prisoners appear to have been offered a place with Orochimaru if they brought you to him. The messenger hawk was probably another move to get to you."

"There were three of the Sound Four captured," Shikamaru murmured. "If you have only one, did the others get away? Or were they just taken out before they could be interrogated?"

"It looks like it was intended that way," Jiraiya confirmed. "Tayuya managed to slip away for a bit – it looks like she wanted revenge for being defeated – but we were expecting this. Everything was contained."

Shikamaru paled and mouthed 'Chouji'.

"Did we learn anything?" Tsunade asked, wearily.

"I think this is all they need to know," Jiraiya said. "Get one of your ANBU to take her back and I'll fill you in on the rest."

Tsunade nodded. "You four, dismissed."

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><p>.<p>

Sidestories has 2 new chapters up, as well. XD


	67. Chapter 66

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: So a couple of people have pointed out that there are plagiarized versions of DOS out there. Come on, guys, not cool. I don't mind inspiring people, I don't mind people deciding to write a SI, or 'hey that sealing concept/jutsu/world building was cool, I want to use it', but taking huge chunks and changing the names isn't on.

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Chapter 66

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_If you are out of trouble, watch for danger ~ Sophocles_

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Shikamaru bolted for the hospital almost as soon as we hit the streets.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said to Naruto and Sasuke hastily. "Stay out of trouble!" After everything that had happened today, I didn't want for there to be any more surprises.

Then I took off after Shikamaru with a groan. I'd done a lot more exercise today than I had since the mission, and I knew I was going to be paying for it.

I wasn't panicking, though, even if they'd just dangled us like bait, I didn't believe that Jiraiya and Tsunade would be quite so blasé if Chouji had been hurt. They would have _said._

The hospital let us know that Chouji had indeed been signed out, just as planned, and had gone home. He hadn't been injured any further.

Shikamaru sagged at the news, some of the frantic energy leeching out of him. He thanked the receptionist tiredly, and headed back outside, scuffing a hand through his hair.

"He's okay," I said quietly. "Tsunade and Jiraiya would have said if anything had happened."

"Pretty trusting for someone that was really angry at them a minute ago," Shikamaru said wearily.

"Yeah, I-" My voice caught uncomfortably, rasping a little as residual anger pulled my throat tight. "I don't like what they did. But I also don't think they did it carelessly. I wish they'd _told_ us, more than anything…" It wasn't like we wouldn't have gone through with it. Sasuke had already played bait once, and it would have been a lot less nerve wracking if we'd known what was going on.

_Secrets. Everything is always layered in secrets. _

But wishing for the past to change never helped anything. It was done. Move on.

"Come on," I said instead. "Let's go see him."

Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets. "This is not the kind of exciting I wanted in my life," he complained.

"You didn't want _any_ kind of exciting in your life," I shot back easily.

"And the more I see, the more justified I feel about that decision."

I laughed and we headed towards the Akimichi Clan grounds with a slightly more casual pace. The Akimichi place always felt really _busy_ in a way that the Nara grounds never really managed, with less empty forest and more buildings crowded together. Well, I say the 'Akimichi Clan grounds' but they didn't have a sharply delineated area that they all stayed in; houses and shops spilled out into the village and you could find Akimichi owned restaurants clear on the other side of Konoha.

Shikamaru knocked briskly on the door, and within minutes we were welcomed by Chouji's mother ushering us inside and tutting about getting us something to eat because we were far too thin, poor dears.

It was the exact same refrain we were met with every time that we visited their house, and it was soothing in its familiarity. I guess when you were an Akimichi, everyone seemed too thin.

Ino, to my surprise, was settled at the kitchen table across from Chouji, nursing a cup of tea and politely taking very small bites of food.

"Hey," Shikamaru said quietly. "Heard you had a bit of trouble earlier."

"Tch," Ino replied. "It figures that trying to go anywhere with one of you boys winds up with us in trouble." Her smile was kind of wan and strained though.

"You were there?" I asked, as we took a seat.

Ino nodded. "Yeah, we were just signing out when that Sound girl burst through the front doors waving a sword around. Chouji, being the big hero that he is," she teased, "went to go and wrestle it off her before she could hurt anyone, and then Sakura hit her over the head with a vase. It was all over very fast."

Lacking from that story was any description of what _Ino_ had done and Ino usually wasn't shy tell tales about her exploits.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Fine," Ino said, waving it off with a light laugh that was so obviously fake. There was a long pause when none of us said anything. "Really," she insisted. "I didn't get hurt or anything. I just… froze. Sorry, Chouji. I just… couldn't follow through. I had it all lined up and ready and I just couldn't do it."

"It's okay," Chouji said. "Everything worked out alright." For Chouji, that was enough to make things okay. Even though he'd had to take the pills, nearly wrecked his body and been unable to continue as a ninja, even though they'd been attacked _again_, everything was okay _now_ and that was enough.

"We had to get saved by Sakura," Ino said. "Sakura. She's not even-"

_A ninja,_ hovered in the air unsaid.

Ino had the grace to look ashamed. "I didn't mean that."

"Sorry we weren't there," Shikamaru said. "If I'd known, I would have come with you." It was irrational; there was no way he could have known beforehand. That didn't make the desire any less truthful.

"Tch, slacker. I bet you were busy watching clouds or something."

"We ran into a few troubles of our own," I said, wryly. "Seems like it was the day for it.

"Are you both alright?" Chouji asked. "You didn't get hurt or anything did you?"

Ino's expression mirrored his worry.

"Yeah, fine," Shikamaru said. He rolled his neck, the vertebra clicking. "Naruto and Sasuke were with us. It was troublesome."

"What happened?" Ino asked.

"There was a prison break," I said with a shrug. "We ran into a few of the escapees. They attacked one of the clan labs for some drugs and stuff." It was a slightly less than elegant summation of the situation, but it would do.

"Crazy," Ino said, voice dropping in volume just a little. "Makes you wonder just how safe this place is, sometimes, doesn't it?"

"The safest place in the world is always going to be where we can watch each other's backs," I said. I couldn't exactly reassure them that 'no, Konoha is perfectly safe' but neither did I want to push the idea that it _wasn't_.

_I_ didn't really want to believe that Konoha wasn't safe.

It was… sad to see them breaking the childish faith that _home_ was the same as _safe_. As ninja, it probably wasn't a bad thing to move on past that, but it was still… something of a loss.

Eventually, no matter how cosy it was here, we had to go. With absolutely no discussion on the matter whatsoever, Shika and I ended up walking Ino home. It just happened, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

When we reached her house though, she paused and took a steading breath. "I'll meet you at the training fields tomorrow," she said, waving a finger in Shikamaru's face. "Don't be late! I need someone to use for target practice."

Shikamaru groaned. "Troublesome."

"I mean it!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be there," Shikamaru grumbled. "Can't you use 'kako?"

Yeah, no. Bad idea if I'd ever heard one. "Sorry," I said as apologetically as I could manage. "Team training."

"Not too much, I hope," Shikamaru said, eyes cutting sideways at me. "You haven't done much clan training lately."

Was… was Shika scolding me for slacking off at training? What bizarre backwards world had I stumbled into?

He was right, though. With so many different options open to me, my progress in any _one_ of them was less than it could be. And I had been neglecting my clan training. Justifying it as dad not being here clearly wasn't going to work, if Shikamaru had managed to find someone to supervise him.

"Yeah," I said. "I'll work on that."

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"Nara," Tsunade said as we stood arrayed in front of her desk. It wasn't the first time we'd come looking for work since Sasuke had been let out, and there were always D-ranks to be done. "How's your arm?"

"Ah, fine," I said, taken aback by the question a bit. "I've been cleared by medical." I was still doing exercises with it, but I'd already proven that I could fight and form handseals.

Tsunade nodded as if that was just confirmation for a decision she'd already made. "Alright then. I hate to do this, but I'm splitting you up-"

She didn't even manage to finish her sentence before Naruto exploded. "What? Why? Baa-chan, we're a team! You can't split us up!"

On his other side, Sasuke was drawn as tight as a bowstring, tension clear in the line of his shoulders.

"Quiet!" Tsunade slapped the desk, the smack of her hand like a whipcrack. "It's not permanent. But having the two of you cooling your heels just because your teammate can't leave the village does no one any good. I'm not breaking you up forever, but sometimes it will be necessary to work with other people and you're going to have to accept that. Understand?"

Naruto looked like he had bitten a lemon, face scrunched up and hands curled into half fists at his sides. "I don't like it," he muttered.

"You don't have to like it," Tsunade said, unsympathetically. "You just have to understand it. And if you can't see the reasons for it, then maybe I made the wrong call giving you that vest."

I winced a little. That was … harsh.

"What's going to happen?" Sasuke asked, voice inflectionless.

"I'm putting you on the patrol roster," Tsunade said. "You'll be paired with either one of the Jounin or one of the Special Jounin for safety, but don't expect them to go easy on you. They're there to do their jobs, not to babysit you."

Something eased in him, a little, at the directions. Probably at the realisation that he was still going to be doing _something_ even if patrol duty wasn't exactly glamorous. Then again, maybe I was reading too much into it. Both Sasuke had been on missions with Team Gai while Naruto was looking for Tsunade, so he was more familiar with the idea than the rest of us.

"And us?" I asked cautiously.

"C-rank. Low risk," she said crisply. "You've been hired to locate a pet ferret that was lost around Kawara-gai and deliver it to Mizugiwa. Including travel, it shouldn't take more than a week."

I blinked, a little bit stunned. When they said that D-rank missions prepared you for actual missions, I'd rather thought about it as 'applicable skills' not that people _actually_ still hired you to find lost pets. And, actually, 'around Kawara-gai'? Finding Tora in Konoha had been tricky, finding a specific ferret in an open portion of countryside sounded insane.

"As for your third squad member…" She trailed off, tapping her fingernails on the desk thoughtfully.

"Hinata?" I suggested hopefully. Having the Byakugan would be incredibly handy in this situation.

Tsunade shook her head almost immediately. "Unavailable. Take Shikamaru. Two Chunin should be enough to handle this."

She threw the mission scroll at us, directing Sasuke to report in and get his schedule, and we left.

"I hate this," Naruto muttered, scuffing his toe on the ground. "It sucks."

"Don't tell me you didn't expect it," Sasuke said, crossing his arms. "It's been coming since before we went to the Land of Snow."

Since Kajika and finding out that Orochimaru knew what missions we were on. Since the Chunin Exam, maybe, and Sasuke had become a target.

"It's not so bad," I tried. "There are plenty of positions within the village. And you'll have a lot of time for training." Of course, you could pretty much rule out anything sensitive, if he was carrying Orochimaru around on his neck. I wasn't sure how much that left, actually, but hopefully there was enough to keep him occupied.

"And Baa-chan said it wasn't permanent," Naruto chimed in, perking up a bit. "So it's probably just this once. We're still a team and nothing is going to change that, believe it!"

Sasuke and I exchanged looks because it probably wasn't going to be 'just once' but … I could believe in the rest of it.

"You better go," Sasuke said. "You've got a mission to do."

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Kawara-gai was a small town, close to the border of Land of Rivers, which separated Fire and Wind. It was a decent distance from the village, even travelling through the trees but we were fairly light-hearted about it. We were as alert as always – because it _was_ a mission – but I had my stress ball in hand and Shikamaru was stringing shadow tendrils through his fingers like a cat's cradle, and Naruto was rambling away about nothing in particular.

"So what's the plan?" I asked, unfolding the map as we set up camp for the night. We were at least half a day away still, but we didn't have a clear destination.

Shikamaru yawned, lacing his fingers behind his head and leaning back. "What do you know about ferrets?"

I shrugged. "They're mustelids, like weasels. About the size of a domestic cat. They're obligate carnivores and hunt pretty much anything – birds, rabbits, rats. They're crepuscular. They tend to burrow. A group of ferrets is called a 'business'." That last one was probably irrelevant.

Naruto snickered.

"Does that help us?" Shikamaru drawled.

"Depends," I shrugged. "Being crepuscular means the best time to look for it would be dawn and dusk, because that's when it's going to be active. If we needed to bait a trap, we'd use meat or maybe eggs… If it's a pet it might be used to eating other things though. If it can chase down a rabbit, it has to be pretty fast, so it could have covered a lot of ground between when it was lost and now."

Naruto nodded sagely, but I was pretty sure that he wouldn't have considered any of that. "If it's a pet, it might just have stayed at the town, right?" he suggested. "Because it's used to people."

"Maybe," I said. "It couldn't hurt to start their anyway. Kawara-gai is the closest thing we have to a centre point. While searching outside-in reduces the chance of missing it, there's only three of us and a lot of ground to cover." We could change that with shadow clones, but it was still a big area.

It was like a needle in a haystack. A moving needle.

We made it to Kawara-gai about midday and set about asking the townspeople if they had seen our ferret. Three kids looking for a lost pet wasn't exactly unusual – although there was no _real_ reason to hide the fact we were ninja – but we didn't really get anywhere until we started knocking on doors on some of the outer lying farms.

"Might have seen one this morning," one farmer said reticently. "Could have been a stoat though. Didn't really get a close look at it."

It was better than anything we'd had so far, so we thanked him and started spreading out to check the area. We drew up a search grid and started combing through it, Naruto clones filling out the lines. We weren't particularly subtle about it, and we stirred countless rabbits out of the undergrowth as we checked burrows and dens.

"I think I see it," the Naruto who was next in the chain to me said, suddenly. I cast my eyes around, following the direction of his gaze, but couldn't see anything. "Ah, not me-me. Another me. That way!"

"Right," I said, feeling a little silly. "Could you take over my spot?" I took off in the direction he had pointed, ducking down the line of clones until one waved me over.

"Looks like the right markings," Shikamaru said as I got closer. He and Naruto were crouched in a tree, looking down on a ferret gambolling in the grass below. I landed nimbly on the branch beside them.

"Right," I agreed, then paused cocking my head to the side and frowning. "Do you hear that?"

It was… very faint. Just at the edge of hearing. A … humming, whistling sound, almost. It could have just been tinnitus, ringing in my ears…

"Hear what?" Naruto asked, puzzled. He looked around, as if he could see what I thought I could hear.

"Never mind then," I murmured. "Let's catch this ferret, yeah?"

It was probably over kill. Two shadow users and Naruto, who could be a near infinite number of himself at any given moment, verses one lost pet ferret. There was just no way we _weren't_ going to catch it.

Once it got past the shock of being manhandled, it was actually pretty friendly and seemed content enough to curl up in Naruto's backpack, even though we'd brought a pet carrier with us.

Mizugiwa was a small town inside Land of Rivers, so it was still a fair distance from where we were. That said, there was nothing particularly critical about this mission and it was nice to do something that was _easy_.

The lack of Sasuke was like a shadow hanging over us – noticeable, but more important in that it was a reflection of bigger things – but Shikamaru didn't make for a bad team mate. I was biased, obviously, but the three of us worked well together, even in something as simple as this.

The humming didn't stop – faint enough that if I wasn't listening for it I didn't notice it – but it didn't get any louder either. I almost thought I was imagining it, like a song stuck in my head.

Almost.

"This is kinda strange," Shikamaru noted, as we approached Mizugiwa. "It's the middle of the day, but there's not a single person in sight."

"Yeah," I agreed, eyes darting over the scenery. It was hilly and steep, but the land was terraced with rice paddies and it was lush and green. There were plenty of well cared for paddocks and crops. There should have been someone out and about.

"We should start running recon tactics," Shikamaru said, mouth pulling downwards.

"You think it's serious?" Naruto asked, an uncharacteristic frown on his face. "Maybe they're just… having a village meeting or something." He scratched the back of his neck. "Everything looks really peaceful."

"It can't hurt to be careful," Shikamaru replied. "Sense anything, 'Kako?"

I shook my head. "The town's too far away."

"We'll split up, circle around," Shikamaru decided. "If it's nothing, then it's nothing. Otherwise, we should be prepared."

I nodded. "Naruto, can you give us each a clone for communication?" We should give them a snappy name if we kept using them like this. Comm-clones?

"Sure," he agreed. "As spiders?"

"Umm," I said. Then I saw the mischievous look in his eyes and elbowed him in the ribs.

"Ow, ow. Okay, not spiders then."

"As yourself is fine," I said. "Otherwise it'll just be one-way communications. Spiders can't talk."

"I bet they kind of could," Naruto teased. "It's not like they're real spiders or anything."

"Leaving aside arguments of chakra metaphysics for the moment," Shikamaru said drolly. "Can we get moving?"

Naruto popped off two clones and we took to the trees, separating with the barest rustle of leaves to mark our passing. I kept my eyes peeled for danger, but saw nothing. Even the sound that had been nipping at my ears for days had vanished.

The silence was a little unnerving. I'd started to get used to it.

Then we saw the village.

"Oh man," the Naruto beside me said softly. He looked sad, and stricken. "Who the hell would do something like that?"

I pressed my lips together in a thin line and didn't answer. The place was totalled. There were blacked charcoal frames of burnt down houses, piles of rubble, deep craters dug into the ground with the corresponding dirt thrown everywhere. Nothing had been spared, and nothing was untouched.

Fire, I could pass off. But some of the damage was clearly ninjutsu.

Land of Rivers had its own shinobi village – the Village Hidden in the Valleys – but it hardly made sense for them to destroy a town in their own country. Apart from that, River Country was bordered by Wind and Fire which wasn't pleasant to consider either.

"Let's see if anyone is down there," I said.

Walking into that destroyed town was eerie. It was worse than cleaning up after the Exam Invasion, because that had been _over_ and the damage hadn't been that great. This place was destroyed, and worse, it was _empty._

"No bodies," I noted, not sure whether that was a relief or not. It wasn't that I wanted there to be bodies, but then it raised the question of 'where are they, then?' There were certainly no survivors wandering around.

Gingerly, I tapped a finger on the blacked wood of a house frame, eyeing the white ash smouldering on the ground. It was still warm.

Naruto shook his head. "The others haven't seen any either."

"Any sign that the attackers are still here?" I asked, carefully scanning the streets.

"No. Shikamaru says to meet up at the town square."

I nodded. There was nothing that could be done immediately, and whatever course of action was coming next was something that we'd have to discuss.

I picked my way through the remains of the town, carefully heading towards the meeting point. There was still nothing alive, no sign of the people that lived here. The destruction had been thorough. There was furniture and belongings littering the streets, whole houses pulled apart before they had been destroyed.

Shikamaru and Naruto were both waiting when I got there, and the clone behind me dismissed itself with a puff. The ringing in my ears was back, and it set me on edge. I couldn't tell if it was harmless, anymore, or if it was connected.

"What happened here?" Naruto asked, agitated, as soon as I got within conversational distance. His hands were clenched into fists, like he wanted to know who did this so he could punch them. "This is horrible!"

"I don't know," I said, glancing at Shikamaru. He shook his head. "But it probably wasn't done that long ago. Today, or yesterday, maybe."

"Then we find them," Naruto declared. "This isn't _right._"

"We do kind of have our own mission to finish," Shikamaru said mildly, stuffing his hands into his pockets and slouching. It was probably the most token of protests imaginable.

"We can't worry about delivering a ferret when there are people that need our help!" Naruto protested immediately. "Besides, this is where we're supposed to take it and there's no one here."

And that was kind of a large loophole, if we had to explain things, wasn't it? I ignored the little voice that said 'Hokage-sama is not going to be impressed'.

"Yeah, yeah, don't get so worked up, I agree," Shikamaru drawled. "The question is, what are we going to do now?"

We didn't know who, didn't know when, didn't know why… we didn't know _anything._ Changing that would have to be our first step. There was a good chance that what was going on here was more than we could handle and we'd have to get backup.

"If they hit this village they might have hit others," I said. "Or some of the farm houses around the town. If they weren't hit, they might have noticed something."

"We should be able to track which way they went," Shikamaru contributed. "You can't move stealthily with that many hostages."

Or far, so there would have to be some kind of base nearby – and I didn't want to think about why they would have taken so many people away.

"Right!" Naruto nodded, determination shining in his eyes. "I'll send clones to the other towns, and we can follow the tracks and get those people back."

I glanced at Shikamaru. He gave a shrug.

"Sounds like a plan."


	68. Chapter 67

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

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Chapter 67

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_We are each but a quarter note in a grand symphony ~ Guy Laliberte _

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"Crap!"

Already tense, Naruto's sudden exclamation had me freeze in place, kunai blossoming in either fist. When no immediate threat appeared, I let out a shaky breath and wondered, not for the first time, just what the hell we were doing. Two newly minted Chunin and a Genin, and not a clue what we were up against.

The more I considered it, the more uneasy I grew. A full town destroyed, all the people taken away. You'd have to be confident to do that in the middle of a country full of ninja, and what would you need with that many prisoners? _Test subjects…_ something in my mind whispered and I really, really hoped Orochimaru was not involved here. Our last run in with Sound ninja had not gone so very well for us.

If it was, we weren't doing anything. We were gathering information and getting the hell out of here, to let someone else deal with it. Probably, we should skip the first step and move straight to the second even if it wasn't Hidden Sound, but it was a day travel back to the Land of Fire and by the time help got here, there might be nothing left to help.

"One of my clones was just ambushed," Naruto continued, sheepishly, steadying his own footing. "Four guys in some weird armour."

It would be pretty damn coincidental if this _wasn't_ our mystery attackers.

"Which way?" Shikamaru asked calmly.

Naruto gestured to the side. "Over by the canyon thing. Not far, I guess."

The trail we were following wasn't going to go anywhere, and we had no idea what was at the end of it. A lone squad might be more manageable. _Might._ If they had attacked Naruto, they obviously knew we were here now, which meant security would get tighter, which would make infiltration harder-

I was already thinking in terms of 'how to do this' not 'is this a good idea', wasn't I?

"Let's circle around," Shikamaru said, coming to the same conclusion. "We don't want them at our backs when we find wherever they've taken those people."

And an initial engagement with them might yield as much useful information as finding the base would. It would, at least, give us an idea of _who._

"What kind of 'weird armour'?" I asked, hoping that Naruto had a little bit more information.

He shrugged, taking off again. "I don't know. It was kinda like samurai armour, I guess. It was just weird."

It wasn't very informative, but interesting in its own way. Ninja, generally, didn't tend to wear armour. Padded clothes, yes, even light ceramic plate, but nothing heavy. It didn't make much sense, in terms of cost-benefit. A well trained Chunin could dent metal with a punch, for starters, and even a Genin could be precise enough to aim for the joints. That wasn't even counting what jutsu would do to it. Additionally, it was heavy, inflexible and slowed you down and a ninja's best defense was _always_ 'don't get hit'.

It was a pity Naruto didn't have more information, but a little bit was better than nothing.

The instant they came into view, Naruto launched himself forward, leaping down to the ground to confront them.

"Hey!" he roared. "Just who do you think you are?"

Shikamaru and I followed, landing lightly behind him in an arrow head formation, and took stock of the situation. As Naruto had said, there were four of them. Three were identical, wearing the same dull brown armour and pointed helms, carrying the same spiked mace as a weapon. Their chakra was odd, slightly off and unbalanced, but different enough to tell they were individuals and not clones. The fourth was more interesting, wearing shined silver plate over greens and blues, and a cape backed with red. His helm covered most of his face, but there was faint surprise as he turned to see Naruto.

"Didn't we," he asked slowly, voice a steady monotone, "already kill you?"

An interesting question, given that shadow clones didn't leave bodies. Sloppy, to not have expected a feint or trap.

But to me, more interesting was what I _heard._ Just on the edge of hearing, that faint sound I had been hearing for so long was becoming louder. No. Not louder. Clearer. As if, should I just listen closely, there would be a tune, a melody, a song…

It was slightly worrying. More than slightly, I amended to myself. It wasn't genjutsu, and I doubted I was hallucinating something so specific, harmless and _constant_, and yet the others couldn't hear it.

Usually, if I was feeling something that others could not, it was chakra. But that was more a feeling, a knowing, than something that could be conflated with sight or sound or touch. I might have described chakra in those terms, metaphorically, but it wasn't like I ever mistook it for one or the other.

So I… didn't know what it was.

I didn't know what it meant, either. If it had just been _now_ I would have associated it with these people. But it had started days ago, and I could sense them, so I would have known if they were following us for so long.

It was a bit of a conundrum.

Naruto launched himself forward at the leader, a sudden burst of energy with two clones fading into existence on either side. It was a straight forward opening move, forceful, but I was still surprised when, at the last minute, the leader pivoted, neatly avoiding the attack and lashing out with pinpoint accuracy.

It reminded me of Lee. Efficient, clean, minimal wasted energy. And fast, too.

Then I couldn't observe anymore, because the other three had turned to join the fight, and we could hardly let them gang up on Naruto.

It wasn't my best fight. I could admit that. I was … distracted. By the sound I could hear, trying to listen and find it, hear it changing and straining to understand what it actually was. That kind of split attention could be lethal in a fight, it could make your reactions a second too slow, keep you off balance, cloud the best course of action until you made mistake after mistake.

It was luck that it didn't come to that. Well. Luck and Shikamaru. Naruto might have been caught up in his own fight, but Shikamaru covered me, working around my mistakes, directing us all until all four of them stood bound in our Shadow Possession Jutsu.

"What-" the leader rasped. "What have you done to me?"

I could feel him straining against the Shadow Possession, pushing and twisting, but it was nowhere _near_ the level required to counter it. After so many opponents that had been able to, I was almost surprised.

"Tie them up," Shikamaru commanded Naruto tersely. Naruto scrambled to comply, dragging out ninja wire while the two of us manipulated them into position.

"Who are you?" I asked, crouching in front of the leader, once Naruto had secured them all. He wasn't wearing any insignia, not anywhere I could see. That didn't prelude him being a missing nin but it still didn't add up quite right.

I reached out to carefully remove his helm, hoping that being able to see his face would make questioning easier. And –

_red_

-I breathed out slowly, carefully, matching the same pattern as before, trying to ignore the involuntary hitch that had happened. I put the helmet on the ground, hands resolutely not shaking. It had only been a second, maybe two, just a brief moment of blankness.

His eyes were red.

For a second, I had seen Sharingan. They weren't, though. They were a different shade of red, a second ring circling the pupil, similar to Kurenai-sensei. The knowledge didn't stop the sharp spike of fear, the racing heartbeat or the dryness of my throat. It had been completely and utterly unexpected, caught me off guard and thrown me for a loop.

"My name is Temujin," he said stiffly.

Shikamaru was watching us – no, he was watching me, eyes eagle-sharp. He'd seen it. He'd seen it during the fight and he'd seen it now and I needed to keep it together. We had a prisoner to question. I needed to keep it together.

My ears were ringing.

No, they weren't. I was still hearing the song.

Shit. I needed to keep it together.

"Temujin," I repeated, aware my pause had lasted too long. My voice scraped out, husky, but it didn't falter or wobble. Good enough. "What were you doing here?" It was a less than inspired choice, but I was scrambling. None of us were exactly trained in interrogation, beyond basic Academy theoreticals. If he didn't want to talk, I didn't think we were going to be able to _make_ him.

He ignored the question. "That power you used… what was it?"

Sometimes, even the questions that people asked were enough to tell you things. This questions had to be one of those. While civilians didn't tend to understand chakra, this man was no simple civilian. So. Who was he, then?

Also, the fact that he felt confident enough to ask questions, to demand answers, even though he was tied up, said something too. He felt confident. Whether it was in his ability to escape, or the certainty he would be rescued, he still felt as if he retained the upper hand.

Naruto made a soft 'huh?' sound behind me, confused at the question.

"Where are you from?" Shikamaru asked, appearing by my side and taking over the questioning. He tucked a hand under my elbow and chivied me gently out of the way. For all that his movements were full of the same easy grace as usual, his grip was tense.

I stood, and didn't stumble – I had too much control over my body for that – and took a few steps away. I felt lightheaded, like the world was just a little bit distant. It was fine. It was fine.

Naruto was watching me with a furrowed brow, he knew something was up, even if not what. Naruto might have been oblivious, and a little dense, but he wasn't stupid. Especially when it came to his friends.

Next to him was the pile of weaponry and gear that he'd taken from them when restraining them. It wasn't much - Temujin's gloves and sword, some thick bracer from his arm, the spiked maces – but it was more interesting than just standing around aimlessly, and I didn't really want to let my mind wander. Not right now.

_Just breathe. It'll be okay. Nothing is happening. _

The gloves were plated, well made and jointed so that they didn't restrict movement. The thick bracer had a retracting shield in it, which was incredibly interesting. I made a note of the design, before I set it aside. The sword, though. That was the most intriguing piece. Because it was _familiar._

Swords, here, were very, very rarely double sided. The classic katana shape, with a single cutting edge or sometimes only a sharp point for stabbing movements, and variations thereof. Even Kubikiri Bocho, for all its size and brutality, had only a single edge.

This was a broadsword. Or close enough – I was hardly an expert at European medieval weaponry. Which… where did they come from?

It was well made, but the handle was ornate, with a large red gem fixed in the center of the hilt. I wasn't an expert on gemstones, either, but it was odd. Not a ruby. Not a garnet. It had a very consistent colour, no lines or waves or distortions. It almost seemed… artificial.

I tapped it gently with a fingernail, not sure what I was expecting to find. But the second my finger came into contact with it, I knew that there was something. I flicked it, with a tiny whisp of chakra and a single pure, clear note rang out, joining the song – no, the _symphony_ – that was on the edge of my hearing.

I glanced around. Neither Shikamaru nor Naruto had noticed, but the captives were all looking in my direction. Right.

_It is to do with them. This stone… they can hear it too. It's to do with chakra, too, but they don't know that. Or they don't call it chakra. _

"Problem?" Shikamaru said, glancing in my direction. He might not have heard, but he could tell that something had happened.

"That may," I said, a tad sheepishly, "have just sent out a signal as to where we are."

"Almost certainly," Temujin agreed, blandly, the first thing he'd said since asking what chakra was. Shikamaru and Naruto's combined efforts hadn't really yielded anything other than frustration. I had tuned it out, I realized with dull surprise, hadn't even been listening to them.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed, looking like he wanted to roll his eyes.

"Don't sound so smug, jerk," Naruto said, scowling at Temujin. "I don't care who's coming to rescue you. We'll beat them too. What you did to that town just isn't right."

"It was necessary," Temujin said, eyes cutting towards him.

"The hell it was!" Naruto shouted back, pointing aggressively at him. "How can you even say such a thing?"

His jostling apparently awoke the ferret in his backpack – funny, since it had stayed calm during a _fight_ – who poked its head out the top and then slithered out with a lithe motion. I saw it and dismissed it. Right now, I couldn't have cared less for our original mission.

"Hey, don't-!" Naruto squawked as it ran down his leg, grasping at it and missing. The ferret darted away from him and, instead of disappearing into the forest, slithered around Temujin and popped up on his shoulder.

Temujin hardly looked impressed.

"Leave it," Shikamaru said tiredly. "We need to finish up here and move." He ran a hand through his hair, obviously calculating the best course of action. We didn't want to stay, if reinforcements were coming. We'd won this fight, quite handily, but we had had the advantage of surprise, and risking a repeat wasn't a good idea. We'd gotten some information from Temujin, but the big questions 'where are you from', 'what are you doing' and 'what happened to those people' remained unanswered.

I met Shikamaru's eyes, wondering just how much he meant by 'finish up'. We weren't equipped to take care of prisoners, especially ones with abilities we didn't understand. It rankled to let them go, but the other option was very final. I could probably do it – a ruthless part of myself I didn't particularly appreciate – but I doubted Shikamaru could and Naruto certainly would never allow it to occur. In some ways, this very much mirrored the situation with the Sand Siblings at the end of the Exam Invasion, but this time we didn't have the upper hand.

I nodded, setting the sword back down with the rest of the things. My fault, for being too careless. Tempting as it was to take it and deprive Temujin of his weapon, if it was trackable then that was an insanely stupid idea.

"I could summon a toad," Naruto offered. "Take them with us."

Shikamaru considered it, then discarded the idea. "If they can be tracked, then there's no point." He glanced at me, question in his eyes.

I shrugged. "Possibly," I agreed. The stone was key. But it wasn't the source, was it?

I strode over to the other captives, ignoring Temujin. Conversation wasn't getting us anywhere, and now our time was running out. Physical inspection would have to do. I didn't really expect to learn very much from it, but then I tried to remove the helmet from the first man and couldn't.

"Interesting," I noted, as my hands failed to find a catch to release it. I examined him, much more closely. "I think they're some kind of … golem. Not clones but more like puppets."

Interesting and worrying, that.

They weren't automations, clearly. They had been capable of responding, adapting, and reacting during the fight. They had some governing intelligence. They had chakra, however strange it was.

They had red eyes, same shade as Temujin, same shade as that blasted _stone_. It might have meant something. It might not. Having almost expected it, I didn't flinch this time.

I didn't know of anywhere that had jutsu like that. Clone jutsu were a dime a dozen, and Hidden Sand was the acknowledged master of puppetry, but this was something else altogether.

"Do you feel that?" Naruto asked, frowning at the ground. He was flexing his toes in his sandals, minutely shifting his weight.

I didn't at first, then abruptly, I could. Vibrations.

"Earthquake?" Naruto asked, uncertainly.

It wasn't impossible. But Land of Rivers wasn't exactly earthquake territory.

"Let's go," Shikamaru said.

We jumped into the trees, leaving the four captives behind. But we didn't go far before Shikamaru signaled and we doubled back, hiding ourselves in the leaves and waiting.

The vibrations grew worse, stronger and stronger, until we could hear the crashing of trees as something felled them.

"What is that?" Naruto gaped, as something pushed up the valley towards where we were.

I had to admit that I had no idea. It looked like a giant bulldozer, done up steampunk style. It was huge, towering above the trees, moving at a fair pace and creating huge amounts of destruction.

It didn't come close, so we didn't see that much of it, but we stayed in place and waited. Eventually, a woman in similar armour to Temujin appeared through the trees, followed by a cadre of the golem-men.

She seemed to find the sight of Temujin bound amusing, stopping to speak to him before letting him free. His reply was short and clipped, not friendly but not antagonistic either.

We waited until they were gone, then slid backwards, taking ourselves in the other direction for a bit more security.

"We need to send a clone to the border," I said quietly. "We need to let them know."

Neither of them argued.

"Will a clone make it that far?" Shikamaru asked.

I blinked. I hadn't even considered. I didn't think they had limited distance.

Naruto considered it, then shrugged. "I don't know. I've never tried. But I'll send a toad too." That way, the message would still get through.

"I'm surprised they haven't noticed already," Shikamaru said. "It's not exactly subtle."

"They probably have," I agreed. "But unless it starts heading towards Fire Country…" Hidden Valley was nominally allied with both Konoha and Hidden Sand, being that it lay between the two. That had both advantages and disadvantages, when it came to sourcing help. In this case, it probably meant that Konoha wouldn't interfere until they received a written invitation, or unless the culprit was Hidden Sand.

Or – hopefully – if a known mission in the area became entangled. Konoha looked after its people.

"What a drag," Shikamaru sighed. He rubbed a hand across his face. "We should probably follow that thing." He sounded decidedly unenthusiastic about that idea.

"They'll be expecting us," I said, though I didn't know how much that would actually effect. It appeared to be a mobile fortress, which meant they expected to be able to fight off attackers. On the other hand, they hadn't known about chakra, which gave us the upper hand in more than just combat.

"Follow it carefully, then," Shikamaru amended.

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><p>.<p>

_The first shinobi on the scene have a responsibility for reconnaissance, and to provide up to date information and intelligence for reinforcements. _

That was the general gist of one of the many ninja rules. It was generally applicable to things like discovering enemy camps, sneak attacks and emergency situations, where you didn't have a lot of Intel to begin with. That was pretty much the situation we had here, so our course of action was pretty clear.

We'd already given it a good shot, with Naruto's Shadow Clones searching every which way. That left the three of us tucked away on a cliff face, observing the stronghold as it travelled.

By nightfall, it had stopped, unable or unwilling to continue in the dark. I imagined it would prove difficult to rescue if they accidently drove it into a river, or toppled it down a canyon.

It proved a good opportunity to observe, as the golem-men went to and fro, setting up perimeters and clearing away debris from the outside of the stronghold. Yet more returned to the base from other directions, and I was almost resigned to the idea that there was probably more destruction in those places.

"There's like a whole army of them!" Naruto hissed.

A small army, maybe. I wasn't exactly certain on what terms to use for a certain sized unit of soldiers. Ninja had squads, or divisions, and very little in between. A platoon? A company? Regardless of what name you called it, there were a lot of them. More than the three of us could handle if it came to it.

"They won't do anything important outside," I said quietly, as we observed. If we truly wanted to learn anything we'd have to go in.

Which would be tricky. Intelligence gathering was an art, which was why there was a whole division responsible for it. Basic observation like this accounted for a fair amount, but to get more we'd have to infiltrate.

There were a lot of ways we could go about it. With transformation jutsu, passing a visual inspection was trivial, and we could simply walk in. However, that didn't supply us with codes or security protocols, and a simple conversation would be enough to blow our cover.

There was the extremely risky path of getting inside simply by being taken side – allowing yourself to be captured and manipulating the situation into a positive outcome. That wasn't exactly an amateurs game, though.

But we could likely get inside without being seen. We'd been following them for hours, watching them from a distance, and they hadn't shown any signs of noticing us. We'd just… sneak.

"Has Team Ten done any infiltration work?" I asked.

Shikamaru looked at me sideways and shook his head. That was a pity. Ino-Shika-Cho teams were optimized for information gathering, though that didn't always mean infiltration. It would have been nice to have someone with experience in the situation.

The cat fortress hardly counted.

"What are we going to do?" Naruto asked eagerly. He was itching to _do_ something, but he'd been surprisingly patient about it so far. I wondered if the fact that he was currently using clones had something to do with it – some sense that he was taking action, not just waiting for something to happen.

Shikamaru steepled his fingers and stared at the stronghold. It wasn't quite his 'thinking pose' but the intention was clear. "'Kako," he said hesitantly. "Are you going to be able to do this?"

I blinked. "Yes," I said, automatically.

He looked at me. Okay, so I hadn't put the best foot forward this mission. I'd made a mistake. A few mistakes. But I wasn't-

"Yes," I repeated, more firmly.

"Alright. 'Kako and I will go inside and investigate. One through the main doors, and one in through the upper balconies." That would involve scaling the outside – without being seen – and then hoping that some of those windows up there actually opened. Tricky. "Naruto, you need to be our lookout. If something happens, and we need to get out fast or whatever."

Naruto might have looked a little disappointed at the order, but he didn't argue it.

"And if things start exploding, that's probably your cue to come and rescue us," I added, only slightly joking.


	69. Chapter 68

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: So Elelith has begun writing fan-fanfiction for DOS. It's titled Sunshine and Stormclouds, and has three chapters so far.

The Gelel movie is one I really quite like, and not just because it has Gaara being awesome in it. I just wish that it had a bit more depth. It introduces so many interesting things, but never really explains them.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 68

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><p>.<p>

_Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. ~ Buddha_

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><p>.<p>

We crouched out of sight and waited.

I could feel Naruto's chakra as bright as a lighthouse behind us, and I knew he would take being a lookout seriously. It was reassuring, even if subtlety didn't really feature amongst his skills. That was pretty much the reason that Shikamaru and I were going inside and he wasn't – we hardly wanted this to go the same way as the invasion of Kazahana Castle.

There was a gap in the patrol and Shikamaru caught my eye. This was it.

I nodded and we darted off, chakra boosting our speed while still maintaining silence. Shikamaru had the comparatively harder route; he had to get through the outside patrols, through the guarded doors and into the busy lower levels. I just had to get through the outside patrols, get up the walls without being seen, and find a way to break inside.

Comparatively.

The darkness helped cover our movements, and I made it to the walls without too many close calls. The lower parts of the machine were more exposed, caterpillar tracks like on a tank, gears for their movement, but above that everything was enclosed. It wasn't smooth all the way around, but ridged with columns and sections and pipes. I could see a few places that looked like promising entrances. Chakra made handholds completely redundant, but simply running straight up would be a lot easier to see. Instead, I darted up the wall in a kind of skittery crawl, staying as flat as possible.

I still felt incredibly vulnerable, out in the open, but every second that passed that didn't end in alarm bells ringing made me breathe a little easier.

About three quarters of the way up, there was a protruding platform, that bulged out and then dipped backwards. I would have almost said 'like a landing pad' except I really hoped they didn't have anything that could fly. Fortress tanks were bad enough, thank you.

At the top I paused, peeking over the edge of a flat portion. It seemed like a balcony, flat and clear, with large paneled doors leading into the stronghold itself. They were closed at the moment, but thrown open, they would open the entire space up.

There was no one inside that I could see, no chakra that I could sense, and so I pulled myself up onto it and padded forward.

A locked door was not really a challenge to a ninja, even when said ninja was being stealthy. Not unless it was a very good lock and a very good door. Given that this seemed to be a mobile fortress, it should have given me more trouble than it did, but they clearly hadn't been expecting an attack from this direction.

Poor planning on their part.

I tucked my lock picks back into my pouch, held the door open just enough that I could slide through the gap and then wedged it almost-closed. Leaving it open would be a clue that someone was here, but if I needed to get out in a hurry, then I probably wouldn't have time to pick the lock again.

The main room was huge and empty – probably some kind of meeting room. There was none of the wear and tear that suggested a gym or dojo, and it was too ornate; the floors some kind of marbled stone rather than anything practical. As I crossed the empty space, I saw a low dais against the wall, with a single chair centered to overlook it all.

_Ah. Throne room. Really?_

There wasn't much to see in there, however, and I slunk soundlessly over to the door and into the corridor beyond. Out of the throne room, things were more austere. The walls were simple metal, clean sharp lines that were functional rather than attractive. It seemed strange, almost alien, after so long with wood and stone. There was no one around, but even my breathing and heartbeat sounded loud in the silence, amped up by adrenaline. The ringing in my ears didn't really help my nerves, a constant reminder that there were things going on here that I didn't understand.

The corridor beyond the main room was well lit but empty. It was an eerie feeling as I ghosted along, on high alert for any one coming.

There were stairs close by, fairly wide and I expected they would be the main throughway for people heading to that main room. I ignored them for now, hoping that this high level would have more for interest. Shikamaru could explore below.

There were a few cupboards, a smaller meeting room and what looked like an observatory. Then I came across a furnished living room, with a connected bedroom. I spent several minutes investigating it, not certain what exactly I was looking for, but hoping I would find it. There wasn't anything that particularly stood out.

It was well furnished, with rich and expensive materials. The wardrobe was full of heavy, ornate robes. This was likely the room of the Daimyo or equivalent – rich, important, but not necessarily in a combat role. There was no weaponry or amour here and while it could have all been kept in an armory, there was none of the incidental detritus of weapon upkeep either – oil, cloth, whetstones.

Unfortunately, there was nothing that jumped out at me as interesting. There were no papers, or documents, or anything that really helped us. I slipped out of the room and kept looking.

Further along, there was a study.

_Now this is more like it,_ I thought.

There was no guarantee that it would have anything worthwhile inside, but it was worth the time it took to investigate.

It looked a typical office – huge desk, a low table piled with scattered papers, bookshelves full of serious tomes, decorative artwork on the walls – and it took a second look before things started to stand out as not quite right.

The papers piled on the table were dirty and crumpled.

The 'artwork' was a huge browned paper with hand drawn and faded ink, spread out under a glass cover, with dozens of coloured dots pressed onto the glass.

I frowned at it, the marks looking familiar. It was old and faded, and I wracked my brains for anything I might have seen in a history book and came up empty handed.

Carefully, I flicked through the scattered pages, touching them only the barest amount.

_Dirty, crumpled – taken from the villages? Why?_

There was a strange collection of things. Newspapers. Pamphlets. Maps.

_Maps._

I spread it open and glanced up at the image on the wall. Yes. Yes, it was. It was a map, an old, old map. The coastline was different – either wrong, or changed – and the countries weren't delineated in the way I was familiar with, which probably accounted for why I hadn't recognized it.

The dots then… yes. That was River Country. That was where we were.

_They've marked Wind Country too,_ I though, mind racing. Did the different colours mean anything? If so, what? Had they attacked? Were they going to attack?

And why, exactly, were they trying to navigate from a map that old? Where had they even found that?

Where were they _from_?

And what were they looking for?

That was definitely a search pattern. These weren't random attacks. But I didn't know of anything of interest in the area. They were sticking low, to the coastline almost – so not looking for the Hidden Villages, which were further inland – and there simply wasn't much here.

I moved away, around the desk, hoping to pick up more information. There was a single heavy book set on the surface, leather bound and _old_, the kind of book that should be in a glass case and handled with protective gloves. Gingerly, I lifted open the cover, hoping that it was somehow relevant and not just a sign that this guy was obsessed with old books.

_The Book Of Gelel_ it said, in heavy, elegant writing.

I turned the pages carefully, skimming more than reading. Half my attention was still on the door, making sure that I'd be aware if someone started coming this way. For a moment, I thought it was going to be useless – a royal family tree, some kind of trade route or agreement - and then I turned the page and staring up at me was a copy of the same map that graced the wall. It wasn't just the one either, there were others, close ups of certain provinces and towns, a whole landscape that barely resembled the one I knew.

_The Empire of Gelel._

I stared at it. Was this an artefact from before the formation of the Elemental Nations? Or a copy of, at least. That was an incredible thought. Everyone knew there had been a continent spanning empire, in the days before the Sage of Six Paths had wrangled a wild world into some semblance of civilisation. There were plenty of ruins and abandoned cities across the Elemental Nations to prove it, though the details beyond that were very slim. I had looked into it, the possibility that this world was merely _future_ of the one I had left, but there were too many fundamental differences for it to be true. To be honest, there was relief in that. If I had died and crossed between worlds, then everything I had left had continued on without me – was continuing _now_.

If I had been reincarnated in the far future, then everything I had ever known was dust beneath my feet.

Practically, there was no difference. I would never return, never see them again, never have anything to do with that life. It was gone, either way. But personally…. It mattered.

If it was true, if this was actual, written evidence of an empire lost to history, that made this book literally priceless.

_But does that explain anything?_ Unless it had clues to some kind of ancient treasure…

It seemed a bit far-fetched.

_Then again, my _life_ is far-fetched._ Improbable didn't equal impossible. Still, I didn't know enough to say for sure.

I flicked onwards, hoping something would jump out at me. 'Here lies the artefact of sacred power' maybe? Something did, but it wasn't what I expected. Math; pages and pages of complicated math. It almost looked like chakra conversion equations, proto-fuinjutsu. It was well beyond my level and I paged through it, wonderingly. What was this?

The sense of approaching people drew my attention. They were only at the stairs, which meant they could go either way, but it was a reminder that I wasn't alone here. I'd been lucky to find the level deserted; late at night wasn't exactly a time for meetings with the boss.

I bit my lip and considered the book still laid out on the desk. I _thought_ it was related to whatever was going on here, but I didn't know, and I didn't have time to read it properly to find out. The obvious answer, then, was to take it. If it was important, though, it would certainly be missed.

The chakra equations looked terribly important, besides, and there was a reasonably large part of me that was dying to have a spare week or two to try and decipher them. That was a terrible reason to consider taking it. That was _stealing._

And yes, I knew that it was terrible morals to be okay with taking things for the sake of the mission and find the exact same scenario horrible otherwise. That, however, was a state of mind that Konoha tried very hard to instil in us, with corresponding rewards and punishments for those who followed or broke the system. When you had an army of people who were unlikely to be _caught_ stealing, you wanted them to reject the choice all on their own.

The oncoming chakra presences bypassed the bedrooms, turning towards the study and made my choice for me. I picked up the book, trying to be as gentle as possible, and stacked it carefully in my backpack.

I ducked out the door, slipping up the wall and sticking to the ceiling. People rarely looked up. Still, to be extra careful, I layered a False Surroundings genjutsu over myself and crept slowly along the corridor. The two people were getting closer, and would pass right underneath me.

My palms felt sweaty and I flexed them on the cool metal of the ceiling.

It was the maybe-lord whose room I had seen – the same heavy robes – and a woman in armour. Not the same one that had retrieved Temujin, which was probably important.

"What do you think of Temujin's tale?" the lord asked, striding along.

"Farfetched," she bit out in return. "Lying to cover his failure is more likely, Haido-sama."

Haido chuckled. "I don't think lying to me has ever crossed Temujin's mind. He is far too loyal."

The woman made a 'tch' sound. "It could cause trouble if it's true," she conceded. "And it might explain why we haven't heard from Ranke's fleet. But we haven't run into anyone else with those powers."

_Fleet?_ I didn't actually like the implication of numbers that a word like 'fleet' brought up. And that was, what, a nautical term? Boats?

"I suppose it was too much to hope that they remained primitive and uncivilized in our absence," Haido said, swinging the door to the study open. "Still, we have seen very little to foster the idea that they are a true threat to our plans." He paused, turning to look at the woman who had faltered a few steps back. "Is there a problem, Fugai?"

She turned slowly, tilting her head. From my position I could barely see the prominent flare of her nostrils.

_Scent tracker, shit._ My pulse doubled, and I tried very hard to keep my breathing shallow and quiet. Blocking scent was a much, much harder tact than sight or sound or even chakra, and there was no jutsu I knew that would eliminate a scent trail that had already been laid.

She stared back up the corridor, nose twitching and eyes darting around. "No, Haido-sama," she said after a moment. "There's nothing."

They went inside and shut the door. I let myself breathe a tiny, tiny sigh of relief.

Then I remembered that I would only have a few seconds before they noticed what was missing, dropped to the floor and bolted. I was almost at the throne room when I heard the study door slam back open and the heavy clatter of footsteps. The alarm went off, drowning almost everything out, and I dove through the doors, across the balcony and down the side of the building, sticking to the metal with barely enough grip to control my descent.

Halfway down, I looked below to find a landing spot, only to see the milling of Golems all around.

_Crap._

I increased the chakra to my hands, juddering to a halt.

_Can't go down, can't go up, can't stay here…_ It didn't actually look like I had a lot of options. That was not so good.

_What about across, then?_ River Country was heavily mountainous, the whole countryside flattened out into levels like an excellent topographic map. That meant that no matter where you were, there was likely to be a cliff nearby. In the dark, it was hard to tell, but the stronghold had driven down a passage between two higher points, then stopped where the narrow ravine had opened out into a flat.

I pushed to my feet and went sideways, running horizontal along the stronghold until I reached the back. The sheer area of it made me perfectly aware I had explored very little of the inside, but I couldn't regret that now. The cliffs were too far away to jump to but I had kunai and ninja wire and I was pretty sure I could make a throw.

The first kunai clattered against the stone, but failed to find purchase and I hurriedly reeled it back in before it dropped to the ground. They hadn't seen me yet, but I could hear the shouting and cursing down below as security was tightened.

The second attempt stuck and I gave it a fair tug to make sure. Then I jumped before I could have second thoughts.

My stomach bottomed out at the sensation of free fall, barely affected by the thin wire swinging me sideways instead of going straight down.

I hit the wall with a heavy thump, going too fast for comfort and much lower down than I was happy with. I took a few moments just to breathe and promise myself that I wouldn't do that again. Really, Tarzan made the whole 'swing to safety' thing look so easy and comfortable.

Then I scrambled upwards, breeched the top of the cliff and started to loop around to where we'd left Naruto.

_I hope Shikamaru made it out okay._

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><p>.<p>

Shikamaru was already waiting anxiously by Naruto when I got back.

"You made it!" Naruto whispered, not quite quietly enough. I hushed him, hoping the sound hadn't carried.

"Sorry about the alarm," Shikamaru muttered. "They saw me."

Hadn't _I_ set it off? "I was on my way out, anyway." I shrugged; it didn't really matter, did it? "But we're going to need to be careful. One of them was a scent tracker. I'm pretty sure I lost her on the walls, but if she picks up our trail again..." And I had little doubt she would. A well trained bloodhound was almost impossible to shake, and a well trained Inuzuka even more so. I didn't know where on the scale she would fall, but better safe than sorry.

Shikamaru groaned and rubbed a hand across his face. "Even better. We need to move, then. There's no point sticking around, if it's just going to get us caught."

"But did you find anything?" Naruto asked eagerly as we took off.

"I know what they're doing with all the people," Shikamaru said flatly.

I cast a glance at him. "How bad is it?"

His lips were set in a grim line. "They're using them to power the stronghold."

I blinked.

"What?" Naruto croaked out.

"They're keeping them in some kind of stasis pods, all hooked up to this generator. I followed some of the piping; it goes right down to the main engine."

"Chakra batteries," I breathed. It sounded very much like The Matrix, dozens if not hundreds of humans all hooked up to provide power… It explained why they were taking the villagers, and how they could manage to power such a creation without copious supplies of fuel.

"There's more too," Shikamaru added. "About how they made the golems. The bodies are formed with some kind of clay, then just activated with the machine."

That kind of chakra siphoning and redistribution was … incredibly complex. I'd never heard of it being used on more than an individual scale, though that could partially be because ninja didn't like sharing techniques. Still, it wouldn't be simple to set up. It would need knowledge… the kind of knowledge that was in the book I just took.

"And," he continued. "They're looking for something called the 'Stones of Gelel'."

"Gelel?" I repeated. "That's- no wait. Stones of?" Because the way the book had read I'd almost assumed that 'gelel' was a word for chakra, or more generically, power. But if it wasn't, if it was talking about a specific item… "The stone in Temujin's sword. It reacted to my chakra. Like an amplifier." There was something here, and I chased the idea, but the conclusion stayed just out of reach. I blew out a breath. "Never mind. I saw the map they were using. All the points that they're searching. They aren't the only group, either. There's another one. One that they called a fleet."

"Where?" Shikamaru asked tersely.

"West, along the coastline, mostly. They're going right down into Land of Wind, though."

"Wind? We have to warn Gaara," Naruto said, alarmed. He didn't wait for an answer, merely changing direction.

"We'd never get to Hidden Sand," I disagreed, even as I followed him.

"No, but Wind Country will have border patrols too," Naruto countered. "Besides, if we know where these guys are attacking, then we can help. And we've already sent messages to _our_ border."

We couldn't really keep an eye on the stronghold anymore, not without having to fight. And Naruto was right, we had sent messages. And Naruto had clones out that were hopefully warning the surrounding villages. There wasn't much we could do here and now.

"Shikamaru?" I asked, uncertainly.

He sighed. "Troublesome. Yeah, I think we should see what they're up to in Wind Country. It could be important."

Well, that was settled then.

We didn't make it the whole way that night. It was late, and dark and we needed sleep. We went far enough to hopefully get away from Fugai and, despite Naruto's protest, set up camp. He might have had boundless energy, but if we did end up fighting I didn't want to be wrecked by the time we got there.

Not that I ended up sleeping. I took first watch and eagerly cracked open my stolen book, reading by the faint light of chakra from my hand. It wasn't easy going. The print was old and faded, and the wording was archaic. A fair bit of what I learnt was guess work and assumption.

With a little bit more direction – _stones of Gelel_ – it was a bit more productive. The stones were what they used for everything, it seemed, using them like batteries. Even if I was only skimming through, I could see multiple use of them – agriculture, engineering, medicine, all with their own chapters – but I was more interested in _where _right now. There was a huge section on the mining of them, how they were cut, how they were treated, how the mine was formed, but nothing on where the mine actually was.

_No wonder they're searching_, I thought, flicking back a few pages. _These stones… _I wondered how on earth this empire had fallen. Even with this one book there was just so much potential.

Potential I didn't really want to see in the hands of anyone who thought that invading and randomly attacking innocent villages was a viable strategy.

I marked down the locations of attack on my map – all of them along the main trade route marked in the book. It made sense, if the stones had been a major export. But I wasn't so sure. If they'd gone to all the trouble of withholding the location of it from written record, I doubted that they had loaded the stones out the front door. But in the end, we weren't looking for the mine. We were looking to stop them from finding the mine.

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><p>.<p>

So up until about a week ago, you would have ended up with a very different chapter. I really struggled with this one, got it _almost_ ready to post, then realized it would never work. So it was right back to starting over. That was… very frustrating.


	70. Chapter 69

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: Yeah, I know this one took a while. I got stuck, and it expanded in weird places and I don't even know.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 69

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><p>.<p>

_Let's follow the sun until the shadows fade_

_Cross the desert till we find our place_

_Think of where you're going not where you've come from_

_Just lift your eyes and follow the sun _

_~ Evermore; Follow The Sun _

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><p>.<p>

"Wake up!"

I rolled to my feet, disorientated, but hands going for my kunai automatically. I felt gritty and tired- that brief nap had not nearly been long enough – but snapped to awareness sharply at the tone of Naruto's voice.

There was only a brief moment to assess the situation; incoming enemies, one of the Gelel warriors (_Fugai?_) and at least two squads of golems, too close, I could hear the music that seemed to mean Gelel, before there was a rush of chakra and an ear splitting howl.

Compressed air blasted at us, slamming into our little camp. Naruto took the worst of it, standing defensively between us and them. He was thrown back, slamming violently into the ground. I was just caught in the edges of the attack, but even being clipped by it was bad enough. I was spun around, tripping with more vertigo than the physical reality should have induced.

_Like Dosu's Melody Arm, _I thought. Not that it helped. This was… not good.

We'd handled Temujin and his three okay, but that had been with the element of surprise on our side and in broad daylight. Twice that number without visuals would be a different prospect. Being a Nara didn't give us any special abilities to see in the dark, and without light we couldn't even use our shadow jutsu.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the nausea – it was too dark to see, anyway – and focused on my chakra sense. The kunai I threw clattered against metal but I doubted the hit had done much damage. With the golems being what they were, minor damage alone wouldn't be enough anyway, we'd have to find some way to restrain them or destroy them.

The golems were spreading out, clearly intending to circle around and trap us. I didn't know if they could see in the dark, or if they sensed in some other way. They'd clearly been able to navigate well enough to find us.

"Where is it?" A voice snarled out of the darkness. Yes, that was Fugai. We'd done what we could to lay false trails and shake them off – keeping to the tree tops, running up a river or two – but clearly it hadn't been enough.

She might have been talking about the mine – their ultimate goal – but there was no reason to believe that we would know its location. And we hadn't seriously countered them in any way, not enough to send that kind of force after us. So that meant that she was asking after the book, and that it was even more important than I had thought. And I had the inkling that it was very important indeed.

"What are you _talking_ about?" Naruto shouted back. He sounded woozy, and I could hear the short shuffling steps he was taking as he staggered.

There was no response, just another dizzying howl that sent us scrambling back, then a sense of _movement_ as they closed the gap too us. I yelped as something slammed into me – staff? Mace? They had all carried maces last time – and rolled across the ground. Just because I could vaguely tell where they were, didn't mean I knew what they were doing or how to fight them. Then again, the others didn't have even that advantage. Shikamaru cursed, and I knew he was thinking about retreat, but there wasn't going to be anywhere to retreat _to._

"You thought you could run from me?" Fugai snarled. "Come on, children! Let me see your '_power'_." She howled, this attack a more focused blast of air. I felt the ground heave, and a scatter of dirt and rocks across my side as particles were thrown into the air. A rock the size of a fist clipped my shoulder; another hit I hadn't been able to see coming.

This wasn't going to work.

"That's all this is about for you, isn't it?" Naruto snarled, sounding angry. "Power? You don't even care about all the people that you've hurt."

"Sacrifices for the cause," Fugai tossed back.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto cried, and the sound of scuffling intensified exponentially. There was too much noise to pick targets out by sound. I knocked into one of the clones and was nearly belted for it.

"'Kako! Throw up a flare!" Shikamaru ordered.

That would give us a few seconds of light, but it would utterly destroy any kind of night vision we currently had going. A few seconds might not have been enough.

My hand went for my pouch and tags automatically, then paused and redirected. I couldn't form a lasting flare, taking something unstable and forcing it to hold, but I didn't need to because someone else had already done it.

I pulled the thin cylinder from the inner pocket of my jacket and activated it.

_Zshooom_

The legendary Sword of the Thunder God. _Also useful as a torch_, I thought with a hint of amusement.

There was a split seconds pause, as everyone adjusted to the change in situation, the steady thrum of the lightsaber almost blinding after the sheer darkness of before. I swung it, and the shadows danced, slicing the blade easily into the heavy armour of the nearest golem.

"Good thinking," Shikamaru said, and the shadows at our feet roiled.

"That's more like it!" One of the Naruto's crowed gleefully, leaping forward. His fist impacted with a heavy thud, leaving a nice dent in its wake.

I wasn't exactly trained at kenjutsu, but I was familiar with kunai use and fighting in general, so I could improvise. If I focused the lightsaber to a cutting edge, rather than to shock, its ability to slice easily through the golems more than made up for my own inexperience with using it.

The fact that Shikamaru was basically setting them up for me to take out also probably had something to do with it.

Fugai, from what I could make out in between focusing on my own opponents, was being occupied by Naruto. Her fighting style was rough and crude – much like his actually – but she had the speed and reflexes to make it work. Every time she drew in breath for one of those terrible howls, Naruto was up in her face, making her twist around and swallow it back down.

"People are only strong when they have something precious to protect," he quoted at her. "You think that just finding some stones is going to make you better?"

She laughed derisively. "You know nothing. Those stones are the foundation for our utopia. With them, no one will be able to stop us."

"I'll stop you!" Naruto said. He didn't shout it, just said it with a sort of quiet determination that was much more compelling. Blue chakra started gathering in his hand and a clone stepped forward to help him mold the Rasengan.

I twisted, carving through the chest of a golem that was held in place by Shikamaru's shadows. The pieces fell apart, the light fading from its eyes and leaving it inert. Another one struggled, Shadow Stitching Jutsu piercing both hands and feet and pinning it in place, and I swung again, barely feeling the resistance against my blade.

Naruto slammed the Rasengan into Fugai, drilling through her chest plate with a wail of rending metal, and she was thrown backwards into the dirt.

I lifted the lightsaber higher, letting the light still and illuminate the clearing cleanly. Shikamaru was kneeling behind me, one knee in the dirt, but his hands were clasped firmly in a rat seal and I could hardly argue with his results. The place looked like a mass grave, with the massive, toppled bodies everywhere, rent apart in ways that weren't always clean. There were the ones I had hacked apart with the lightsaber, the ones Naruto and his clones and simply _pummeled_ out of shape, and at least one that had been punctured repeatedly with Shadow Stitching Jutsu until the life faded from it.

There were two of them left, and I hoped with the death of their leader, that they would retreat.

Shadows rippled across Fugai's body, and for a second I thought it was just an illusion – the light from the Sword of the Thunder God wasn't completely even, it was still _compressed lightning_ – but her hand twitched, curling in the dirt and tensing so hard a shudder rocked across her entire body. Then her skin rippled and bulged, muscles underneath shifting beyond what was human, her entire structure reshaping itself.

The song that I equated with Gelel surged, not louder exactly but more present, maybe changing in tempo, in pitch, _something_, so I couldn't help but notice.

When she stood, she looked like a wolf. Well, not completely. Half way. A half wolf. A werewolf. Damn it.

"Hey!" Naruto objected. "That's- You work for Orochimaru!" It wasn't much of a leap to equate her transformation with the curse seal, or with whatever potion that Mizuki had cooked up, but I wasn't sure it was actually an accurate assumption.

"The only one I serve is Haido-sama!" Fugai snarled back at him. "He's the one who will lead us into a new era! He is our lord, our master, and I will not let you foil his plans!"

"And I won't let you hurt any more people!" Naruto shouted back, launching himself at her.

She breathed in again and this time when she howled the whole world seemed to toss like the sea in a storm. It was vertigo, but there was no genjutsu to cancel and I staggered and fell, unable to stay upright. My ears were ringing in more ways than one, and the lightsaber dropped from my nerveless fingers, plunging us back into darkness. I retched, trying to frantically scrabble for it, trying to get the light we needed back. The night seemed so much darker now, after having been illuminated, heavy and oppressive.

_Where is it? Where is it?_

My fingers raked up dirt and only dirt. I was having trouble telling up from down, my mouth tasted of sour stomach acid, there were still enemies about, and_ I couldn't find our light._

I gathered chakra to my hand, enough to give a blue ghostly light. It wasn't much, just enough to throw outlines into focus, and I scanned the ground. _There!_

I reached out –

- and a heavy armored foot slammed down on my hand, targeting the light. Pain surged up my arm like fire and a high pitched whine escaped my mouth. I tugged futilely as my hand was ground down into the dirt, something cracking ominously, but it was stuck. The pain was disrupting my chakra, and without my hand I couldn't form seals anyway. Instead, I curled forwards, over it – just in time to miss the end of the staff that plunged into the ground where my head had been – my other hand bracing against the ground and kicked upwards, foot clanging into a metal chin. I kicked again, levering the golem up and back just enough to pull my hand free and rolled out of the way.

I panted, cradling my hand to my chest. Adrenaline roared furious in my veins, battling the spikey waves of pain. Naruto and Fugai's chakra were closely intertwined, and Shikamaru's was moving unpredictably to my left with the last of the golems, so there would be no immediate help from them. I needed to get the light back.

Truthfully, I was more worried about Shikamaru than I was about Naruto. Naruto might have been impulsive and hot headed, but there was no denying he was good in a fight. Even, or maybe _especially_, when things were stacked against him. Even with that disastrous fight with Kimimaro still fresh in my memory, I did trust that Naruto could handle what was thrown at him better than the two of us could.

I flexed my fingers, then forced them into handsigns. "Earth Release; Earth Style Wall," I called, even though I couldn't hear my own voice. The ground I targeted – right underneath my opponents feet – churned, suddenly malleable with chakra. I pulled it up, not hardened enough to lift the golem but not strong enough to punch through what was effectively solid metal either, instead settling around it's legs and lower torso like a perfect mould.

I could feel through the chakra resonation – and vibrations in the ground – as it hacked away at the rock and knew that it wouldn't hold long. I scrambled around it, a messy graceless stumble, and swept my unharmed hand over the ground until I found what I had dropped.

The sudden light of the lightsaber activating made my eyes water, but I hardly paused, coming up swinging. I struck awkwardly, but my lightning blade carved into it as easily as it had before. I braced my other hand on the handle, ignoring the thrum of pain it caused, and pulled upwards, shearing the thing in two.

Its chakra spluttered out, and it collapsed, lifeless.

I didn't have time to pause, turning to help Shikamaru. He'd done a good job binding it down with ninja wire, and now that we had light again his shadow jutsu were back in play. But like me he was clearly having trouble keeping steady on his feet, which wasn't an advantage in a fight.

I helped finish off Shikamaru's golem with a grunt, wavering slightly.

"Okay?" Shikamaru mouthed. Or maybe he said it but I couldn't hear.

I nodded, breathing deeply. We weren't done yet.

We closed the gap between us and them, bringing the remaining fight into clearer light. Naruto looked awful, dirty and beaten with a trail of blood leaking from his mouth. I hoped it was a 'sliced my cheek on my teeth' injury and not a more serious 'internal bleeding' one. Fugai slammed into him, all animalistic fury, throwing him back at us.

I moved sideways, letting him tumble across the ground, and slashed out with the lightsaber. Lightning gathered along the side and lanced out, whipping through the air at her. It was a more powerful version of Striking Bolt, simple but effective and it homed in on her metal armour with great alacrity.

She staggered under it and I swung again. Beside me, Naruto rolled to his feet, rubbing the blood off his chin with the back of his hand and _grinned._ There was something so fierce and pleased about the expression that I felt an answering smirk steal across my face.

_Let's finish this, then._

Naruto clapped his hands together and multiplied. I spared an idle thought to wonder how many clones he had running around, but dismissed it. It wasn't relevant right now.

Naruto clapped his hands together. "Shadow Clone Kunai Barrage!" His voice sounded a little muffled to me, but it meant I was getting my hearing back.

The kunai rattled against the metal of her armour, some of them finding chinks, but Fugai just snarled, low and vicious. It was hard to read any emotion but 'pissed off' on her muzzle. She charged forward, unwilling to retreat, with a blur of speed that was faster than I expected.

It wasn't enough, though, because neither Shikamaru nor I were still occupied with other fights. And getting into close quarters with a Nara was just asking for trouble.

I couldn't make hand seals while holding the lightsaber, but I'd had more than enough practicing at activating my shadow without them. Actually paralyzing her in the jutsu might have been a different story, but Shikamaru was right there, joining his shadow up on the other side.

"Rasengan!" Naruto cried, slamming his attack into her.

I felt the reflected force, pushing me back, but held in place. If she'd recovered once, she'd recover again, and we didn't need to go through this again. So instead of simply being thrown backwards, the Rasengan ground into her, the screech of warping metal giving way to something softer and more disturbing.

She sagged into our hold, body reverting out of its transformation. Her eyes were still open though, and her chest – however ruined – still struggled to draw in air.

"I will," she wheezed, "kill you. For Haido-sama."

She shouldn't have still been alive, let along talking. And her chakra was still humming strongly, bound up in the music of the Gelel. In fact… it looked like her wound was healing. Not as fast as Naruto's had when he had been bursting with Kyuubi's chakra, but still at a visible pace.

Another few minutes and she would be fully recovered. That wasn't good. If she could just keep going, if she was effectively immortal, we were in a whole lot of trouble. We couldn't keep fighting her. Eventually we'd just… run out of steam.

It would depend if her energy was infinite or depletable. The Sound Four had only been able to hold their transformations for so long, but I was wary about drawing too many parallels when the causes weren't the same. Who knew how these stones worked.

_The stones…_

The curses seals were _seals_, fully integrated into the individual, but the stones were merely objects. Could it be as simple as removing it from her person?

"What's that guy good for anyway?" Naruto complained.

_Keep her talking, _I thought encouragingly. It would give us more information, and more time to work out what to do.

"A person like you will _never_ understand," Fugai hissed back.

She wasn't carrying anything obvious like Temujin's sword, and for it to have transformed her, she probably needed to be in contact with it. It could be in her armour somewhere, though if it was, it wasn't showcased.

I caught Shikamaru's eye, trying to convey that I was about to do something and that he'd have to hold the Shadow Possession himself. That shouldn't be a problem unless she was able to transform again, or he ran out of time.

I already knew that the stones resonated with my chakra, so the easiest way to find where she was hiding it would simply be to diffuse chakra around her until it caused a reaction. Yes, it would probably send a signal, but it was unlikely to be more than what the fighting had already given.

I disengaged my shadow from her feet and started climbing it up, covering her legs. It wasn't the solid restriction of the Shadow Neckbind Jutsu, and it wouldn't actually do any damage, but it was sufficient for my purposes.

There was no reaction as my chakra wound around her torso, or down her arms, and I actually thought that my assumption was wrong and it wasn't going to work. Then I covered her neck and a clear strong note rang out from the base of her throat.

_Bingo._

I cut my jutsu and walked forward until I was close enough to clasp my hand around her neck. There was no telltale bump or bulge beneath the skin, the way there should have been if the stone was inset there. I let a diagnostic jutsu seep into her skin but found that there was no evidence of pressure on the trachea or blood vessels either. Yet the stone was there, I could feel it as my chakra brushed against it. It was there, yet not, almost as if it had no physical presence at all.

"What are you doing?" Fugai demanded, sounding spooked. And no wonder, she had to know where the stone was and what it did for her. If I removed it, she would be powerless. Well, I amended, right now she would probably be dead without it to heal the damage she had sustained.

I hesitated at that thought, stepping back.

It wasn't that I _couldn't_. I was fully aware that I could. But was it necessary? It was one thing, in the heat of the moment, to do everything that you needed to stop an enemy. It was very different to make a considered, rational decision to kill someone you had already stopped.

I didn't really want to be the kind of person that made that call easily, when there were other options available.

The sun was – _finally_ – starting to come up, bathing everything in grey pre-dawn light. It was enough to see by, anyway, so I flicked off my lightsaber and tucked it away.

"You should surrender," I said quietly. "You are out numbered and out matched. Your regeneration abilities are strong, but not unbeatable, especially if your power source is removed. But you can surrender-"

"I will die before being powerless like that again!" Fugai snapped before I'd even finished. Her face was twisted with rage.

There was a surge in the music, beating out a tempo like a war drum, and light began to glow at the base of her throat, seeping through her skin.

_Shit._

I didn't know what it would do, but it was clearly an attack. The options were to try and dodge, which would involve Shikamaru letting her go, but we couldn't even predict where would be safe or what kind of attack it would be, or to shut it down in the half a second before it went off.

I was closest. I was the only one that could react in time.

My hand went for my kunai, plunging into her throat and ripping upwards through the skin. My other fingers curved in beneath it, plucking the glowing stone straight out of her.

A short, fear filled scream ripped out of her, choking off almost instantly. The chakra faded from her body, and her injuries stopped their rapid repairs.

I sighed and stepped back.

She stood there for a second longer, before Shikamaru stopped his jutsu and she just kind of … toppled gracelessly to the ground.

"All that for this, huh?" I said. I stroked my fingers over the stone absently, listening to it sing. It was cool and dry, despite the fact that it should have been covered in blood and fluids.

"It doesn't seem like much," Naruto agreed.

Shikamaru didn't say anything, and I glanced over to him. He was staring back, something vague and unreadable on his face. He looked uncomfortable.

I straightened, tried to see what was wrong, then caught myself. There was an obvious explanation lying at my feet. Had Shikamaru ever killed anyone? I … didn't actually know. That probably made me a terrible sister. Not during the exams, and although people had died on our last mission, Tayuya had survived. By rights, the answer should be 'no'. He hadn't exactly been responsible here either, but even being present was probably disturbing.

Sometimes I forgot that the other teams weren't like us, they didn't have missions like our missions.

"We should pack up," I said instead.

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><p>.<p>

We passed the border with no complications, deciding to head onwards to the sites of attack, rather than try to find an outpost.

The coastline of Land of Wind was the most densely populated part of the entire region. There were shipping ports and fishing villages and other sea going businesses. The land in general was slightly more habitable too, a rockier, sandstone vista, with intimidating cliff faces and gullies. While there were villages further in the desert – Hidden Sand most importantly – they were in general fewer and less prosperous. If Haido's people had attacked here like they had in Land of Rivers, they could actually severely damage the nation.

Even the capital was down here, though it was much further along the coast than the attacks were to take place, and much more likely to be able to defend from an offensive.

The sun was well and truly up by the time we closed in on the first town, and even with chakra temperature regulation I was uncomfortably overheated. It was surprising how dramatically the conditions changed with less than a days travel.

"Looks like we're too late," Shikamaru commented lowly, as we halted on a high cliff with a good vantage point. Already we could see too much smoke spiraling in the air and too much movement.

"Maybe not," I mused. "It looks like Hidden Sand has already arrived." Either they had an outpost nearby with excellent response times, this wasn't the first attack, or they'd already been in the area.

Regardless, it meant we were walking into a firefight and not a massacre. It was more dangerous, perhaps, but more promising at the same time.

Naruto didn't pause, just launched himself forward, rocketing towards the village. Shika and I exchanged a look and followed.

The closer I got, the more I could see. It looked like we were only _just_ arriving after the fight had started. There was a huge metal ship - the same design as the stronghold – hovering just offshore, likely having only just disembarked its soldiers onto land. Even as we watched, it fired cannons, dull hollow booms with rising smoke clouds. They would have devastated the shore, but never made it that far. The sand of the beach rose up, thick and fast, forming an impenetrable wall that they slapped against.

There were two or three squads of Sand ninja fighting, and there was a familiar looking puppet dancing through the chaos, though I couldn't spot the wielder. Much more visible was the white and purple of Temari's fan, and we angled ourselves towards her in order to make contact. Or Shikamaru and I did, Naruto simply entered the fray, splitting off shadow clones as he went.

"What are you doing here?" Temari demanding, heaving her fan in an arc. "I thought I told you not to get into trouble again."

"I dunno," Shikamaru said casually, hands folding into a rat seal and shadow spiraling outwards. "It kinda looks to me like you're the one in trouble. Thought we could help."

Temari barked a laugh. "You think Gaara needs help in the _desert_?"

Watching the way the coast line seemed to move, sand hovering above the waves and advancing outwards, ensnaring the ship and relentlessly dragging it ashore… made it clear that it wasn't Gaara that needed the help.

I was suddenly, extremely glad that we had faced Gaara on our turf and not his. In the desert, with effectively an infinite supply of sand and an infinite supply of chakra, his only limits were his frail mortal body.

It was a bit breathtaking to realize the sheer scope of that.

_Kazekage._

Maybe he wasn't yet. And right now those limits were a lot lower than they could be, but with time and experience… he could make the whole desert bend to his will. Every dune a soldier, every grain of sand a weapon; how could anyone fight that?

I turned back to the fighting going on around us, sending my shadow out. The thing about having so many people in one place like this was that it made catching them easy. The tricky part was determining which ones you possessed and which ones you let move freely.

If there had been any stronger opponents like Fugai, it would have been a different story. But they were all Golems and it wasn't like Hidden Sand didn't know how to fight puppets. The usual method of 'attack the puppeteer' wouldn't work, of course, but they weren't on completely unfamiliar ground.

By the time we had finished, Gaara had beached the ship, dragging it ruthlessly and inevitably ashore. It disgorged another, greater, load of Golems, and a tall figure flickering with lightning that had to be one of the warriors.

_Ranke?_

Then the Golems were on us, and I fell into playing backup for a kenjutsu using Sand ninja. With so many bodies on the battlefield and not much time to pause and look around, it was hard to keep track of everything.

It was impossible to miss some of Gaara's fight, though, as sand rose up in giant waves, spinning and spiraling. The flicker-flash of Ranke's lightning techniques was just as distracting, creating momentary blindness if you were looking the wrong way.

Just from what I could see, I thought that Ranke might have been stronger than Fugai – or rather, better at combating ninja. There were definitely different techniques going on there, and the fact that she was fighting Gaara without being immediately annihilated had to mean something.

Belatedly, I realized that we should really tell them about the stones. The middle of combat wasn't exactly the best time for information sharing, but if the only way to stop the Gelel warriors permanently was to remove the stones-

The ground surged, sand whipping through the air and slamming down like a tsunami where Ranke had been standing. There was a brief crescendo of sound, as though it was gathering energy for one final burst, then fluttered out into silence, leaving only the fainter notes of the Golems. Which told me that I was getting better at distinguishing this, wasn't I?

_Or, you could just crush them,_ I thought. _That seems like it works too._ Whether he'd actually crushed the stone, or merely 'just' reduced Ranke to such pulp that it wasn't actually connected to her anymore – and wasn't that a thought – it seemed like Gaara's favored tactics were pretty much right on cue to deal with these guys.

"By the gods," the ninja next to me breathed. I wasn't sure if it was in awe or in fear or a mixture of both.

Probably both.

After that it didn't take long to sweep up the rest of the Golems. Almost literally as Gaara proved.

"Chizuru!" Temari ordered, closing her fan and flipping it easily up onto her back. "Take Asano and scout the area. See if there were any other shore parties we missed. Mahana, wrap everything up here so we're ready to move out."

The named ninja – I presumed – snapped out affirmative replies and darted off to do as they were told. It was… interesting that Temari seemed to be in charge here, given that she, like me, was nominally a Genin. Gaara, I could see no one wanting to argue with, but Temari wasn't nearly so intimidating.

It wasn't that I doubted her skills, exactly, but several of the other ninja were wearing Sand style Chunin vests.

We shuffled out of the way, regrouping to the side. Shikamaru was slouching, hands tucked into his pockets, but didn't look much more ruffled than usual. Naruto was Naruto. Apart from the grime, you could hardly tell they'd been fighting. Next to them I felt supremely battered.

"So," Temari said, stopping in front of us and cocking her hip.

"So," Shikamaru echoed.

"You're not seriously going to play the 'it was a social visit' card, are you?" Kankurou cut in, walking up to us, his puppet rewrapped and settled on his back. Gaara arrived shortly after, sweeping in with a swirl of sand. "No one is going to buy it."

Naruto chuckled, scratching the back of his neck nervously. "Ah, we're not really supposed to be here," he admitted. "But we found out these guys were going to attack, so we came to give you a warning."

"The thought is appreciated," Temari said dryly. "But you're several days too late."

"Our mission was in the Land of Rivers," Shikamaru clarified. "We ran into these guys after they'd attacked a village there. It's … pretty bad." He gave a quick but thorough run through of the situation.

"Well, shit," Kankurou summed up. "We thought it was Hidden Mist at first, but it didn't fit." Mist was the only one of the shinobi villages that really did any of their attacking by sea, so yeah, I could see the initial assumption.

"They're from further away than that," I said. "They're not from the Elemental Nations at all. They're looking for the mine that produces those crystals; that gives them that power."

I spread our map out, flat on the ground. A curl of sand wound over the edges, holding it flat so it didn't roll back up and I spared a quick smile for Gaara.

"They're working off an old map, pre-Hidden Village," I said vaguely. "There used to be an old trade route through here." There'd been major cities, by the look of the map, which had probably affected the locations that Haido had dropped his men and stronghold. He might have assumed that, even if the cities themselves hadn't lasted, the resources that had made them ideal locations to build in the first place would have remained.

"That's where they attacked," Temari noted, crouching down beside me. She tapped the circles I'd drawn.

"Right," I said. "Well, where they were planning to attack anyway. We confirmed a few, but the stronghold was moving in this direction so they likely started at the far end." I shook off the thought as irrelevant. "Anyway. This is where they're looking, but I don't think it was on the trade route itself."

If you went to all the trouble of never mentioning the location of the mine, you probably didn't sell stones out of the door. Yeah, if I had time to read the rest of the book, I could probably do more than make educated guesses, but I didn't. Then again, Haido had read it and this was the best he had. I wouldn't presume to think he was an idiot.

"Given the other landmarks… I think it's more likely to be up here somewhere." I circled another area with my finger.

"There's nothing there," Kankurou said instantly. "That's the Dead Wastes."

"Dead Wastes?" I repeated blankly. It wasn't a name I was familiar with at all.

He shrugged. "What it sounds like, man. The whole area is completely dead. There's no water, no shelter; nothing grows there and nothing lives. They say if you leave a corpse there it won't even rot."

"That's… interesting," I said with a frown, considering the map again. It was possible he meant that a body would simply dehydrate and mummify, but that wouldn't be unusual by the standards of the desert, surely?

"So no one lives there at all?" Shikamaru asked. "No one explores it?"

"No," Temari agreed. "It's avoided." She looked thoughtful too. It helped explain how something could remain a secret if it was in an area that people simply wouldn't go. "It's still a big area though."

"Then let's go!" Naruto declared. "We'll find this stupid mine before anyone else gets hurt!"

I chewed on my lower lip, considering. The mine wasn't really our goal, except in terms of keeping it out of their hands. "What's the status on the outposts?" I asked. "Have your clones reached it yet?" They ought to have, if they'd been moving quickly. Land of Rivers wasn't that wide, and we'd come further in the other direction than they'd had to travel.

"Huh?" Naruto blinked in surprise. "My clones? Oh, right." He looked like he was mentally shifting gears, attention focusing from one topic to another. "Yeah, they got to the outpost. But Hayama-taicho said they can't leave the outpost to help!"

"What did he say exactly?" I asked patiently. I hadn't expected they would mount an attack, given the current focus on maintaining border patrols, but a flat 'nothing' was a bit… extreme. At the very least I would have expected an extraction team for us.

"Um, that they had to look after the border first, in case they decided to go to Land of Fire. And that they weren't supposed to be in Land of Rivers anyway. But they were going to send a message to Baa-chan to see what she wanted to do. And that we should stay out of trouble…"

Well, it was a bit late for _that._

It would probably take a few days or more for anything to happen, either way. Messages had to be passed, decisions had to be made, ninja had to be found and deployed. And they weren't even directly attacking Fire Country, so the level of priority wasn't as high as the mess with Cloud. There'd probably be messages to Hidden Valley, which would take even more time…

We'd already seen the amount of damage that these guys could do in a few days.

I didn't really want to see more villages destroyed.

"Okay…" I said slowly. "What about Hidden Sand?"

"We're defending the coast," Kankurou said. "But we can't exactly take the fight to them out there. We can't fight them until they come close to shore, and we never know where that going to be."

"Unless we do…" Temari mused. "If the mine is their goal, then all we have to do is defend that instead of the whole coastline. They won't bother attacking the villages when their real objective is so close at hand."

I wasn't so sure about that, if they were _using_ the villagers to power their equipment, but it would still be _less_ than what it currently was.

"And," she continued, staring down at the map. "If the location is so obvious, they're likely going to discover it very shortly. It's better if we're there first."

And wasn't that an ominous thought.

"We'll go," Gaara rasped in agreement. "Mahana will continue the patrol."

"Awesome! Let's go!" Naruto cheered, pointing off into the distance. Then he paused and looked around. "Wait. Which direction are we going?"


	71. Chapter 70

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: I think Avicii's 'Hey, Brother' might actually be my Nara twins song. There's something bittersweet about it.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 70

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><p>.<p>

_Hey brother, there's an endless road to re-discover.  
>Hey sister, know the water's sweet but blood is thicker.<br>Oh, if the sky comes falling down for you,  
>There's nothing in this world I wouldn't do.<em>

_~Avicii; Hey Brother_

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><p>.<p>

The Dead Wastes were probably more impressive to someone that knew anything at all about deserts. To me, they looked about the same as the rest of the desert that we'd passed through to get here. Granted, we had travelled through a few variations – rock, rocky sand, sandy sand, a dried out old creek bed to name a few – and this did seem to be on the rockier side of the equation.

Then again, there was something I noticed about it, and that was the complete and utter lack of chakra in the air.

_Nothing lives here…_

The desert had seemed pretty bare of life to my eye, with the exception of a few small and lonely plants, a spikey looking lizard or two, and a snake basking in the sun. (Kankurou had also suggested that our heavy footsteps might summon a giant sandworm - apparently straight out of Dune - but Temari had just scoffed and rolled her eyes at that, so I was pretty sure he was joking.) But the natural energy in the air had differed little in volume from any rural area in the Land of Fire, suggesting that there was a thriving ecosystem however little of it I could see.

The fact that this place had no chakra at all…

I shivered.

Tentatively, I gathered a little chakra into my hand, holding it up at eye level. The blue glow seemed to waver, like a candle flame in the wind, pulling inwards to the Wastes. Despite my tight control, it was peeling off, dispersing into the air and being sucked away.

"Interesting," I said, more unsettled than anything. It seemed… active. This wasn't just an area with no chakra, it was an area where no chakra could _be._

"What was that?" Naruto asked puzzled, staring at the air.

"It's almost like something is drawing the chakra away," I said.

"Eh?" Naruto frowned. "But where would it go? Into a jutsu?"

I blanched a little. "Let's hope not." An area this size, for however long it had been empty? That would be an extraordinary amount of chakra. That would be… destructive.

"It's still a huge area," Temari was arguing with Shikamaru. "It'll take weeks to search."

"I should be able to get us close," I said, cutting in. "I can sort of sense the energy the stones use, so we won't have to search _everywhere._"

"That's better," Temari agreed, grudgingly.

I thought about pointing out that she had agreed to come this far without even _that much_ of a plan, but it didn't look like she would appreciate the reminder.

We set off again, and suddenly I was in the lead, taking us deeper and deeper into the Wastes. My lungs didn't like breathing this lifeless air, which was rich considering how long it had taken them to realize that chakra wouldn't drown them.

The Wastes were flat, bare rock more than sand, with cracks and crevices reaching downwards that sometimes split it valleys or gulfs. That was interesting in its own way, and not just in making sure we didn't accidentally step off the edge of a cliff. It almost seemed like this had once been like Land of Rivers, since water erosion and underground rivers were the prime cause of such cave networks.

There was no water here now.

Sometime in the afternoon, I started hearing the song of Gelel grow louder and clearer, which was a relief as it meant we were going in the right direction. I followed it, until it was so loud my bones felt like they were vibrating, and it was so clear that I could have named each note, had the melody had recognizable notes. I couldn't have begun to describe it but it was beautiful.

"Somewhere here," I said, after a few circles around. It had grown dimmer in each direction, so it must have been here.

It could have been anywhere. This wasn't flat ground, and it could have been hidden in any number of crevices or caves, or buried a hundred feet underground. Even with Naruto's shadow clones, it would take us a long time to search them all.

"Quiet," Gaara rasped, crouching and pressing his hands flat against the ground. Specks of sand danced around him, as if caught in a breeze.

When he stood, he seemed to know exactly where we were going, and lead us down and through twists and turns with unerring certainty. We'd climbed through caves before, in Hidden Waterfall, but those had been built or repaired for human use, whereas these were just natural accidents. It made the trip… interesting, but we were ninja and were hardly about to be defeated by the natural world.

"I feel like this should have been harder," I mused. We weren't quite in a cave –there was still sunlight spilling down around us – but two giant stone slabs were wedged together to make the area virtually inaccessible. Beyond that, however, was a structure with clear signs of workmanship. It might have been half collapsed, pillars worn and engravings and patterns faded, the stairs covered with piles of sand… but it was here.

"Why?" Naruto asked, seeming to be honestly puzzled that I considered finding the remnants of a long lost civilization in a day 'too easy'.

I stared at him. He stared back.

"Never mind," I said, slumping.

He looked curious for a moment longer, before shrugging it off. "Let's go inside!" He called, running up the steps. "I want to see what it's like!"

"Idiot," Shikamaru groaned. "You deserve every trap you run into."

But we couldn't _not_ follow, so after a moments pause we started up the stairs too. Whatever I'd imagined inside, it wasn't like that. The outside might have been crumbled and time worn, but the inside was as clean and fresh as if people had only left the day before. It was wide open, a central hub with many branching corridors off it, and every available surface was heavily decorated. The columns were carved, there were mosaics across the floor and picture frames on the walls, like the most extravagant of temples or palaces. It wasn't dark, either, like it should have been with no sunlight. I couldn't see any light sources, nothing glowing, but it was like broad daylight in here.

"Creepy," Kankurou said, stopping beside me.

I barely heard him. If the Gelel was a song, then this room was a masterpiece of acoustics. It pushed at me from all sides, and I could feel the stone in my pocket beating in time like a second heart.

And despite Shikamaru's mutterings, it didn't look like there were any traps. Naruto was darting in and out of the corridors, exploring with eagerness, and we broke up and spread out to have a look around. I paused to look at all the carvings, which were incredibly detailed. Like the mosaic patterns on the floor, they seemed very geometric, but not rigid and repeating.

I couldn't help but reach out an awed hand to brush over them.

And then yelped, jumping backwards and pulling my fingers away as though burned.

It had taken my chakra! Just pulled it straight out of my hand! It had been so strong, like the pull of a riptide sucking you out to sea just when you thought that the water was safe. I hadn't been able to fight it, or resist it, chakra to chakra, and it was lucky I _could_ back away.

"It's a seal," I said, astounded. The others had stopped at my first exclamation, wary of traps and dangers. "This whole place is a seal…"

With a new eye, I looked over the patterns and carvings.

And swallowed.

It was huge. It was complex. I didn't even understand what it was for. But it made sense. The Dead Wastes, completely lacking in chakra because it was all _here_, sucked out of the air to feed this monster of a seal, for centuries. Millennia.

Shikamaru cursed, low and vicious. "Do you know what it does?"

I shook my head. If seals were like languages, then this was written in some long dead tongue, and I had no Rosetta stone. And even if I could translate it, it would be like babelfish, a mess of poorly aligned words with no context or explanation.

_People only think in so many ways,_ Jiraiya had said. But what about a different civilization altogether? I was different enough, and I had still grown up here a second time.

"I vote for _not_ staying in the cursed and abandoned temple," Kankurou said, almost immediately.

Even if Naruto wanted to explore, no one was really arguing with that.

We set up a small camp just outside, with no small amount of relief. We'd been moving non-stop since yesterday, and a rest was long overdue.

"They're not going to be able to get the boats here," Temari said in satisfaction, perched on a rock and still somehow managing to look sophisticated. "Which means all we have to contend with is the mobile fortress that you described. We don't know how many soldiers they can deploy, but this is an excellent area for ambushes. We should at least be able to engage without suffering too many losses."

Especially since they had Gaara on their side. Once they stopped playing hit and run with the coast line, they were done for.

I was starting to feel good about our chances for dealing with this, which is why I probably should have expected things to start going wrong. A beam of bright white light cut through the air above us, visible in the small parts of open sky we could see.

"Lightning?" I tried, not even sounding like _I_ believed that.

We went up, sticking to the walls to ascend vertically, and cautiously peering out in case of a trap.

"You!" Naruto shouted, jumping up and pointing angrily at Temujin.

I blinked. How on earth had Temujin got here? Had he followed us?

He wasn't alone either, but the man with him wasn't one I had seen before. He didn't look like any member of Haido's entourage, older, shabbier and less well dressed. He was carrying the ferret that had started this whole mess of a mission, cradling it dearly to his chest.

I wasn't exactly worried about this descending into a fight. Temujin was so outnumbered, and unless he was leagues above the other Gelel warriors, we'd be able to handle him.

"Oh, the unparalleled shinobi of the Leaf and Sand," the old man wheezed. "You must help me-"

"Be silent," Temujin commanded, shoving him in the shoulder and forcing him to stumble a few steps forward. "Haido-sama is already on his way. There is no need for you to resist any longer."

"Leave him alone!" Naruto shouted. "Are you alright, old man? What'd this freak do to you?"

"Tricked, tricked and betrayed!" the old man said, sniffling dramatically. "He came to us in friendship, as though he were the ninja hired to bring Nerugui home-" He hefted the ferret to demonstrate his point. "Then forced us to give up the secret location known only to our clan!"

I raised an eyebrow. This was the man who hired us? And he knew the location of the Gelel mine? This was utterly, utterly ridiculous.

… but I had started hearing the Gelel when we met the ferret, hadn't I. Not when we ran into the base, or into the golems, but the ferret.

"It has one of the stones, doesn't it," I asked, woodenly. It wasn't even a real question.

"Nerugui has been with our clan for generations," the old man confirmed. "He was once the companion to the kings of the empire, and we were trusted with guarding him." He looked dolefully at us all. "The mine must never be recovered, do you understand? It's power is beyond anything humans can handle. Those stones are the reason that the empire was destroyed!"

"Power is only power," Temujin shrugged. "What matters is who wields it. In the hands of Haido-sama, we will build a utopia. A world without wars, where the weak are never trampled by the strong… That is all that matters. That is our dream."

"There is so much wrong with that that I don't even know where to start," I said, annoyed. It was good that he was talking, it gave us more information, but it was still utter bullshit. "What part of devastating helpless villages and kidnapping people leads to peace? That's _exactly_ what you're telling me you hate. Utterly hypocritical."

"We had no choice," Temujin insisted. "Sometimes sacrifices must be made. We have made sacrifices too, noble sacrifices to make the world better. That is what it means to accomplish something."

"You don't get to decide what sacrifices other people should make!" Naruto yelled, which was exactly the same thing I would have said. "It's not _noble_, and you should stop acting like you know better than everyone else!"

I really kind of hated that all these bad guys used 'world peace' as their explanation. It seemed to tarnish the whole concept, as though every time they were proven wrong, it was proven wrong.

"The ends don't justify the means," I continued, tag teaming off of Naruto. "The means create the ends. Any rule that's built with such needless bloodshed will continue that way. You think Haido will _stop_ giving orders to kill people, just because he has what he wants?"

That one at least seemed to strike home, and Temujin faltered for a moment. "Don't talk about Haido-sama that way!" he snapped. Not deep enough, then, it seemed.

"This… Haido," Gaara rasped slowly. "Who is he?"

"Haido-sama is a great lord of Rikujou," Temujin said, earnestly for one who was so stoic. "He is noble and very wise and has achieved many great things in uniting the nations of our warring country. Even I… My friends and I were rescued by Haido-sama when bandits destroyed our village. That's why we believe so strongly in his dream to free the world of wars. That is why I must recover the mine of Gelel."

I couldn't say the revelation made me terribly sympathetic. "Your village was destroyed by bandits?" I asked, deliberately softly. "So you're just doing to others what was done to you?"

There was a bit of vicious satisfaction at watching the words hit home.

It had probably blown the small progress we were making. But there was satisfaction.

"He must be one of the descendants of the royal family," the old man said dolefully. "They left across the sea many years ago and took with them the Book of Gelel and the last of the stones. Only the blood of the royal family can destroy the stones, so we were never able to do more than hide the mine. Maybe now it can finally be destroyed…"

"Incredibly interesting," Temari said drolly, looking anything but interested. "Are you going to come quietly?"

Temujin raised his sword, but the sand that Gaara had been steadily piling around his feet as we talked spread up and immobilized him. A ninja would have expected that.

"I would have preferred to have greater forces here," Temari said critically. "But I suppose we don't have to worry about how to lure them in anymore."

Haido being on his way might have been accelerated from our plans, but it was basically what we were hoping to achieve in any case.

We tied Temujin up and went back down to our makeshift campsite. Now we were on a timetable, there were plans to make and traps to set. I didn't have much to offer, as the barren nature of the area made all my seals useless, so I spoke with the old man a little. His name was Kahiko, and he was part of a caravan of nomads that had been in River Country. He had been the one to hire us to retrieve the ferret – named Nerugui- which made me slightly regret our decision to abandon the original mission. If we'd ended up meeting him first, could we have learnt all about the stones and Gelel beforehand? Then again, the decision we'd made had been reasonable with the knowledge that we'd had and who knows what other events might have occurred.

All offers to take him to a safe distance, however, were rebuffed with melodrama that reminded me sharply of Tazuna. As much as I'd ended up liking the bridge builder, it was clear that Kahiko had his own agenda, whatever it might have been. I felt like throwing my hands up in frustration.

After that, it was mostly just waiting, and we took the opportunity to rest as much as we could.

"They're coming," Gaara rasped, just as the next day's dawn peeked over the horizon. The night had been _freezing_ and I was almost glad for the return of the searing desert heat.

"Finally!" Naruto said, hopping up and peering around. There was nothing to be seen, but that didn't stop him from trying.

I made one last attempt to get Kahiko to safety – which he refused – and followed the others out to the places we'd chosen for fighting.

Like Temari, I rather wished we had more people with us. Especially when the stronghold came back into view, rumbling the ground like an earthquake and towering against the sky. It was moving quickly over the flatter ground; far faster than it had been in River Country.

We waited, tensely, until it hit one of the spots we had readied, and the ground caved in, a bare crust of rock hiding crumbly sand and open space beneath. It pitched forward, nose sinking down into the ground, treads circling without grabbing, and ground to a halt.

"Perfect," Temari said, heaving her fan in a wide circle. Winds blasted out, only gaining speed and strength as lashed across the open space, so that they carved deeply into the metal of the machine, more than one pipe bursting and spilling steam or simply being sliced straight off and clattering to the ground.

Sand whirled through the air, stirred up by the winds, but luckily was directed _away_ more than toward us.

It made visibility poor, however, and when the golems came crashing towards us, it was only luck that one of us spotted the one flying overhead. Temari slashed at it with a sweeping gust of wind, but it dived agilely out of the way, low enough to see that it was not one but two; a twisted feminine warrior carrying the lord himself.

And they were headed towards the mine.

Temari broke off from the fighting to follow them, and I shared a quick glance with my brother before doing the same.

I wasn't exactly happy to leave the fighting when there were _so many_ of them, but Haido outranked them in order of priority. And with both Naruto and Gaara there, they were unlikely to be overpowered.

Temari took another swing at the flying figures, and even standing behind her, I felt the kick back of the technique, then seemed to … falter. She stared ahead, eyes blank, wrists bending awkwardly under the weight of her Tessen.

_Genjutsu?_

I didn't know Temari well enough to know if she had a plan – pretend to be helpless under the effects and reel the attacker into a trap – or what her level of genjutsu defence was, but the Gelel warriors were fleeing, not attacking, and it was better to offend her with help than leave her stuck in it.

I altered my course, skidding to a stop beside her and clamping a hand down on her shoulder to disrupt the genjutsu. It was stubborn, and not-quite-chakra and I probably rattled her slightly harder than strictly necessary to break her free of it.

Then I took off towards the mine, because our targets had made great time while we were occupied.

By the time I got within range again, Haido was gone, Temujin was freed – again – and the disturbingly vampiric flying woman was swooping overhead.

"You must be really desperate to get your ass kicked by us," I sighed, as Temujin drew his sword.

"_Rising Thunder!_" A line of pure green light blasted out of the blade, curving along the path of his strike, as though the air itself was being cut apart. A note of Gelel sang out, pure and refined, ringing with strength and power.

"Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique!" Temari called out, and as the two jutsu clashed they hung frozen in the air, just for a second, and I swore I could see where they met.

Then the blades of wind shattered and broke, flying back towards us on the wave of green light.

_This is going to hurt,_ I thought grimly as I threw myself at the ground – _into_ the ground, though I barely scratched the surface as the leading edge of the attack passed overhead. But it had widened out into a wedge as it travelled, and I couldn't avoid it totally. Temari's scattered wind blades stabbed into the ground haphazardly, dangerous and uncontrolled.

I rolled unsteadily to my feet, feeling scraped and raw. Temari had sheltered behind the open lee of her Tessen, though she didn't look happy with the damage it had taken, and there was a nasty gash in the stone behind us that would make Shikamaru very annoyed to have to cross when it came time for them to follow us.

The vampire laughed, nauseatingly sharp and high pitched, looping overhead. "You said they were dangerous," she jeered at Temujin.

"Wind Release," Temari growled. "Great Task of the Dragon." The sky – I kid you not – went dark, with what was apparently _just wind_, which then descended upon us like some kind of tornado from hell.

I took one look at it and went 'nope'. I wasn't staying out in this. Temujin was standing between me and the mine entrance, but that was too bad for him because he was going to have to move.

Temujin might have been fast and had great reflexes, but a ninja moving at Body Flicker speed is all but invisible to the naked eye. Body Flicker was a burst of pure speed, almost _sliding_ over the world, pulling yourself from one spot to another, done with chakra alone. You could start at a standstill, and finish at a standstill, in a different position to the one you started in, without having to do all that pesky _running_ in between.

So when I mirrored one of Lee's favourite openings, appearing in a low crouch in front of him, and sweeping his legs out with a roundhouse kick, he was taken by surprise.

Then I made for the mines with as second Body Flicker, and didn't even look back to see whether he was following me, or caught in Temari's tornado.

The inside of the mine was just as eerie as before – maybe more so now that there was actual fighting going on and I knew that the Gelel was drowning out my ability to sense enemies. Which meant I couldn't rely on sensing to find Haido, and would have to use the old fashioned method of looking.

Ruefully, I wished we had investigated more closely, then at least I would have had a map and an idea of which way he would have been likely to go.

As I ducked into one of the side tunnels, there was a clatter of metal against stone, which at least told me that Temujin had followed. I wasn't exactly eager to confront him, regardless of what I'd said outside. We'd been running and fighting and running with little pause for days, and I was starting to flag. My hand, barely healed and then sorely abused once more, was a hindrance, my seals would not work due to lack of natural chakra, and unwary brushes against the seal work of the mine would result in chakra loss. It was not an ideal situation for fighting.

Hopefully, there would be a good spot or two for an ambush, and I'd be able to take him out that way.

I wasn't actually sure what I would do once I found Haido. 'Stall' seemed appropriate.

_This is a right mess._

I moved onwards, trying to guess at which paths Haido might have taken. Down? Deeper into the mines? But he was hardly going to dig them out of the ground himself, was he? Depending on how quickly the fall of the empire had progressed, there might have been a store of stones kept awaiting sale… or they might have been cleaned out completely.

The volume of the music was making my head pound, and it was hard to think, like standing in the front row of a concert and trying to do math.

Then I heard the sound of raised voices echoing along a corridor, and realized I had found my answer. I couldn't make out the words – it was too indistinct for that – nor who it was that was shouting, but there could hardly be other people here at this time, could there?

I darted into the room just in time to see Kahiko stab Haido with a small dagger.

_Kahiko, of course._ I hadn't seen him outside, but I'd assumed he'd just hidden when the fighting had broken out. But no, of course he was getting himself involved.

Haido yelled, a wordless roar, and threw the old man backwards. I moved to intercept; around the central plate we were standing on, the floor fell away, stairs circling the walls and descending far downwards. If Kahiko fell from that, he wouldn't survive.

There was a small dais on the wall opposite the entrance, with an empty pedestal. I had the feeling that it hadn't been empty a few minutes ago, and the greenish glow visible from Haido's hand seemed to confirm that.

I dropped Kahiko to the ground to keep my hands free, and hoped he didn't jump into trouble again. It hadn't even achieved anything, because the small wound had already healed with the regenerating power of the stones.

_At least it's in his hand,_ I thought. _Easy enough to cut off._ It wouldn't kill him, either, unlike Fugai.

"More interruptions?" Haido said, looking at me with a sigh. "Those children really are worthless. But it's too late. I already have the first stone of Gelel, the Heart Stone, and there is no longer anything you can do to stop me."

"Yes, there is!" Kahiko snapped, and drove his little dagger into the centre of the mosaic on the floor. There was a pulse of chakra, and it _rippled_, surging out from the point. "This is the Chamber of Sealing, and with the royal blood, this will destroy the entire mine! These legends have been passed down our clan for generations!"

And Haido started to laugh.

_Oh, that isn't good._ I didn't know what he was laughing about, but it was never good when you revealed your trump and the enemy laughed. And… the seal didn't actually seem to be doing anything.

_You could have told us this before, Kahiko!_

"Fool! I have searched long and hard for these stones, they were not handed to me by birthright alone."

Well, it was too much to assume that they would have survived so long passed down from parent to child. It had been thousands of years. They could have been sold, stolen, traded, lost… any number of things. There wasn't even any guarantee that there were any of the 'royal blood' that still existed, nor that there actual blood would fit whatever parameters were designed into the seal. Good grief.

Metal clattered behind us, heralding Temujin's entrance into the hall. Behind him, a tiny furred face peeked out inquisitively, before churring happily and bounding through the room to curl up on the pedestal.

"Ah, Temujin. I thought I gave instructions to allow no one inside?" The reminder was sharp and biting. "No matter. Kill them."

And Temujin, wonder of wonders, hesitated. "Haido-sama? We have what we came for. There is no longer any need…"

"You always were too soft," Haido snorted contemptuously. "How many times do I have to tell you? They are noble sacrifices for a greater cause. Those who stand at the top have to make tough decisions, so the rest of the world may be drawn into a peaceful utopia."

"You mean 'so the rest of the world bows to your might'," I cut in softly. "You only say 'peace' to convince others to follow you."

"What does it matter? I have the stones now. If no one dares fight, then there will be peace."

"You will be a tyrant and people will always rise up to fight tyrants," I retorted. "Besides, those stones are not as powerful as you seem to believe. Maybe your home is different, but there are people here who could crush you, stones or no." If he thought we were the pinnacle of ninja ability, he was in for a rude awakening.

Still, I hoped it didn't come to that. Because having actual ninja get their hands on these was a far more frightening thought.

Immortal, endlessly regenerating ninja. It would be like Edo Tensei zombies come early. No, something would have to be done about it.

Haido glared darkly and raised his hand, palm facing towards me. I was moving before the blast of energy left his palm and impacted on the ground I had been standing a bare second before.

"Such power!"

"Haido-sama!" Temujin objected.

And Haido turned his hand on him. Unlike me, Temujin didn't move fast enough to avoid the blow, and it sent him tumbling across the ground, sword flying from his grasp.

"Hmm, I can't control it properly yet," Haido mused, seeming unconcerned about what he'd just done. "That should have killed you, Temujin. I really don't have any use for you, anymore, if you're just going to get in my way. Your sacrifice was appreciated."

Temujin rose up on hands and knees and was staring at Haido with disbelief. "You- you…"

There was light glowing on his breastplate, just above the heart. No, not just light, it looked like writing. A seal?

"The royal symbol," Kahiko muttered. "So it was the boy all along…"

Haido twitched his fingers, but instead of another blast of light, Temujin's swords started sliding across the floor towards him, with some speed. My jacket pocket pulled forward, the stone inside it seemingly drawn to Haido, but wasn't the target of the technique, and therefore not strong enough to pull through the material.

"This sword was one of the relics of the Empire," Haido said stooping to lift it. "This was what led me to you, in the end. Your mother fought in the battle of Fuchidoru, and there were many tales of her skills. I knew it was a power I must have. She refused to hand it over, for the betterment of all, so what happened afterwards was necessary."

Wait. Hadn't Temujin said his parents were killed by bandits?

Haido examined the sword carefully. "In the end, it was useless. The stone was corrupt, answering only to your family. But your mother also had a book, and that was much more valuable." He threw the sword to the side.

"You were the one that destroyed his village!" Kahiko said, verbalising what we were all beginning to realise. "You killed them all."

Temujin was staring in mute horror. I did feel sorry for him now. Maybe Haido had seemed reasonable, before they'd come here. Maybe the violence had crept up on them. But this was a lie right from the start, from before the start.

"But you no longer have the book," I said, carefully drawing attention back to myself. "Do you?"

That did it.

"Where is it?" Haido snarled. "You stole it, you thief!"

"If it wasn't yours to start with, how am I the thief?" I asked. I didn't actually want to provoke him into action, just distract him. I was perfectly fine with Haido monologuing as much as he liked.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Kahiko shuffling towards Temujin. I hoped he wasn't going to try the knife trick again, because I'd rather not have the entire place destroyed while I was inside it. Afterwards… well that was fair game.

I took a step forward, cautiously. My lightsaber was in my pocket, and all I had to do was cut off his hand. He hadn't mastered the stone, and so far its abilities had seemed straight forward.

"That book is the foundation for our new world," Haido said. "It contains the secrets to how to use the stones for a prosperous existence. If you return it, I will show mercy. I will even allow you to be part of our new utopia."

"Eh," I said, shrugging a shoulder. "I already destroyed it."

So much for not provoking him. I should probably have played along with accepting the offer and buying time to get closer.

I dodged the first blast, planted my good hand on the ground and flipped over the second, drew my lightsaber and deflected the third – which worked, and I didn't consider that it might not until the moment before it hit – and was close enough to swing at him when something hit me in the back and I staggered.

I blinked, confused. Temujin and Kahiko were to my side, I could still see them, staring in wide eyed horror. It hadn't been them.

My lightsaber went out, and tumbled from nerveless fingers.

I blinked again, slower and heavier.

_That's not good._

My legs weren't working right. I fell forward, onto my knees. They jarred against the stone, but it was a distant feeling.

There was a shriek, like the cry of a wounded animal, and the air turned red.

Sluggishly, I raised my head – when had I dropped it? – and watched Naruto careen past me, making the air bleed. Red chakra snapped over my skin, and it should have been unbearable, but all I felt was heat.

_Naruto is here. It'll be okay now, right?_

"-he'll pull the place down around us!" Temari's voice said, warbling and wavering in my ears. She was holding Shikamaru by the arm, trying to drag him back out the door. But he didn't want to go, was shaking her off, and you couldn't make a Nara go where they didn't want.

"_Shikako!"_

I struggled to get up. Shikamaru was never so upset, never sounded so hopeless. I just had to show him it was okay.

But there was something heavy attached to my chest, and it was so hard to move, I was so tired…

I reached up to touch it, fingers clumsy. It was cold, cold and metal, pressing out through my sternum. It shouldn't have been there. It was Temujin's sword, and it was in my chest.

Shikamaru crouched in front of me - when had he moved? - eyes wide and hopeless. It looked like all the pain I wasn't feeling was hitting him. Listlessly, I raised an arm, touching his face gently. Blood smeared from my fingertips across his cheek.

It was so hard…

"'Kako, 'Kako, come on, please," he was saying, just my name, over and over again. His hands fluttered, my shoulders, hands, arms, chest, shoulders as if he couldn't decide where to touch.

And it dawned on me that I was going to die here.

I was…

I swallowed, tried to say something. But there was nothing. What could I say? I'm sorry, I love you, I failed, I'm sorry, I don't want to go.

I didn't want to go.

Because I was going to lose this.

I was going to lose Shika and Naruto, Ino and Sasuke and Chouji and Sakura… I was going to lose mom and dad. I was going to lose feeding the deer in the early morning and the dawn peeking over the tree tops. I was going to lose shogi in the living room and feet under the kotatsu in winter. I was going to lose standing on water and defying gravity. I was going to lose lightning sparks dancing over my fingers and earth trembling underfoot and I was going to lose a shadow that moved itself…

I was going to lose the chance to make a difference.

I was going to lose everything.

Again.

It didn't matter what came after, if it was nothing or everything, the end or a new beginning… I was going to lose this.

I didn't want to go.

Shika was still talking, but I couldn't hear him anymore. The song in my head was too loud, and there was nothing else, anymore. But it was _beautiful_, and nothing hurt, and it was dragging me away into light. The tempo was like the beat of a heart, and the melody like breathing and it was warm and almost familiar.

But I… didn't want to go.

I wanted to _live._

And the light roiled and twisted inside me, filling me up, like a supernova inside my chest. I gasped, eyes flying open.

Because… it. The Gelel. It wanted to live too.

It had begun here. A long time ago. And there had been people here, always people, short sparks of life that lived and shared with it, tended to it and it grew. It lived. Maybe not sapient. But sentient. It had lived, and it had shared life with the little sparks, and they had lived longer and better, shining brighter. It had loved.

And then they had gone.

We had been alone here, and we had waited, waited for them to come back. And now they had, bright, shining life carrying pieces of us.

And then one of them cut out, candle flame guttering into darkness.

We cried out, a long note of despair. We did not wish to lose them, not to go back to being alone. We reached out, and we _knew_ them. Shikamaru, Naruto, Gaara, Temari, Kankurou, Temujin, Kahiko, Nerugui… we knew them.

We could feel the anger of Kurama breaking against the seal. Like glass it was, clear and true, separating the two of them the way we were not separated. We touched him, soothed him – _time passes_ – and he shone, clear and bright and alive. And we could feel the other, Shukaku, and we could touch him too, alive and eternal like us, as great and infinite as the depths of the universe.

Then… a note of discord. A shadow where there was nothing to cast it. Something that was not us, within us.

Shikamaru.

_You would fight a god?_ We asked him, curiously. He did not hurt us, could not hurt us. We were light and life, not mortal flesh to be injured or damaged. We were. We existed.

_Yes,_ came the reply, fierce and bright. _Give me back my __**sister.**_ He pushed and pulled and he was so small and nothing compared to the vastness of space, a drop of ink against the night sky, an ant trying to destroy a star.

His energy drained, little by little, fading away, life leaching out as he expended it in a fruitless struggle. For what?

_Shikako,_ he pleaded.

My name. For me.

We were –

I was –

I was caught in the center of a storm, torn and tugged in every direction. I couldn't hold on. I couldn't let go. I wasn't who he thought I was, wasn't who he was fighting so hard to get back.

_Shikako!_

I had wanted to be special, hadn't I? Wasn't this… wasn't this special, precious, terrifying, to know that someone would fight a god. For you.

So that you would stay.

I didn't… I didn't want to go.

I reached for him, and it took everything I had. The Gelel pulled at me, and it wasn't malicious, it wasn't, it was safety and light and joy and life and it was so hard, so _hard_, but I-

-let-

-go.

Light exploded upwards, a fountain of it, a column of it, pouring out of me and into the sky. It covered the sky in all the colours of the aurora, bright enough to be seen under the noonday sun.

I choked, trying to breathe, and Shikamaru's hands were on my shoulders, and he was crying, and my body felt wrong, heavy and ungainly and imperfect. I was hollowed out, burnt from the inside, empty and too full all at the same time.

Naruto was sitting, half collapsed, eyes wide and face pale. He looked uninjured, more awed than horrified. Temari crouched beside her younger brother, a half formed shell of sand protecting them both from falling debris. Kankurou, further away, had dragged Temujin and Kahiko to safety.

The temple around us was shattered and gone, and things were unfurling from the ground, growing things, grass and trees and flowers. I could hear water burbling up, a cheerful babble, as an underground spring refreshed.

I breathed.

It didn't hurt.

Cautiously, with great dread, I looked downwards. There was no sword protruding from my chest.

I touched it. There was nothing but solid, unbroken skin. If it hadn't been for my tattered, blood soaked shirt, I wouldn't have believed I was injured at all.

"We were stars," I said to Shikamaru.

And started to cry.

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><p>.<p>

Well, this one's been a long time coming. The next chapter should be the last of the movie, wrap up and help explain all the things Shikako didn't really see.


	72. Chapter 71

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN:

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 71

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><p>.<p>

_Weep for yourself, my man,  
>You'll never be what is in your heart<br>Weep, little lion man,  
>You're not as brave as you were at the start<em>

_~Mumford and Sons, Little Lion Man_

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><p>.<p>

"Shikako!" Naruto cried, scrambling across the ground to where Shikamaru and I were huddled. "You were- You're okay!" His voice was a painful mix of confusion and relief.

I blinked back the blurry tears clouding my vision. There was a lump in my throat, something thick and heavy, filled with grief and loss and slowly fading fear. "I-" I rasped. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

_I'm okay._

If I said it enough, was it true?

Shikamaru's fingers were claws digging into my shoulders, a solid grip anchoring me in place. It was starting to hurt, but it made it feel like I was me again. Like I was settling back into this body, not some ethereal figure made of energy. The two of us were separated by flesh and blood, no longer joined by spirit and soul.

_Oh, Shikamaru_. I closed my eyes and let my forehead rest against his shoulder. Just for a few seconds. Just a few. He wasn't letting me go. He wouldn't let me go. Not even if the thing taking me away was death. How had he even done that? How had he managed to reach me, when I wasn't even _me_ anymore?

I shivered, muscles jerking and contracting under my skin, an uncontrollable impulse even in the desert heat.

The feeling was fading, of what it had been like. I'd understood things, then, but now it was like a dream. In a way, I supposed I was grateful, because it was _too much_ even now, some kind of sharp and raw thing that wasn't meant for humans.

Naruto's hand tangled in my sleeve, and it was such a _young_ move, such a childish request for contact, that I drew a deep breath. I was okay. I could do this.

I rocked back, sitting up and wiping my eyes clear on the sleeve of my jacket.

Generally, I didn't really like crying in public. It was too messy, too personal, and just because it was _understandable_ didn't really make it any better. The fact that I wasn't the only one in tears didn't help either, it just let me feel embarrassed on their behalf too.

There was movement to the side, as the other moved now that the land had stopped restructuring itself. I flushed as I caught Gaara's eye, even though his expression gave nothing away.

The immediate fighting might be over, but we were still in the middle of a mission and it wasn't exactly appropriate behavior.

There went any respect I'd earnt from the sand siblings.

"We should move," I murmured, voice still raspy. "We've got a mission to finish." There were so many things that needed to be done, but the list of unfinished tasks didn't motivate me like it normally did. I just wanted to close my eyes against the endlessness of it all.

Shikamaru made a harsh, disbelieving sound. "You just _died."_ His voice cracked heavily. "The mission can just-"

_You just died. _

Because, if we didn't move, I had to sit here and think about what that meant. About how close I'd come to losing everything, about how close I'd come to failing.

I'd thought I'd known where the danger was coming from. But this mission wasn't even on my list – wasn't anything I'd had forewarning about. And that was the kicker, wasn't it? This wasn't Orochimaru or Itachi or Pein. This wasn't part of the 'story'.

And yet I'd still nearly died here.

And it had been because of my own mistakes. I'd been tired, and distracted by the sounds I could hear. I hadn't taken Haido seriously. I hadn't been paying attention to my surroundings. I should have been able to dodge the sword when he called it towards himself, when it started flying through the air, but I hadn't even seen it. I'd forgotten about it.

I'd made a mistake.

And it had nearly killed me. It _had_ killed me.

I drew in a shaky breath, trying to hold onto the little composure I'd regained. My eyes were tearing up again. So much for dignity.

"I'm sorry_,_" I said, voice breaking. "But please-"

_Don't make me do this here._

Shikamaru softened and drew back. "Okay," he murmured, eyes searching mine. "Okay. We'll finish this." He drew a deep breath. "We'll finish this, then we're going home."

I nodded, relieved he was letting it drop. Relieved that he was going to take charge and sort everything out. If it had been my responsibility, I'm not sure I could have managed. At the same time, I _needed_ this to be done, needed to see it to the end and know how it all worked out. I needed it to finish.

I was just… teetering on the edge. On the edge of what, I didn't know, but too much pressure would send me toppling. And I didn't really want to find out what was at the bottom.

We stood together, which was slightly awkward as no one seemed to want to let go. I slid my hand into Naruto's. His skin seemed fever hot to me. Or maybe I was cold. I felt cold.

We'd missed part of what the rest had been talking about, though it seemed like Kahiko was fretfully explaining what had occurred inside the mine, including the details about Temujin's parents. Temujin's eyes flickered up as we approached, and I noticed with a start that they were green, not Sharingan red.

_Did his stone vanish?_ I didn't think it had been removed. Not before I'd been stabbed, anyway, and who would have had the chance afterwards?_ Or is it just because the spirit of the Gelel is… gone?_

"What have we done?" Temujin murmured quietly, face ashen.

"Invaded our country," Temari replied, with an ease that belied the impact of her words. "Killed a lot of people. Attacked shinobi of Suna and the Hidden Leaf. Attempted to release some kind of ancient chakra beast." She drummed her fingers against her leg and arched an eyebrow. "Answer your question?"

Temari, clearly, didn't do sympathy.

He stared at her, eyes slightly over wide. "There is no apology I can give," Temujin said, eventually, "for those actions."

Temari snorted. "You've got that right," she said, leaning on her closed fan. "An apology isn't going to cover it."

"The only thing I have is my life," Temujin said, bowing his head. "Take that, then."

To me, that seemed to be a slight over reaction. But then, this was a world where suicide – seppuku – would wipe the slate clean, regain lost honour and make things better. It was a mindset I had never assimilated. To me, all it seemed to do was leave one more body to be buried.

Naruto's hand tightened on mine, likely out of surprise. "You're just giving up, just like that?" He interjected, slightly bitterly. "After everything you've done here? Everyone you've _hurt?_ All your big talk about bringing peace and a better world, it means nothing to you?"

Temujin didn't move, but he closed his eyes. "I was mistaken. Haido-sa…" he choked. "Haido's utopia was no utopia at all."

"So _what?"_ Naruto shouted. "You think that guy's way is the only way to do things?"

Shikamaru shifted on my other side, subtly. He was looking at Naruto, not _quite_ surprised, but something indefinable in his features. Yeah, Naruto had that effect on people, when he got serious like this.

Kankurou frowned. "It doesn't really matter if he gives up or not," he pointed out. "From now on, he's a prisoner of Suna. He's not really going to get a chance to do anything else." Cynically, he added, "It might be better for him if he is resigned to it."

Gaara looked vaguely troubled by the whole conversation, though it was hard to tell.

"Regardless," Temari cut in. "That's the least of our worries right now. There's still an invasion going on out there. The longer we waste here, the longer that goes on."

"Is there any way to contact the rest of your fleet?" Shikamaru asked Temujin bluntly. "You called them here, so you must have some kind of signal." It was the simplest solution to the problem, if Temujin could order them to stand down from here. Or if we could fake Haido ordering them to stand down. If there was communication, there were options.

Temujin blinked. "Ah." He licked his lips. "Yes. There's a communication array in the stronghold. But. The only ones who could use it were those with the stones…"

Kankurou made a face. "Great," he muttered. "Like we'll trust you to do that." I didn't think Temujin would try anything. He was done. He had given up. It was possible they wouldn't even work anymore, anyway. Still, attempting would cost us very little, and mostly only in the way of time.

The other option was heading back to the shore and attempting to stop whatever ships remained, one by one. That would be a much longer siege.

"I say we just knock him out," Kankurou said, mulishly, "and if we _need_ one of those stones, we could make sparky over there give it a go." He used his thumb to gesture over his shoulder at me. Shikamaru made a small sound somewhere between surprise and outrage.

_Sparky?!_

Gaara held up his hand. "Wait," he rasped. He stared at Temujin for a very long and unnerving moment. "If we take you to the stronghold, will you give the order to stop?"

Temujin nodded. "It wasn't supposed to be like this," he said, misery creeping into his voice.

"You're sure, Gaara?" Kankurou asked quietly. He shifted uneasily, readjusting the weight of his puppet.

"It's not so different," Gaara rasped, "from what we did. We attacked the Hidden Leaf, caused pain and suffering… I thought it was the only way to validate my existence, but I was wrong. We were defeated, and we found that it wasn't just strength that mattered in a fight. It was the bonds between people that mattered."

"Well, yeah," Kakurou agreed. "But-"

"We were given a second chance," Gaara continued, cutting him off. He turned, slightly, so he was looking towards us. "Even though we were clearly your enemies, had attacked your village and hurt you, you let us go, so that we could attempt to fix our mistakes and become better people. You showed us mercy. Because of that, we have become allies and both our villages have benefited."

Naruto laughed awkwardly, and scratched the back of his head. "Well, we are friends," he offered, a little uncertainly.

Gaara's expression did something complicated, where it seemed to soften and firm with resolve at the same time. "It's not so different," he repeated. "Only this time, we are the ones who can offer a second chance."

Temari didn't look happy, though whether that was at the reminder of their defeat, or at Gaara's decision, I couldn't tell. Kankurou just seemed resigned.

"Temujin. Tell your fleet to stand down and bring this fighting to an end."

Someone had made a decision. That was really all I cared about right now. In an undertone, Shikamaru directed Naruto to go and fetch our bags. We'd stashed them away outside the mine before the fighting had started, and hopefully they would have survived the destruction. I really hoped so, actually, because I could use a clean shirt.

And I was trying not to think about what my shirt was wet with. It was sticking uncomfortably to my chest. And it was _warm._

It would have been less disturbing if it was cold, maybe.

"Are you sticking around?" Temari asked, cocking an eyebrow at Shikamaru.

He shrugged. "Even if we left now it would still take us three days to return to Konoha," he replied. "So we might as well stay and see what happens with the rest of the fleet. That way we can give a full report to Hokage-sama about the situation." It was sound reasoning, clear and understandable, said in a manner that was just a little detached. If it hadn't been for the arm slung around my shoulder, I might have even bought it too.

She shrugged. "Suit yourself." But she did look at him oddly, so I didn't think Temari really brought it either.

Truthfully, if the Gelel hadn't healed me fully – as it seemed to have – then rushing home for medical treatment would have little effect on that. We'd never make it in time for it to be useful. The only benefit would be in avoiding future conflict, and we'd risk that anyway by rushing back through River Country without making sure the fleet was dealt with.

When Naruto came back, I apologetically slid out of Shikamaru's hold and grabbed my bag from him. It was a little battered, but everything seemed to be intact.

"Be right back," I muttered, ducking away somewhere for some privacy.

I rifled around in my bag, pulling out a change of clothes and ignoring the Book of Gelel that was haphazardly crammed in there. I'd have to do _something_ with that later, but I just… couldn't muster the energy right now. I changed shirts – carefully cleaning away the flaky blood over skin that was slightly pink and sensitive, but otherwise unscarred – and regretfully disregarded my jacket as a goner. The front zip was busted, and there were tears in it, but the major problem was the giant red bull's-eye stained into the back. I shivered, and hastily scrunched it up and shoved it in my bag.

I didn't have a spare jacket and it was funny how lack of a single layer of clothing made me feel so much more exposed. I swung my backpack on and absently scrubbed at my arms as I wandered back towards the group. It was ridiculous, really. A jacket was no protection at all, when jutsu could carve stone. And it wasn't even like I was underdressed compared to everyone else – all that was really visible was my inked up arms.

Everyone was ready to go, but didn't look like they were _exactly_ waiting for me to hurry up, so that was good. Shikamaru had a familiar cylinder in his hand, which I took in relief. It probably wouldn't be very good to have lost my sword on the second mission I took it on, would it?

_Tsunade would probably be pissed. _

Oh, she was not going to like this mission report, really. Not at all.

We didn't run, because we had Kahiko and Temujin with us, and that was probably a good thing, because I didn't have any chakra. It was funny, I didn't feel… that badly off. There _was_ exhaustion, but it was more the mental and emotional type, rather than limb shaking and sleepiness. Still, after what had happened, a little chakra loss was hardly unexpected.

"Are you cold?" Naruto asked in a whisper loud enough that everyone probably heard.

I stopped rubbing my arms. "Ah, it's fine," I said, perfectly aware that I _shouldn't_ be cold. I should, probably, be worrying about heat stroke and sunburn if I didn't have chakra to regulate with.

But I felt cold.

Naruto wiggled out of his jacket, leaving himself in only Chunin vest over mesh shirt. "Here," he said, shaking it out and offering it to me.

I made motion to resist again, then gave in at the stubborn set of his jaw. Orange wasn't exactly my colour, but I'd take what I could get.

"Thanks."

_Oh, if Ino could see me now. _Although, actually, I was pretty sure Ino would find the jacket the least of all worries.

"I could carry you," Naruto suggested about a hundred meters later. "If you- if you're tired or anything." He bit his lip, looking worried.

"I'm fine," I said.

One foot in front of the other. That's all I needed to do. Just keep walking. It wasn't far away, even counting the way that the ground had been reshaped, and it was now grassy hills instead of rock and sand.

There was movement around the stronghold, however. I didn't think that the others would have left any of the golems behind them, but it was possible that they had only just arrived. Or were newly created.

Temujin stepped forward. "Wait," he said, as the golems turned towards us. "My friends… the fighting is over. Lay down your weapons."

It was tense for a moment, then, almost as one, they did as asked.

"They're your friends?" Naruto asked, eying the golems curiously.

Temujin nodded. "Many of us were from the same village. Haido took us all in, after…" he trailed off.

There wasn't much more to say to that.

Temujin led us inside, walking confidently through the halls of the stronghold. At my side, Shikamaru was tense, but even if this was a trap, we'd already shown that we could take them on. I didn't think it was, anyway.

The room he led us to was crowded with all of us there. There was some kind of radar like display to one side, and some kind of sound board with numerous dials and switches. Temujin adjusted a few with practiced ease, and brought an old-fashioned microphone towards his mouth.

"This is Temujin to all members of the fleet. Please stand down. Disengage from all combat and await further orders." He took a deep breath. "Haido is dead. We have surrendered."

There was nothing but the crackle of radio for a moment, then replies started coming in. Thankfully, they were all 'affirmative'.

"And the villagers," Shikamaru mentioned, voice a low rumble. "You'll release them." It wasn't so much a suggestion as a fact.

Temujin nodded. "I- yes, of course."

That took much longer. Temujin could cut the power draining from the pods that they were in, but they had to be all individually released and removed. It wasn't just the villagers, either. The golems were controlled by people who were also in stasis, and with the sudden lack of power they also had to be removed. Even after the power was cut, everyone was still unconscious, and we took several trips to bring them outside.

And then had to repeatedly explain and calm people down as the civilians started waking up, disorientated.

I smiled for the thousandth time. "You're all safe now," I repeated. "Everything is okay. We'll sort things out and get everyone returned to their homes."

"They destroyed it all!" One man said. "I saw it!"

I paused. The village we had come across had been unlivable, that was for sure. What were we supposed to do about that?

"We will help you rebuild," Temujin offered. "It will not be the same as it was, but perhaps… we can make some amends for what has happened."

It was a good offer. It helped the civilians, it showed that Temujin was willing to make amends. It helped refocus his priorities. It was a _really _good offer, actually. There was no denying that.

Except…

It might not be.

I squinted against the sunlight, and located Gaara. He was to the edge of the clearing we had deposited the villagers in, standing on the edge of a rough cliff, overlooking the desert. I extracted myself from the people I was helping and walked over towards him.

From this vantage point, I could see the changes we'd wrought to the land clearly. I could have believed we were in Land of Fire almost, from the look of it.

"There are Suna shinobi on their way," he murmured, unmoving but acknowledging me with a glance from the corner of his eye.

I couldn't see anything. I couldn't sense anything. But I didn't doubt him. Besides, given our lightshow, I would have been more surprised if they _weren't_.

"Right," I agreed. "Temujin offered to help rebuild the villages that they destroyed."

"I see," Gaara said. I didn't know if that was approving or disapproving.

"It's up to you, in the end," I said hesitantly and bit my lip. "But, uh, I'm not so sure they should hang around that long."

He turned towards me.

"Even if the Mine of Gelel is gone, they probably still have a few leftover stone shards, if the communications array is any indication." Temujin's sword still had one, at least. Temujin himself might have still had one. "And… I think there are a lot of ninja that would really like to get their hands on those, if word got out. Plus, you might want to consider what people will think of Sand having an army camping on their doorstep so soon after the Invasion."

"That we mean to attack again," Gaara completed, voice low and rough.

"It might be taken that way," I acknowledged. "Especially if they're looking for reasons…" They didn't even have to _believe_ it to use it to justify an attack.

I shrugged, and folded my arms around myself. "Just something to consider, I guess."

Gaara nodded and turned back to staring out over the land. I waited a beat, assumed the conversation was over, and was about to leave before he spoke again. "The Gelel. Is it gone?"

"Yeah." I cleared my throat of the rasp it had fallen into. "It's gone. It was… It's not like Shukaku or Kyuubi, who can hold themselves together if they're let go. Without the mine forcing it smaller it just … spread out. It's the air. It's the earth." I scuffed a toe against the ground. "You don't have to worry."

"I'm not," Gaara murmured. "It is… peaceful here."

"Yeah. Hardly the Dead Wastes anymore, is it?"

"It's a garden." Gaara nodded. "Life made from death." He looked pleased.

"Poetic," I said. _Shi Kara Ikioi-en._ The Garden of Life from Death. It was a better name than I would have come up with, anyway.

We waited until Gaara's reinforcements had arrived, then said goodbye and headed home. Everything wasn't _quite_ finished but what remained was clean up and we had even less of a stake in that than we did the fighting.

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><p>.<p>

By the time we set up camp, we were already back in River Country, though further north than we had been previously. We'd considered travelling longer and setting up camp late, but there was no denying that we were all tired. We could use the rest.

I fell asleep to the sound of crackling fire, and woke hours later when my body told me it was time for shift change, even if no one had roused me.

"Eh?" Naruto whispered loudly as I sat up. "What's wrong?"

"It's my turn," I said, also whispering. Nighttime had that effect. "Isn't it?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nuh-uh. You got hurt so you don't have to keep watch tonight. We decided."

I sighed and hooked my arms over my bent knees. I should have seen that one coming. "Are you sure? You used the Kyuubi's chakra and I know that makes you tired…"

Naruto hesitated. "Nah. It's fine."

I hummed, saying nothing.

"I wasn't going to say anything," he said in a rush. "Because you were hurt so it doesn't seem fair. But when… when you were…" He struggled with the words.

"When I was," I agreed. We didn't have to specify.

"Yeah. I was really angry. And… I guess I used a lot of its chakra. Even more than I used the last time against that bone freak." He made a face. "But you started to glow, do you remember?"

I didn't, but I guess that was a given. I'd _seen_ light, so it wasn't much of a stretch to think everyone else had too.

"You started to glow, and there was all this light everywhere. And it kinda… went inside me and made me feel all warm. And the Kyuubi got really quiet and all its chakra just went away. I was inside my head – inside the seal, I guess – and I saw it. The light. And the Kyuubi. Normally I don't see it," he clarified. "Even if I talk to it in the seal. It's hidden in the dark and only teeth and anger. But this time I saw him." He looked pensive.

I couldn't think of what to say to that. "Ah."

"He does kinda look like a fox."

I cracked a smile. "I guess that's where the name comes from, then."

Naruto grinned back, eyes squinting into tiny crescents. "Kurama. That's his name, I mean."

"Kurama," I repeated, wondering vaguely if Naruto had any idea… But of course he couldn't. _I'd_ encouraged him to this end, had asked about the Kyuubi's name back when he'd first 'revealed' he was the Jinchuriki. I just… hadn't expected it to happen so fast.

Not that simply _learning_ his name meant that they would work together. But it was the first step along a road that Naruto wasn't meant to take for years yet.

I hoped…

"That's… wow." I was super eloquent, clearly. I tried to marshal some kind of train of thought.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. Then he laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. "But you should go back to sleep! I'll keep watch, no problem!"

"Right," I agreed. "I just have to-" I waved a hand vaguely in the direction of the trees, and slid out of my sleeping bag. "I'll be right back."

I wrapped his jacket around myself and ducked out of the campsite. I didn't go far, just enough to have a bit of privacy to go toilet, but I didn't head back immediately afterwards.

Because I still couldn't feel my chakra.

By now it should have started to return, even if only just slightly. The fact that I wasn't showing any of the symptoms of chakra exhaustion only made it stranger. I just didn't _have_ any.

I touched the spot on my chest anxiously, but it was healed. It hadn't come undone.

Then I reached for my chakra, the same way I had done a million times.

Beneath my hand, my flesh turned malleable, losing solidity and slithering in a way unnatural. I gasped, but no sound was made, no air rushed around, because I no longer had lungs with which to draw breath. My entire torso was transformed, blackly shifting shadows instead of flesh. It crept down my arms and legs, marched up my neck towards my face.

I jerked backwards, trying to get away from _myself._

_Stop! Stop!_

I panicked, trying to claw at it. But my fingers went through the shadow with only the barest sense of _pressure_, grabbing nothing. I tried to press it down, suppress it with my chakra, but I couldn't. I didn't have chakra. This _was_ my chakra. The more I pulled, the stronger it was, the faster the transformation happened.

I was struggling, and that only made me pull harder, a reflex action, grasping at my chakra to strengthen myself against whatever enemy I was fighting.

_Stop!_

It was cold, crawling over me, out of me. It was shadow. It was darkness. It was the void.

Colour dropped away as the transformation completed. Sound dropped away. Everything was less vibrant, less real. The darkness of night became less threatening, my eyesight piercing it cleanly and completely. I had become it. I could twist and float away, nothing more than one shadow among many.

But… I was still me.

I waited, calming by the moment as nothing more happened. My mental grip on my chakra relaxed, letting it ebb back down to resting state.

I let it go.

The world snapped back into place. My body was flesh and blood once more. I gasped for breath. And then I started to cough, great hacking heaves that burnt my throat.

_Don't do that. Don't do that again._ That had been… I didn't know what that had been. It wasn't a technique. I hadn't done anything. But it was a transformation, like the Gelel warriors had transformed. It was clearly linked.

_Maybe it was a fluke,_ I thought desperately, trying not to contemplate the scope of it. If it was caused by the Gelel, if it was permanent… then how would I be a ninja without chakra?

No. That was getting ahead of myself. I leant against one of the trees and just focused on breathing. I'd feel better when I wasn't hacking up a lung, and closing in on hyperventilation.

"Shikako-chan?" I heard Naruto call uncertainly. "Are you okay?"

I swallowed another cough. "Fine," I rasped back, starting to move. "Just swallowed wrong."

Shikamaru was awake when I got back, and I murmured an apology for waking him before slipping back into my sleeping bag.

Sleep was a long time coming.

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><p>.<p>

We got back to Konoha three days later, skipping the outposts and making a beeline for the village proper. It was slow going because I couldn't chakra enhance and simply couldn't keep up a standard ninja pace.

That said, we didn't run into any complications, so there was a small bright side to it.

"You're instructed to report to the Hokage's Office immediately," the gate guard said, as we signed in.

"We have a team member in need of medical treatment first," Shikamaru said, hands stuffed into his pockets, and slouching.

The Chunin's eyes flickered over all of us, but he seemed willing to let that go.

Then another ninja appeared out of the crowd to 'escort' us to the Tower, and things started to go downhill. Common sense – and regulations – said that injured shinobi should be treated at the hospital before reporting, especially if said injuries were serious. If it was really bad and urgent at the same time, debriefing could be done at the hospital.

Except this guy was unmoving about the fact that we needed to report right now, immediately, ASAP.

And Shikamaru wasn't happy with that. He hadn't been happy all the way home, and it had just simmered under the surface. Someone was about to find out what happened when you really pushed a Nara into nastiness. You really didn't want a genius brain one hundred percent focused on making you just as unhappy.

"We can report in first," I said, nudging Shikamaru's shoulder. "Another hour isn't going to make that much of a difference."

He scowled.

"Besides," I said. "Tsunade-sama _is_ a medic. We'd probably have to talk to her anyway." Because it was _weird_ and crazy and probably well out of the normal limits of medical ninja.

So, really. Reporting to the Hokage would be much faster than going to the hospital.

"I don't like it," Shikamaru said flatly.

"Those are your orders," the Chunin said, equally flatly. "Your opinion is irrelevant."

I was starting to dislike him. I hoped he wasn't going to be someone we ran into repeatedly.

But when we got to the Hokage's office, Tsunade wasn't even there. The two village elders were, and an older man with one covered eye and an arm in a sling. Danzo. It could only be Danzo.

_Shit._ I could feel cold sweat breaking out on the back of my neck, just from being in the same room as him. He had Shisui's eye, with its undetectable, mind altering genjutsu. He was the one that had sentenced the Uchiha clan to death. He was responsible for _so much_.

And my team mates had no idea who they were in the room with.

"Hey!" Naruto cried, indignant. "Baa-chan made us come all the way up here and she's not even here!"

I could feel my heartbeat picking up, starting to hammer uncomfortably in my chest.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Nara Shikamaru, Nara Shikako," Koharu said, giving us all a gimlet stare and ignoring Naruto's outburst. "This is your mission debrief."

"Who are you all, anyway?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms. "And why are you in Baa-chan's office?"

I made an aborted gesture in his direction. I didn't really want Naruto getting in trouble with these people. Especially not with Danzo.

The Elders looked offended. I supposed it had been a while since they'd had to introduce themselves, or run into anyone with Naruto's brand of bluntness.

"Idiot," Shikamaru sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "They're the Elder Council. The Hokage's advisors. Koharu-sama. Homura-sama." He nodded at them both and left an empty, querying silence where Danzo's name should have gone. Maybe he didn't know it.

No name was offered. It probably flew straight over Naruto's head, but Shikamaru would have picked up on it.

I hoped he picked up on it. It wasn't exactly like I could tell him 'beware of Danzo'.

And it wasn't exactly like we could refuse to say anything. We could insist on reporting only to Tsunade, but I wasn't sure how that would go down. We had no specific orders saying we could only report to the Hokage, and theoretically we should have been able to trust them.

And we definitely didn't want to look like we had anything to hide.

"Where is Baa-chan?" Naruto asked again.

"Tsunade is currently at the hospital. I believe there was a situation that required her personal attention," Koharu said. "However, it has already been decided that this mission was to be upgraded to S-rank, due to the politically sensitive nature of your actions."

"_S-rank?_" Naruto squeaked in surprise.

I was a little surprised myself. While, yes, the most basic description of mission rankings involved the danger level – A-ranks were more dangerous than B-ranks and so on – there were other factors that counted. S-ranks were more likely to be assigned because of politics than because of the chances of running into S-rank shinobi. Put that way, an alliance with Hidden Sand to defend against an invasion of two countries from an unknown aggressor probably did count. I just… hadn't expected it. Doing A-ranks was one thing. S-rank…

No one did S-ranks as a Genin.

It wasn't done.

"Yes, S-rank," Homura confirmed. "As such, it is very important that we are able receive your account of events immediately and assess the situation for the benefit of Konoha. There is no time to waste."

"Well, we gotta do it quick," Naruto acquiesced. "Because Shikako-chan is supposed to be at the hospital."

I shifted uncomfortably in my borrowed jacket as three sets of eyes bored into me - three sets? Two sets and one? – and was grateful that I didn't look obviously injured. Then again, that might have got us out of this meeting.

"I'm sure it can wait," Koharu said dismissively.

Shikamaru took a short step forward. "We were arriving at Mizugiwa to complete our original mission, when we noticed a distinct lack of activity in the area," he began, tersely. "The town had been destroyed, and we estimated it to have been within the last day. We began a search of the area to determine if the perpetrators were still nearby. We located a large, mobile stronghold that they were using as a base, and decided to investigate further while Naruto sent a message to the border outpost via summons. In our investigations we discovered several more targets and decided to move on ahead in order to warn our allies in the Land of Wind. Once there, we took part in an ambush that defeated the leader of the army, and his subordinates surrendered."

"Those actions are well beyond your initial mission parameters," Homura noted.

Shikamaru nodded, face neutral. "Our Intel at the time suggested that reinforcements would take several days to arrive, so we were prepared to gather information for them. We were forced to act, however, when they spotted our presence, and when we found that there was a second force already attacking the coastline of the Land of Wind."

For all he was saying, there was a _lot_ that Shikamaru wasn't telling them. And the way he was saying was heavily slanted. True, yes, but presented in such a way that we were less likely to get in trouble for it all.

"This army," Danzo said, speaking for the first time. "Where was it from?"

"South, across the ocean," Shikamaru said. "They believed that they used to reside in the Elemental Nations before the time of the Sage of Six Paths, but sailed across the sea. Their intentions seemed to be to return and subjugate their original homeland."

"The oceans to the south are supposed to be impossible to pass," Koharu said. "They would have had to sail through the doldrums and convergence zone…"

"Their ships were weird?" Naruto offered, a little uncertainly, not looking like he really understood what she was saying. I didn't really, either. "They were all made out of metal, not wood."

"First contact with a new nation," Homura mused, exchanging a look with his fellow Elder. "An unpromising beginning, but perhaps…"

"More importantly," Danzo interrupted, stepping forward, cane tapping on the floor. "Were they the cause of the atmospheric phenomenon over the north-east of Wind Country, several days ago?"

I swallowed. This was where we had to tread most carefully of all. "Yes," I said. "During the ambush, a relic was destroyed. It released a large amount of chakra, but did little damage."

"A relic?" Danzo repeated. "A weapon." His eye stared into me, like he knew I was lying. Like he could _see._ See what I knew about the mine, about the stones, about how they were created. See… about the book.

I froze.

The book. In my bag. That explained everything about the stones. About how they were created. That might, just, have enough information to repeat the process.

"I-" I started, voice rasping and breaking. I reached for my chakra to stabilise myself, to regain composure.

And realised what I had done.

I gasped, hands flying to my chest, folding over in half to _hide._

I ignored the cries of my name, then hands fluttering on my shoulders, and focused on keeping my chakra small and squashed in my chest. I couldn't let myself transform. Not in front of them.

Shikamaru's hand pressed in under my neck, fingers seeking out a pulse. I choked, fear and panic causing another surge of chakra that I repressed. I had to. I had to. I couldn't tell if it was working. I could only hope.

I couldn't let it go without calming down.

But I couldn't calm down.

"What is going on here?!" A strong, familiar voice called, door slamming open. I caught a glimpse of Tsunade in the door frame, Sakura peering out behind her.

"She doesn't have a pulse!" Shikamaru shouted.

A hand descended on my back, green chakra flowing into me.

Then there was nothing.


	73. Chapter 72

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN:

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 72

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><p>.<p>

_The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence ~ Rabindranath Tagore_

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><p>.<p>

_Yes_, I thought, as I dragged myself into consciousness. _This is chakra exhaustion_.

It was too awful to be relieving, but at least it was familiar. It indicated that things were back on the right track and in working order again.

I felt like I had swallowed half the desert, and had the other half permanently jammed into my eyeballs. Opening them was like trying to drag a brick wall up a steep hill, and I ran out of energy half way up.

It was enough to see the white tiling of a hospital ceiling.

Figured.

My chakra sense was telling me there was someone in the chair next to my bed. Someone who's chakra buzzed and crackled in a familiar pattern. I rolled my head to the side, so I could look in that general direction. It took an unholy amount of effort.

He looked back.

"Kaka-sensei," I rasped to break the silence that was heavy enough to be uncomfortable. "You're late."

He flinched like I'd slapped him.

"Sorry. That was," I swallowed roughly, "a bad joke."

I tried to sit up, but managed only to lift my head off the pillow. Instead I limply raised and arm and twitched my fingers at him in an obvious offering. He didn't respond. After a moment, I gave up, and let them fall limply back to the bed. But as they were starting to droop downwards, he reached out to clasp them in his own.

"Ah. What's the damage?" I asked lightly, trying not to be scared of the answer. Kakashi-sensei wasn't the hospital visiting type. My thoughts bounced along frightening paths such as 'permanently crippled', 'never be a ninja again' and 'only a week to live'.

"You're going to be fine," he murmured after a long silence. I couldn't tell if that was the truth, or just what he wanted to believe was the truth. Then again, Kakashi-sensei was hardly the type for self-delusion, was he? If I was _hurt_, he'd say. Or at least, wouldn't be the one who had to break the news. Right?

"Thought you were on a mission," I said, instead. My fingers twitched against his, weakly. "You've been busy."

"I heard my cute little students were in trouble," he replied, eye crinkling into an obviously fake smile. "So I hurried home. But here you are, all safe and sound."

"Here we are," I echoed. I yawned, eyes sliding shut and ending up too heavy to open again.

Then the door slammed open and I found that, no, actually, I could sit up. Adrenaline did that. I was sharply aware of everything from the dust motes dancing in the afternoon sunlight streaming through the window, to the shifting of bandages wrapped around my chest, to the garbled echoes of voices from further along the hospital.

I was exhausted but that didn't mean I was helpless; I could probably take anyone who assumed I was by surprise, if I was fast enough. The closest weapons to me were Kakashi-sensei's – I had no idea where mine were - but at a pinch, the chair, bedside table and bed itself would probably work. I had a clear run to the window, which was probably my best bet, if Kakashi-sensei would delay-

Tsunade-sama stalked in, looking irritated and glaring at sensei. "I said 'no visitors'," she ground out. "It wasn't a suggestion; it was an _order."_

Kakashi-sensei shrugged his shoulders in a manner that said he gave precisely no fucks about her orders.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at him. "Hatake," she said, warningly. It dripped out, viscously, and flooded the room.

I tried very hard to discover invisibility. This was not an argument that I wanted to be caught in the middle of.

"She's my student," he muttered, sounding sullen.

"And you can wait outside like the rest of them," Tsunade snapped. "I shouldn't have to tell you what 'classified' means!"

"I don't care about _classified-_"

"Out!" Tsunade pointed a single finger towards the door, and held it until Kakashi-sensei sullenly rose and shuffled out of the room.

Then she sighed, a long aggravated sound. Her heels clicked on the tile floor as she strode forward, in a way that had to be deliberate for a shinobi. But her touch was gentle as she propped a pillow behind me and let me sit, and then swept green chakra through my system.

"That bad, huh?" I rasped, aiming for joking and missing by a wide margin.

Tsunade arched an eyebrow. "You did die," she said, voice mild now. "The second time this week, according to your brother."

I gaped at her. "Died?" I squeaked.

I had _not._

"You were," Tsunade said clearly, "so chakra exhausted, that you were no longer producing any. That alone is enough to declare death, and that's not even mentioning the cardiac arrest you went into on the floor of my office. No chakra, no pulse, no breathing," she ticked off on her fingers. "I'm not even sure I'd get neural activity from you on a good day."

I closed my mouth with a click. When you put it like that…

Although, calling me brain dead was a bit far. Not enough to get me to say anything to an obviously annoyed Tsunade but, yknow, unfair.

"My chakra's been like that for a few days?" I offered meekly. "So it's not really so bad?"

"I figured," she said dryly, clicking a small sample container down on the bedside table. I craned my neck to look at it. A small rectangular stone, about the size of my pinky finger rattled around the inside. I knew instantly what it was and where it had come from.

It was a stone of Gelel. And it had been in me.

"_This,"_ Tsunade said pointedly. "Was retrieved from your Eighth Chakra Gate. It was blocking or absorbing all of your chakra. You're lucky I was able to detect an anomaly in your system, otherwise you'd never be able to mold chakra again."

I shivered a little, at the thought. That would have ruined everything. Without chakra, I couldn't stand against the threats that were coming. Couldn't protect Sasuke and Naruto. Couldn't do anything.

But…

The Gelel warriors had been able to use techniques to attack us. They hadn't been that much weaker than us, in the end. With proper training… I would have been able to manage. I might have even been able to turn it towards even greater strength.

Because I'd turned into shadows. It had been a full and proper transformation. That level of control was restricted to A rank techniques – or bloodline limits. The Hozuki clan from Hidden Mist; able to turn into water. Konan; paper. Kakuzu; thread. It was a powerful ability, one that might have appealed to me if I hadn't been so quick to panic. Our clan oath even said 'become one with the shadows' did it not?

And it had healed me of a mortal wound. That ability to regenerate, like Fugai had when we had as good as killed her would have been exceptionally handy.

I hadn't really wanted it. But now that it had been taken away, before I'd even had the chance to _try…_

Well.

"Tell me what it was," Tsunade said, making me tear my eyes away from my stone.

I coughed, accepted a drink of water, and started. "Before the Sage of the Six Paths, there was an empire that spanned the Elemental Nations. These people didn't have ninjutsu as we know it, but seemed to have a source of power that they used to strengthen their nation. It was, I think," I hesitated, twisting my fingers around. "They dammed a dragon vein."

Dragon veins were what I would have called ley lines. Areas of land that had high concentrations of chakra running through them. I'd looked up the subject after our trip to the Land of Snow had made them of interest, though there had been little to find. Some people were said to be able to use them to bolster attacks, though that sounded rather like limited senjutsu.

"They created a huge seal, incredibly intricate and detailed, and blocked the flow of chakra so that it all pooled together. And then they compressed it until it crystalized."

If you had enough chakra, you could make light. If you had more it could even be solid, like Naruto's Rasengan. The next step… or step after, would be crystal. The amount of chakra, though that it would take, even for something the size of my tiny little stone… it was probably more that I would produce over my _lifetime._

"The mined this crystal and used it in various ways, including inserting it into people in order to give them powers comparable to a ninja. That's what the people we fought had," I clarified. "During the fight with Haido, the mine itself was damaged and the Gelel began to escape. It was… it was alive. It was like a spirit. A kami."

It felt odd to put a name to it, because it wasn't what I would really call a god. But it was similar to a Shinto spirit, the kind that was simply an essence of the world.

"I was… I had been stabbed at that point," I said, glossing over it. "And it used me as a conduit to escape the seal, healing me in the process. Which was a better option than the seal rupturing, exploding, and quite possibly wiping out the entire continent."

Kahiko had not-so-cheerfully informed us that this had been an option after the fact. I was rather glad I hadn't known ahead of time. His intended alternative of _summoning a black hole_ wasn't too flash either, in my opinion. That had been what he'd been trying to accomplish with the 'blood of the royal family' maneuver, and while I could admire the sheer balls of it - and the reminder that seals were reality bending _dangerous_ - I repeated my desire to not be caught in the middle of it.

A minute twitch of Tsunade's eyebrow was the only indication that she was bothered by what I'd just said.

"It must have left a piece behind and when I tried to use chakra, something else happened. That's why I collapsed in the office," I finished.

That wasn't the end of it, of course. She had far more questions than that. But she seemed to know the majority of it already, so she'd probably spoken to Naruto and Shikamaru. The extended information about the Gelel was really the only thing that I knew and they didn't. Apart from the book… and somehow I failed to bring that up. I should have, I knew that. I just didn't.

_It's not really about the mission_, I rationalized. _And the fewer people that know about it the better._

Afterwards, I tentatively asked, "Tsunade-sama? About the Elders…" I wasn't entirely sure how I would have finished that sentence, but she seemed to get my meaning.

She smiled sharply. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about them. That won't be happening again." She looked satisfied. "You can thank your brother for making such a fuss at the gates about needing medical treatment. In light of that, their actions are highly negligent and I have more than enough justification to implement restrictions on their ability to interfere with my shinobi."

"Glad to be of service," I muttered, even as my insides squirmed. 'Justification' meant that people would back her on this issue. It meant that people would _know_. I would forever be 'that girl that died in the Hokage's office'.

How embarrassing.

"More than you know," she said cryptically, even though I was pretty sure I _did_ know. "I'm slapping this mission with an S-rank Classified label. Where you went and who you met is public information, but anything with regards to this Gelel, the stones or mine is not."

"Why only that half?" I asked curiously.

Tsunade smirked. "I'm good, but even I can't hide the invasion of two countries. Besides, this could work in our favour. Coming to the aid of Hidden Sand like that shows we're taking this alliance seriously, even with how new it is. It will almost be worth dealing with those old fossils, knowing how much they're going to have to grovel for this."

"Taking it seriously? We have barely a year of experience between us," I said skeptically. "That's not exactly…"

She arched an eyebrow. "Our Jinchuriki. The Jounin Commander's two children. The fact that you succeeded _makes_ it 'exactly'_._"

It sounded so weird when she put it like that.

Like people would actually think that we'd been on a purposeful assignment, rather than randomly stumbling into trouble.

"You'll stay in the hospital until I'm satisfied your condition has stabilized," Tsunade said, business-like again. "There are a number of tests to run." She stood and walked towards the door. "Try not to get too excited."

Shikamaru ducked in through the door and under her arm the second she opened it, sliding around her with barely a nod. She seemed more amused than anything.

Shikamaru slid onto the bed next to me, sitting so we were thigh to thigh and tucking me in under his arm. I sighed and leant against him. It was a good thing we were both small, otherwise we might have been in danger of falling off the sides.

Sakura and Ino waited until Tsunade was gone before following him into the room, but Sakura ruined the sense of composure by immediately throwing herself at me and bursting into tears on my lap. I awkwardly patted her on the back and waited for the tears to subside. Ino perched on the other side of her and made an apologetic face.

"No Naruto?" I asked. I hadn't expected Kakashi-sensei to stick around, not really, but I had expected Naruto.

"He was pacing," Shikamaru muttered, in a tone that clearly added 'and he was annoying me'. "I sent him home to tell mum what happened."

I peered up at him. "That was dumb," I said. "What's mum going to think when she sees our squad leader come home without either of us?" I really hoped she didn't think to unpack our gear either, because I didn't want to see what she would make of my jacket.

There was a pause and an aggravated sigh. "Shit."

Sakura hiccupped and wiped her face. "Sorry," she whispered. "I was just so worried!"

"Sakura's the one who got Tsunade for you," Ino said, as explanation. I thought I remembered seeing Sakura behind Tsunade, right before I'd done an ungraceful face plant on the ground.

"I was at the market, and I heard the rumours from the gates," Sakura said with a sniffle. "So I came to the hospital to see you, but you weren't here. So I asked Tsunade-sama what was going on."

Sakura, I considered, didn't lack courage. At all. Because most people would take a few intermediate steps between 'can't find' and 'ask the Hokage'. It made me wonder what else had been going on, that that seemed like a logical progression of events. Maybe Tsunade had just been especially easy to locate.

"Thanks," I said. "I'm lucky you did."

She burst into tears all over again.

Oops.

I looked at Ino helplessly.

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><p>.<p>

Eventually, the medic ninja came and kicked Shikamaru out so they could run some more tests and put me to bed. I was a little uncomfortable under their probing gazes, because they seemed utterly fascinated. That was probably a result of Tsunade's 'you died' story.

I got to be a medical marvel. Wonderful.

Once they were gone, I looked at the plastic jar still sitting innocently on my table. I reached out, fumbled the lid off, and tipped the stone into my hand.

There was no flash of chakra. There wasn't even any music. Nothing that said this was anything but a hunk of earth. It seemed utterly ordinary.

But I curled my fingers around it anyway. Maybe I could find a chain for it; wear it as a necklace.

I slept like the dead, though, a side effect of actual chakra exhaustion. When the medics came by in the morning for round two, I just rolled over and dozed. They could beep things at me all they liked, I didn't have to be awake for it.

People came by, but I have to admit, I mostly dozed through those visits too, feeling too drained to want to socialize. Mum was there, and I roused myself enough to mumble at her, even if it was most likely an incoherent jumble of syllables. That was pretty typical 'just woke up' behavior from our family, really.

Sakura came by with lunch, and I was awake enough at that point to want a change of scenery. It took a little convincing, but we moved out to the hospital courtyard and sprawled out on the grass under the shade of a tree.

We weren't the only ones out there, and I let the general chatter wash over me while we ate.

Two of them, either young medical ninja or trainees, by the looks of them, were having a very fugitive conversation, which involved plenty of glances in our direction. I considered them. On one hand, I had so little chakra recovered that it seemed like a huge waste to use it eavesdropping. On the other… I was really quite nosy. If they were talking about me, or my mission, then I'd really rather know. There were bound to be some rumours circulating by now.

I carefully channeled a dribble of chakra to my ears.

"-that's Shikako Nara!" the brunette hissed to her friend. "She's the one that Tsunade-sama brought in yesterday!"

"I thought she was dead," the other said, puzzled. "Critical chakra exhaustion, right?"

"Migaki-sensei said she was basically a corpse already - that even Tsunade-sama couldn't save her. But he said that last time as well. You remember that big mission where all the clan kids got hurt, a few weeks ago? I was on shift then, and she just walked right in. They didn't think she was seriously hurt until they went to take a reading and the chakra sensor started spitting out single digit readings."

I squirmed uncomfortably and dropped the jutsu. Well. That did answer my question about how likely people were to believe what had happened.

Did she have to sound so… awed about it, though?

"I can't believe you," Sakura hissed at me. "You aren't supposed to be using chakra!"

I gave a guilty start. I hadn't expected Sakura to notice. "I was just… curious," I said, lamely. "I wanted to know what they were saying."

Sakura glanced sideways at them, frowning a little, and I realized she'd been listening in too. "They shouldn't have said that," she said.

I shrugged, looking up at the sky. "It doesn't matter, really," I demurred. "It's even kind of funny, really. I mean, if you go with 'shikabane'" – which was a more formal way to say corpse than 'shitai' or 'nakigara' – "then you can even make a pun about our naming tradition."

"How can you say that?!" Sakura burst out, looking at me with something akin to horror. "It's not a joke!"

"Ah, no, sorry," I said hastily, pulling myself into a sitting position. Had I crossed a line there? It hadn't been _that_ bad. As deflections went, it was a little tasteless, but in a gallows humour kind of way.

"Everyone was really worried about you!"

And… I felt a flash of temper rising up. _I_ had been the one hurt. _I _was the one who had become a god and said 'no'. _I_ had been the one who had walked home worrying that I wasn't going to be the same ever again. _I _was the one in hospital.

_Why is your worry more important than __**that**_? I thought viciously. _Why do I have to reassure __**you?**_ It was an ugly thought, and an ugly emotion and I clamped down on it hard before it could escape.

I didn't really want to say that to Sakura. Except for the parts of me that did.

Of our group - heck, maybe of all our year – Sakura was the most emotionally honest. If she was upset, she cried, regardless of whether she was in public or not. If she was upset with something, she wanted to talk about it and have it known. It wasn't a bad thing. But it wasn't how _I_ was.

I did not, actually, want to talk about it – even if I could thanks to everything being classified – and I didn't want to rehash how everyone else felt. I wanted to be left alone.

"Sorry," I repeated, shortly. I lay back down and threw my forearm over my eyes, blocking them from the sun. "Do you have class this afternoon?" I asked, changing the subject to something less volatile.

"Yeah," Sakura said, after a lengthy pause. "Anatomy."

I seized onto that as a reasonable way to redirect the conversation, and also with the vaguest sense of relief that she wouldn't be sticking around all day. That was a mean thought, too, but I couldn't help it.

She offered to help me back to my room before she had to go, but I said I'd much prefer to stay outside. It wasn't like the medic-nin couldn't find me if they wanted to.

I wasn't in much of a mood to be social after that, but I did make an effort when Sasuke showed up. He didn't seem inclined to talk about the mission, or the rumours, anyway, for which I was grateful. It would probably be brought up at some point, but I was glad for the brief reprieve.

"Hey," I rasped, squinting up at him.

"Hey," he returned, dropping down to sit beside me. He put his back to the tree trunk, which was about as defensible as you could get out here. "Cloud watching?"

I made a sound of agreement, even though the only thing I could see from here was leaves.

We sat in silence for a while. "So what kind of trouble have you been up to while we've been gone?" I asked, covering a yawn.

His eyes flickered towards me. "Nothing so exciting."

Huh. I hadn't actually thought there _had_ been something. Guess the curse of Lucky Sevens didn't die just because we were separated.

"Well, you can't leave it there." I nudged him in the thigh. "Go on."

He tilted his head. "A lightning bolt struck the Hokage's Tower," he said, casually.

I squinted at him. Because we'd just been to the Hokage Tower, and it had been remarkably undamaged. Still, I didn't disbelieve him. There had to be more to the story. "Bet that must have pissed Tsunade-sama off."

He smirked. "A bit. It wasn't real, though. Just a Genjutsu even if it fooled everyone. I had to work with the Hyuuga, but we managed to break it."

There was only one person that was 'the Hyuuga' to Sasuke with that level of disgruntled hostility. His grudge with Neji seemed to be deeper than just a personality clash. It wasn't stereotypical clash of clans, either, because he got on reasonably well with Hinata.

"Must have been some genjutsu," I said. Area of effect were normally weaker than targeted, but if it had affected the whole village, and had taken two genjutsu piercing bloodlimits to disrupt… And someone with that kind of strength had got deep enough into Konoha to strike the Tower…

"It was," Sasuke said, with a slight frown. "Kiba helped us track the caster down, afterwards. It was a girl from the Kurama clan. She'd managed to link it to some kind of foci – a painting. I almost thought it was a seal at first."

The name made me blink a little – what were the odds? – but then hazy knowledge dredged itself up. "They have some kind of bloodlimit, don't they? Based around genjutsu?" And there was something more than that… about the paintings…

"Yeah. Turns out she used to be Kurenai's student, a few years ago. Then something happened and she's basically been locked up under watch ever since."

That was definitely ringing some bells. Kurenai's student. Genjutsu. Mostly I remembered Team 8 running around with Naruto. Was she the one with some kind of alter ego? How had that been sorted out?

I drummed my fingers on the ground. "Locked up? Why? And why did she attack the tower in the first place?"

He hesitated. "For revenge, she said. She seemed to think that the Hokage had her parents killed."

I stared up at him in horror, heart stuttering in a way that would have given the medics conniptions. "Don't say things like that _here_," I hissed. "Don't you know how easy it is to be overheard?"

I'd already proven that, eavesdropping on those medics before. They were gone, but we weren't alone. And better shinobi than me wouldn't even need to be nearby to do it. They could listen from inside, or leave recorders or traps or-

I swept my chakra sense out, trying to tell if there was anything there. It didn't help much. There were people in the hospital and any one of them could have heard.

I went cold. If anyone heard _Sasuke,_ of all people, talking about the village killing its own… And Danzo had just been poking his nose into _my_ mission. Had he been paying attention to Sasuke's? How quickly would he draw the wrong conclusion? What would he do, if it seemed like Sasuke was on to him?

Sasuke's face slowly lost all colour.

I didn't feel much better.

"What happened to her? The Kurama girl?" I asked, mind whirring. It was risky to keep talking about it, but it was also risky to put off the damage control.

Sasuke blinked, looking shaken. "She… was taken back to her house. Tsunade said- Tsunade said she was sick." He gave me a look that could be described as vaguely pleading.

"And who heard her say that?"

Just Sasuke, Neji and Kiba, apparently. And the other two had dismissed it; hadn't believe it was possible. _Sasuke_ had dismissed it; he'd only really been joking and trying to get a reaction out of me. Well he had one, I thought grimly, but not at all what he wanted.

"You haven't done anything… out of the ordinary after that?" I persisted. "You haven't seen anything? People following you?" Would he even notice? ROOT _had _to be good at stealth, just to exist in Konoha. And if Sasuke had his guard down, because he was at _home…_

I blew out a deep breath.

_I have no idea what to do,_ I thought miserably. If Danzo already knew, then he already knew. If he didn't know, then Sasuke really needed to stay away from anything that remotely linked him to it.

_I wish dad was home._

Not only would dad know what to do, he'd probably have some idea if it was plausible or not. Whether or not he would tell me was another story, but it would at least mean someone was looking into it.

But he wasn't, and maybe wouldn't be for a while. There was no use wishing for things that couldn't be.

"Come visit when I'm out of hospital," I said. "We'll work it out. And until then,don't do anything different." Don't attract attention, I wanted to say. Don't let them think you know anything.

Sasuke gave a jerky nod.

I regarded him unhappily, aware that I had freaked him out, but it was necessary. He didn't know how close he had just stumbled to disaster.

"Help me back to my room," I said, because there was nothing else to say, and I needed to move. Outside wasn't comforting, anymore. It was too open, too exposed. Too dangerous.


	74. Chapter 73

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: Okay, there has been some fantastic fanart for DOS drawn recently, so go check out the links in my profile page, if you're interested. **Violet-skya **has done a comic panel of chapter 70, which is awesome.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 73

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><p>.<p>

_Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic; it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation. ~ Vannevar Bush_

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><p>.<p>

"I'm okay," I said, repeating the mantra that had been falling from my lips for days. The syllables were starting to become meaningless.

Shikamaru tapped a shogi piece into position. I made my move without giving it that much thought. It was a sloppy, haphazard play that I saw fault with almost immediately.

_Too late, keep moving._

Shikamaru sighed, long and long, as if it came from his very bones. "No, you're not," he refuted. "You're not okay, 'Kako."

"I am," I countered. "I'm perfectly fine, see?" I lifted my arms in a little demonstration.

"That's not what I mean, and you know it," he said, but he seemed defeated, so I hoped he would give up this line or argument soon. I wasn't sure how much longer I'd be able to fight it without agreeing that he was right.

I really didn't want to do that.

We played silently for a while longer. The game was very lopsided, and I knew Shikamaru would wipe me off the board with no effort. It made me irritated, like an itch under the skin. I usually played better than this.

"You know," Shikamaru said, then stopped.

He clicked his piece into place, and I spent a few minutes studying it, half to avoid his eyes and half to try and salvage the game.

"You know that if you want to-" he started again. Stopped. He was looking at the board too. "You don't have to do field work. There's plenty of-"

My head jerked up. I glared at him. "I made a mistake, okay?" I said, and my voice wobbled a little bit. "I know I did. But that doesn't mean I… It doesn't mean I'm _bad _at this. I can do this. _Shikamaru._"

"I didn't say you couldn't," he said. "I just… you got hurt. You got really, really hurt, Shikako." He ran a hand through his hair. "Do you know how lucky we were? You nearly didn't walk away from that. What if… next time you're not so lucky?"

My breath caught. "There won't be a next time," I said, as firmly as I could. I could hear the emptiness of the assertion, though. That wasn't something I could promise. "I won't make the same mistake again. I'll train harder. _It won't happen again._"

"What if it does?" he persisted.

"It won't."

He looked frustrated.

I felt frustrated.

"I can't just quit," I said.

"Why _not?_"

I stared at him, feeling my throat constrict around the words, suffocating them. "Why don't you?" I choked out. "You could get hurt next mission. It's all the same."

How could I argue, when I couldn't explain _why_ it was so important? When I couldn't share everything I knew? And the thing was, it wasn't about trust, not really. I'd known for years that I could tell them if I had to. I hadn't kept silent because I thought they would turn on me. I didn't think they would turn me in. If nothing else, I knew Shikamaru was on my side.

After Gelel, how could I not know that?

I kept silent, because to tell them the truth now, would be to tell them that I had _lied._ I had lied every day they had known me, every word and every action overshadowed by omission.

I wasn't the Shikako Nara they thought I was.

I didn't keep silent because I didn't trust them.

I kept silent because they would no longer trust me.

"It's not the same," Shikamaru muttered. "I don't get missions like you do."

Which… was true. But not really the issue. "You could," I said. "It only takes one."

He sighed.

I bit my lip and tried not to feel too hurt. I could see his point. I could. I knew what he was trying to do. That didn't mean it didn't hurt when it sounded like he didn't think I could make it as a ninja. That I wasn't good enough. That all I was going to do was get myself killed.

I clicked a piece into place on the shogi board, not caring if it was a good move or not. I didn't even care if it was a legal move. It was just something to do.

Our standoff was broken by a knock on the door.

"Am I interrupting?" Ino asked cautiously.

I forced a smile. "No, of course not. Come on in."

"Right," Ino agreed, awkwardly edging into the room. She passed me a leather necklace strap, just like I'd asked for. I twisted it around my fingers and didn't put the stone on it immediately, because I thought Shikamaru might recognize it, and after that conversation I just… didn't want to.

"Thanks," I murmured. "I owe you."

"No problem," Ino said, eyes flicking from one of us to the other. "Is everything okay?"

Shikamaru sighed and stood up. "Yeah, it's fine," he said dully. "I should probably go. Mum wants me to help sort out the fortnightly orders."

Given that dad wasn't here, and mum was handling a lot of the clan matters, it wasn't so strange that she wanted his help with it.

It still seemed like a retreat.

"Have fun," I said, idly, starting to pick up all the shogi pieces from our terrible game. I didn't look up as he left.

"Okay, that was not 'fine'," Ino said, sinking into the vacant chair. "That might be the very definition of 'not fine'."

"It's _fine_," I stressed. "Just leave it alone, okay?"

She leveled a serious look at me. "I want to help you. I know you don't like it so much when you need help, not like this. Not when it's for real. But … I am here for you, okay?"

Ino was in the middle of her own identity crisis. Ino had been hurt in a way that even my near death experience didn't match. And she was still trying to help.

It wasn't fair to dump that on her. It wasn't fair in the way that Sakura expecting me to reassure her wasn't fair.

"I know that," I said quietly. "But… I'm okay, yeah?"

"Yeah," she agreed seriously. "You are."

I sagged. Until she said it, I hadn't realized how much I needed someone else to verbalize it. To agree with me.

_Yes. You are okay. You will be okay._

Everyone was so insistent that I wasn't. They were tearing down the foundations that I was using to keep myself steady, the walls and defenses that I had built. And Ino… Ino had just pitched in to help fortify them.

I made a muffled sound, that might have been a sob, and covered my eyes.

Arms wrapped around me. My chin dug awkwardly into her shoulder. "You're okay," she whispered. "You're so strong, you know that? This isn't going to be what takes you down."

I focused on breathing, and let the words settle in.

_Yes. You are okay. You will be okay._

Then I chuckled and drew back, a wry smile tugging at my lips. "Sneaky," I said.

She feigned innocence. "I'm here to help. That's all."

And that was a huge part of who Ino was. Someone who wanted to help. Who wanted people to be happy and healthy and confident in their own skin. Who liked fixing things.

"I had a fight with Sakura," I admitted, slightly abruptly. "Yesterday when she visited me."

It was a simple problem, something that would probably blow over by the next time Sakura and I saw each other if we ignored it. But it was also something that would be so, so easy for Ino to fix.

"What about?" she asked, because Sakura and I didn't really argue. We didn't always get on, but I didn't like arguing and Sakura hadn't always been so assertive.

"I made a joke," I said, shrugging a little, and looking up at the ceiling. "Okay, it was a bad joke but still." I told her about it.

"Shikabane," Ino said, shaking her head. But she snickered. She understood, at least, why I'd said it. "That is bad. Please tell me no one in your family was that bad at names."

I considered. "Well there was Shikatsu. Which could mean 'Life or Death'. But she picked that one out herself, I think. Her birth name was Amago." She hadn't been the heir, but it had been … not uncommon for heirs to die. Whoever took over as clan head usually picked a traditional 'shika' name to go with the role even if they hadn't been born with one. Dad had kinda bent the rules with giving both Shikamaru and I the same name, even if I suspected he just didn't want to come up with another one.

Ino snorted. "Trout. Like that's much better."

"Like you have room to talk, _Ino._"

She shoved me in the shoulder. We grinned at each other.

It occurred to me, that just as I knew what she had done, she knew exactly what I had done in telling her about that fight. Was this what ninja friendships were like? Knowing what each other needed, and giving just that and no more? And each of you knowing, all the while? It seemed manipulative, almost. And yet… was it really that different?

It was just … more deliberate than before. That was all.

"We should all get together again," I suggested. "Study group."

"Absolutely," Ino agreed easily. "I think we're all in the village at the moment, anyway. We should take advantage of it."

"As soon as I get out of here." I stretched. "Hopefully soon."

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><p>.<p>

Tsunade did discharge me from hospital in the end, even if she seemed slightly concerned about the rate that my chakra was returning.

I didn't tell her I had used some of it. That would have got me far worse than 'slight concern'.

It was good to get home, even if the first thing I did was clean out my mission bag. I was so glad that ninja became so paranoid about packing their own mission gear. No one had touched mine. It was all really gross by now, and everything would need cleaning, but no one had touched it.

The book was safe. No one had seen the bloody remains of my clothes. Because there was a difference between hearing that I'd been hurt while seeing me perfectly fine in the hospital, and seeing the physical evidence of just how bad it had actually been. I didn't want mum to have to come face to face with that.

I shoved the book into a sealing scroll, feeling the bite of chakra as it activated much more than I usually would, and hid it amidst my other scrolls. It wouldn't do as a permanent hiding place, but for now…

Then I emptied out the pockets of my bloodstained jacketed, rolled it up and binned it. I wasn't keeping it. Everything was thoroughly unpacked, cleaned, replaced and repacked. Tsunade had said two weeks, but I felt much better having my stuff ready _now._

The fact that it hadn't been ready had been a minor but persistent nagging in the back of my brain the entire time I was at the hospital.

Then I cast a critical eye around my bedroom and decided it needed tidying too.

There was a shine of productivity that came from making progress, even if it wasn't on the things that you _should _have been doing.

"Cleaning?" Shikamaru asked quizzically, leaning on the doorframe to my room, hands tucked casually in his pockets.

I shrugged, and ran a hand through my hair. It was sweaty. Yuck. "Seemed messy," I said.

He shrugged, because it wasn't like mess bothered him. It usually didn't bother me either. "Mum's making gyoza for dinner."

I liked gyoza, don't get me wrong. They were lovely little steam fried dumpling things, and I would happily eat them all. But they were a ridiculous amount of effort to make, and I could never see the point of putting that much work into something you were only going to eat.

No, that wasn't an opinion I would ever voice in the hearing of an Akimichi. I wasn't an idiot.

"I guess that was a hint to come downstairs and help out?" I asked, standing. I sighed. I didn't really feel like either cooking or socializing but giving in the first time mum asked would probably give me some leeway down the road. If she really wanted us downstairs, it would escalate from 'hint' to 'order' to 'nagging' and I didn't want to deal with that either.

In the kitchen, mum had already made the dough and filling, so all that was really left was putting it all together. The three of us sat around the table in comfortable familiarity.

I scooped a ball of filling mince out of the bowl, pressed it into the center of the dough wrapping and pinched the edges shut. My hand twinged, still stiff and awkward. Even though the Gelel had healed it, it would likely never be as good as new. The initial damage, that Kimimaro had caused, had been nearly healed before I'd gone out on the mission. It was better than anyone expected it would be, and with training I could probably get it to a level where no one would never notice it had been hurt, but it would never reach the level of speed and flexibility that it _could have _if it had never been damaged in the first place.

_Think of it as PT_,I thought, carefully pinching the edges of another dumpling shut. _Productive PT even. Much better than 'move your finger twenty times'._

It wasn't silent – we did talk. It was just nothing that struck me as important. 'You should be more sociable', 'don't just shut yourself away in your room', 'have you cleaned up' all made an appearance.

"I'm plenty sociable," I protested lightly, mostly focused on my hands. "I might go visit Hinata tomorrow, or Kiba. He promised to show me the new puppies." Not recently, mind you, but if there was an excuse I would take it. I wasn't quite sure how I'd manage to get from 'invite Hinata to study group' to 'ask Neji about the Kurama girl _without_ making him suspicious' either. It wasn't like Neji and I were friends.

"You can take the fortnightly delivery to the Inuzuka clinic then," Mum said. "If you're going that way."

_Even better_.

I made a grumbling sound, just so she didn't get suspicious. Somehow, she always seemed to be when we agreed to do things without complaining.

"So Sasuke said there was some excitement while we were gone?" I asked vaguely at a later point. Surely a lightning strike to the tower wouldn't have gone unnoticed.

Mum hummed. "Yes, there was an emergency drill. I suppose with all the things that have been happening lately, Hokage-sama has been refining the response system. And, well." She looked at us both and sighed. "The situation with Hidden Cloud… it could escalate at any time."

"What happened?" Shikamaru frowned.

"The Kurama clan provided a genjutsu," Mum elaborated. "Lightning striking the Hokage Tower, in order to simulate an attack by Hidden Cloud shinobi. It was only a short response drill, two or three hours at the most, but it does show she is taking things very seriously, doesn't it?" She frowned, looking worried.

_Oh. Wow._ Because that was all kinds of brilliant, wasn't it? Disguising an actual attack as a drill, using the actual enemy outside our boarders as an explanation… and yes I could see why 'lightning strike' and 'Cloud Ninja' went together without elaboration. The fact that that kind of attack was a legitimate worry and people were wondering if we were going to be stepping up onto war footing... Tsunade wouldn't want to compound matters by revealing that our own shinobi were turning on us.

"The Kurama," I repeated, with a frown. "Wasn't there a thing about them, a few years ago?" That was a risk. I had no idea what happened.

"A few… oh, yes. The Clan Head and his wife were killed in a house fire," Mum said, trying to recall. "It was suspicious, but it was just after the Uchiha… well. There wasn't anyone to look into it. Their daughter survived it, though. She must have been around the same age as you two, come to think of it. Was she at the Academy with you?"

I frowned. "I can't remember," I said. Not in our class, I didn't think. I would have recognized the surname.

Shikamaru shrugged when I looked at him. No, he wouldn't have really noticed either.

That was good information, though. Something concrete to look into.

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

The next morning, I went round to the Hyuuga compound. I didn't quite make it all the way there before I almost literally ran into Naruto.

It was, frankly, one of the last places I expected to see him.

I blinked. "What are you doing here?"

He rubbed at the back of his head and chuckled awkwardly. "Eh, I had to come and get Neji," he explained. "I have a mission with his team."

"Already?" I asked, a little surprised. Then again, Naruto hadn't been hurt and he couldn't exactly do much training in the village when Kakashi-sensei had been sent out again almost as soon as he'd returned.

"When I sent out all those clones to look for stuff in Land of River, they found some guys who wanted to come to Konoha." Naruto shrugged. "I helped them a bit, and they must have got here okay because when I asked Baa-chan about it, she said it could be my problem."

Well, it was good that Naruto was taking responsibility for things, and following up on what happened. I guessed that Tsunade was trying to encourage that. And it would probably be good for Naruto to 'lead' a mission where he actually was the person in charge, rather than the way he would defer to me or Shikamaru. Not that I suspected Neji would let him get away with terrible decisions but it would be different.

It did put a bit of a hole in some of my plans though.

"That's great," I said, distractedly. "Uh. Do you think… could you do me a favour?"

"Of course!" Naruto said, brightly, as if he'd love nothing more.

I felt a little bad about asking. It wasn't that I thought he would say no. It was that I was pretty sure he would say yes. "I'm a little low on chakra," I said. "Do you think I could…"

Naruto lifted his hands up, glowing blue. "Of course! That's easy. I have heaps of chakra!" He giggled. "I thought you were going to ask something difficult."

I didn't have enough chakra to properly do a Transfusion. It wasn't really the kind of jutsu you were supposed to use on yourself, either. In the end, I only really managed to smooth out some of the peaks before shunting it into my coils. It felt awful. It _burnt_.

"Thanks," I said, managing an actual smile despite all that. "Good luck with your mission. Stay out of trouble."

Naruto grinned and bounced off.

I rubbed tiredly at my eyes, and went and talked to Hinata anyway. Maybe it was for the best that Neji wasn't there. He was clever enough to put it together that something was up if I asked about it directly, and good enough at reading people that he'd notice if I tried to ask about it indirectly.

Maybe Kiba would be the better choice after all.

I headed back onto the clan grounds and swung by the main pharmaceutical office to pick up the Inuzuka Clinic delivery and requisite paperwork. It wasn't unusual for me to do that, so no one really raised any eyebrows, though I did have to repeat 'I'm fine, I'm fine' a few times.

Hana was in the office when I got there, so it was a simple matter of running through the checklist, checking the bottles and signing off that everything had arrived safely. I liked Hana, she was brisk and no nonsense, but never really rough or curt. Also, you had to respect anyone who maintained both an active field presence and effectively adapted Konoha medical training for animals.

"Great," I said, folding up the signed papers and tucking them into my pocket when we were done. "Is Kiba around?"

Hana filed her copy away into a black folder. "In the kennels," she affirmed, pushing the back door to the office open and bellowing his name down the corridor.

I smothered a grin.

"What?" Kiba hollered back, vaguely annoyed, before his head poked into the office. He blinked at me. "Oh. Hey. What's up?"

I shrugged. "Just dropping off the clinic's medicine. How're you holding up?" He'd been injured worse than I had on the Sound Four mission, but we hadn't really had a chance to catch up since.

"Eh, I'm back on light duty." Kiba shrugged and held the door open, a clear invitation to follow. "I heard you got yourself messed up again."

"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," I said, because when did you ever get the chance to quote that and mean it?

Kiba laughed. "Well yeah, they must have been." We twisted through a few corridors, though a room with small dog cages and outside where the large runs were. Most of the Inuzuka dogs roamed free, but about half of the cages were full with dogs that were injured, or had puppies, or otherwise needed to be separated from the rest.

There was a press of small fury bodies to the outer fence as they all rushed over to investigate the 'new' person. I crouched down and wiggled my fingers at them. "So cute."

"They all need names," Kiba said idly. "You got any good ones?"

"Sorry," I said. "Nara are good at a lot of things, but names aren't one of them. We're twins named 'deer girl' and 'deer boy' and the only reason we have the 'deer' is because of tradition."

"Better than getting called 'nose'," he shrugged philosophically.

"Is it really that Kanji?" I asked. "I thought it would be 'flower'?"

"That's what Hana wants people to think," Kiba said. "But it's not. Mom was on the good drugs and dad was too scared to argue. At least they picked mine in advance."

I snickered. We bantered a bit more. I learnt that Shino was apparently back in the village, and annoyed that he'd been the sole member of the Konoha 12 to _not_ go on the Sound Four mission.

"Seriously," Kiba said. "Don't bring it up unless you want a half an hour rant about it."

"Would telling him that he was one of the first people we asked for help?" I asked. "If he'd been in the village, he would have been there." Because I could sympathize with feeling left out. It wasn't like we'd done it on purpose, but it was a big event that everyone but him had been involved in.

"Oh, I know," Kiba responded. "I told him it was his own fault for being so smug about going with his dad. If he'd just been doing nothing like the rest of us…" He grinned at me.

"The price of ambition," I quipped lightly.

Kiba opened the gate, and a whole litter of puppies came tumbling out over me. "So this is what you've been doing? Looking after puppies?"

"Mostly," Kiba agreed. "And training."

"Sasuke said you helped him with the genjutsu thing the other day," I said, hoping that was opening enough to get him to talk. I didn't want to ask too many pointed questions. I wasn't sure if Kiba would know anything that Sasuke didn't, and I didn't want a repeat of how _that_ conversation had gone. Kiba would be much safer if he didn't suspect anything was amiss.

"He told you that? Well yeah. When the lightning bolt hit, I sniffed the caster out; used the scent of the jutsu to track back to where she was hiding. Should have figured it was a genjutsu at that point, but I didn't."

That was pretty impressive actually, in terms of tracking. I wasn't an expert, but jutsu didn't exactly leave much in the way of a ninja's scent. Maybe a small amount of chakra residue…

"Then she got us all in another genjutsu, like the entire village was empty and destroyed." He frowned. "It was weird. Even Kurenai-sensei's genjutsu aren't like that."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Even though we knew it was a genjutsu we couldn't break it. None of the normal methods worked." He showed me a bite mark on his hand, and since Akamaru wouldn't do that, I guessed it had to be part of their attempts to break the illusion. "Even Neji's Byakugan couldn't see through it. Sasuke even put a genjutsu on us, _inside_ the genjutsu. I dunno, I think he hypnotized her into undoing it, in the end." He shrugged. "But the medics took her away after that. They said she was sick. And the Hokage said we'd call the whole thing a drill."

He cast a sheepish look at me.

I put on a reassuring smile. "It's okay, I already knew," I said. "She was about our age though, right? Yakumo Kurama?" I'd looked up the old newspapers in the clan archive, dredged up the articles about the house fire that mum had mentioned. There hadn't been a lot. There never really was, in the newspaper, and I wasn't exactly sure it was trustworthy anyway. But it had given me a name. "Did she go to school with us?"

"Nah," Kiba said with complete confidence. "I've never met her before." He tapped his nose. "She never went to the Academy at all."

Setting aside the implication that he would recognize and remember all those scents – which I wasn't sure I could even do with _faces_ – that meshed with what I had thought. She might have just been old enough that we'd never crossed paths, or she might have not gone to the Academy the same way I narrowly missed out. It wasn't common, in clans, but it could happen.

"Did she seem sick?" I asked, mind ticking over. Sasuke had mentioned that too, that she had been called 'sick'. Was it a euphemism?

Kiba actually tilted his head in thought. "You know, I didn't notice," he said. "She didn't smell sick-sick. Not, like, hospital-sick." He shrugged. "But there's a lot of stuff that I wouldn't have picked up on. I'm not Hana. You gotta have training to notice that kind of stuff."

"Of course," I agreed automatically. Some of these were details I probably should have gotten from Sasuke in the first place. But some of them were things he wouldn't have known either. This had been a worthwhile venture.

There wasn't much else he could tell me. I let the conversation fade away from that topic, falling to other things, and maybe staying to play with the puppies for longer than was _strictly_ necessary to maintain cover.

I swung by Sasuke's apartment, but he wasn't there. He wasn't at the team training grounds either, or the Uchiha training grounds, and that exhausted my list of places to look for him.

_Damn._

I blew out a breath and leant against a tree, staring at the sky and hoping it would provide inspiration. The explanation that Yakumo was 'sick' had potential, but it was a dead end in terms of information. I couldn't access medical records – they were highly secure. It might not have been 'doctor-patient confidentiality' but Tsunade believed in keeping records of what were effectively _weaknesses_ secret. That kind of stuff could literally be a killer if it got out.

Anbu was even more of a laugh, if they were involved. I'd get nothing there.

Short of out and out going to the Kurama clan compound… and we didn't really have any contact with them. I had no _reason_ to. It would raise too many alarms if anyone was watching.

And Sasuke said she had been locked up _before_ this attack, so it was doubtful I'd be able to get to her now.

I chewed the thought over as I wandered home, hoping something would jump out at me. There were _ideas_, but nothing I was willing to run with at this stage.

When I got home, Shikamaru was seated in the lounge, playing shogi against himself. There was a thick file sitting next to him, and he held it out to me without looking up from the game.

"Kofuku-oba dropped this off for you," he said, naming the aunt that was in charge of approving the clan research projects. I knew her reasonably well, but I couldn't think of any reason off hand why she would be looking for me _now._ "She said to come discuss it with her later."

"Okay," I agreed, uncertainly, taking it and flipping it open. The first page was familiar though. I'd forgotten about this. I'd lodged an application to have access to a variety of stone and rock types, and possibly crystals to see if there was variation in the amount of chakra that they would be able to store. It had been one of the first steps to my attempts to create a chakra storage seal.

I'd forgotten about it, because it had been lodged before I'd graduated, and I suspected it was full of faulty fuuinjutsu assumptions.

"It was approved?" I asked surprised, and received no answer.

It wasn't that I was asking for materials that were rare or difficult to get a hold of. It was just… even I didn't stand by my original application. There was no way Kofuku-oba thought it was a good research plan. Unless she meant for me to learn that, but … well. There were easier ways to convey that.

I'd have to go see her to find out.

I sighed, deeply. Infusion of chakra or not, I felt _tired._ All these mysteries didn't help.

"I'm going to go lie down," I said. "Read a book or something."

Except that reminded me that I really did have a book to read. I tromped up the stairs, mind whirling into a different problem and the solutions I'd picked out.

Now that I had chakra to use, I knew what I could do with the Book of Gelel. It was a little risky, but infinitely safer than leaving it lying around in my room, even sealed into a scroll.

I'd seal it into me.

Storage seals could be put onto anything – there wasn't anything wrong with that. They just weren't usually practical to put on _people_, unless you were desperately in need of a spare kunai. And most ninja wouldn't have known enough about sealing to do it themselves, and wouldn't have trusted a Seal Master to put a seal on them either.

None of those were really a problem for me. I could do it myself – had put seals on myself already – and I only wanted to store one thing.

I got out my ink and brush and stared at myself in the mirror, trying to decide where it was going to go. Somewhere that it wouldn't be immediately noticeable, so arms were out, and my training seal already took up a chunk of space around my wrists. Back would be too difficult to reach, and I probably wanted to be able to get the damn thing out to read. Eventually I settled on the curve of my hip bone, where it would be hidden regardless of whether I wore pants or swimsuits.

It required a bit of awkward twisting to paint the seals along my leg and stomach. I had to lie flat on the ground, and one part trailed off me and onto a scroll laying on the floor. I tried not to move much as I put the brush down and unsealed the book from its previous home.

I took a deep breath, balancing it carefully on the point of my hip. "Seal."

Chakra flexed. Smoke puffed out. The ink coiled and retracted, chasing its way over my skin to the center point. I could _feel_ it twisting, could feel the new pocket dimension forming, could feel the seal setting on my skin. I breathed deep, rode it out, and _pressed_, forcing the seal smaller and smaller, compressing it to a point.

It was… interesting. I didn't usually compress seals. None that I used were big enough to bother with going the extra step.

I sat up. Moved my hand so I could see it. Heavy gothic lettering, English letters, slightly smaller than the palm of my hand. Not bad.

Granted, I could have chosen a better compressed form than the word 'book' but it was descriptive. It worked. It conveyed the essence of what I wanted it for.

I pressed chakra into the seal, releasing the book. It appeared with no problem, and the outline of the seal was still visible on my hip. Good. It was no good if the seal would only work once. It was too messy to have to redo it each time. But there was no reason it _shouldn't _have. Normal storage seals worked more than once.

The whole process hadn't taken all the much chakra, but it was have been more than I would have been able to spare if I hadn't run into Naruto. As it was, I was probably going to have to use some up before I went to my next hospital check-in, otherwise there would be questions asked.

I fixed my clothes, put away my ink and brush, and sat down to read.

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

Later that afternoon, head buzzing with a long dead civilization and chakra matrix theories that I only half understood, I headed down to the research labs to find Kofuku Nara.

She had a tidy little office, a desk and a few chairs, filled with books and folders. Most of them were unnamed.

"Ah, Shikako-chan," she said, looking up from reading a scroll. Even as I hesitated in the doorway, she smoothly rolled it up and tucked it into a holding stand. "I didn't expect to see you so soon."

"Oba-san." I bobbed a quick bow. "You, uh, you approved my research application?"

"Preliminarily," she agreed, ushering me in and shutting the office door. "We do have a fair basis of information on some of the points you mentioned – certainly the geological ones. I don't expect that you have access to them at the moment, but I can get you dispensation for certain articles and papers."

I'd expected that. I only had access to the Genin level archives, so anything in the upper level archives was beyond my reach. Soil types, rock types; those things were useful, for farming, for building foundations… all sorts of things. And not, in terms of difficulty, all that hard to study.

"I would be grateful," I murmured politely.

"Once the necessary background has been established," Kofuku-oba continued. "You can re-submit an edited proposal and I'll reconsider it. I've heard good things about your sealing aptitude so far, and this is certainly a direction that we would encourage you to explore. A functioning, independent chakra storage unit is certainly an ambitious goal."

I gave my thanks and tried not to frown. Because while I'd redesigned a few seals and could make copies of a dozen more… that wasn't exactly in the same league as creating them. Nowhere near. My 'best' seal was a touch based explosive, which was a fancy alternative to something you could purchase in any licensed weapons store in Konoha.

It was a bit of a stretch to expect me to jump from that to chakra storage.

Admittedly, the Book of Gelel would probably help extraordinarily in that situation. But it wasn't like anyone knew I had that.

We hammered out a few details, and she escorted me to the research specific archive to introduce me to Takatori. He was a distant cousin who was in charge of the archive and researching … something.

"You won't be able to remove anything from this room," Kofuku-oba said. "But you'll be able to come here as long as Takatori is present to supervise you."

Takatori yawned, rubbing at his eyes. "That's not something you should worry about. I'm starting to think I live here."

"He has authorization to acquire additional material if he thinks it's relevant," my aunt added. "I think you'll find plenty on the premises to occupy you, however."

Judging by what I could see, I agreed with her. These weren't _books,_ they were hand written, or printed off type writers, an accumulation of individual research efforts. There were shelves and shelves of them, densely packed, the bookshelves barely far enough apart for a person to stand between.

My fingers itched. I wanted to touch them.

Takatori was grinning at me, like he could see the thoughts written all over my face. "We'll get along just fine, oba-san,"he said to her. "Where do you want to start?"

I stepped forward. "Where _can_ I start?"

I didn't end up staying as long as I might have, however good company Takatori was. I was _tired_, and I'd already put in a few hours of 'study' today. And in terms of 'things important enough to force myself to do' this didn't reach the top of the list.

"You talked to Kofuku-oba?" Shikamaru asked, when I got home. He was still sitting in front of the shogi board, and I wondered if he'd played the whole afternoon, or if he'd gone and come back.

I nodded absently. "Yeah. I might be spending more time in the archives for a while."

"Too bad."

I paused, only halfway past him, and looked down at the game. It was a stalemate. "Shikamaru."

He looked up, quizzically. "Yeah?"

"How'd you get her to approve it?"

There was a flash of something in his eyes. "Why would you think I-"

"_Don't_," I warned him. _Don't lie. Don't pretend you didn't._

Because it was a good move, wasn't it? If he couldn't convince me to quit the way he wanted to, then he could certainly distract me by giving me something I _wanted._ It might have even worked.

He shrugged. "I didn't tell her anything that wasn't true."

I waited. The silence stretched out.

"She was interested to know that you were being taught by Jiraiya," Shikamaru added, as explanation when it became clear that I wasn't going to move. There might have been more to it that that – there usually were more layers than there seemed to be – but it answered my question.

Shikamaru wanted me out of the field. And he was willing to work around me to get it to happen.

And the thing was…

It might have worked.

I wanted to do this.

But I _needed_ to be stronger.

And …

It hurt that he'd done this. That he was trying to undermine me. That he was suddenly someone I needed to out think. That I couldn't trust him to be behind me one hundred percent, because his idea of what was best was different from mine.

I swallowed, rough and harsh. My throat was dry. I couldn't speak.

I brushed past him, up the stairs and into my room. The door shut with a click of finality.

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

"I, uh, I looked for you yesterday," I said awkwardly. "But you weren't home."

Sasuke shrugged, eyes flickering over the trees around us. We'd just gone for a 'random' walk in the clan forest, which was one of the safest places I could think of. "Patrol," he said, by way of explanation. It was even less verbose than was normal for him, and, yeah, that wasn't a good sign.

I nodded, sitting down against the base of a tree trunk and stretched my legs out in front of me. "I looked into it," I offered, because it was hanging in the air between us, unsaid. "Her name is Yakumo Kurama. She's fifteen and the heir to the clan. Her parents both died four years ago in a house fire. She's not officially registered as a ninja, and she never attended the Academy, so if she was Kurenai's student then it was a special arrangement. Unfortunately, Kurenai-sensei is still at the border, so it's impossible to ask her what happened."

Hesitantly, Sasuke came to crouch in front of me. "You think it's possible," he said, as if half disbelieving. "You think that she was telling the truth."

I hesitated. "I think … it's not _im_possible." This was a shaky line to tread. Because how much of his faith in the village did I shake? Too much, and Orochimaru's offer might seem attractive. Too little, and his own history would take him off guard.

"I thought you trusted Tsunade." That sounded almost accusatory.

"Four years ago wouldn't have been Tsunade," I reminded him. "And there are more people in power in Konoha than just the Hokage, no matter what it seems like. Something like this… we might not ever know the truth, Sasuke. That doesn't mean it's still not dangerous, either way. If it's true – _if_ – then it's supposed to stay secret."

"But you're looking," he said flatly. "You think it's dangerous… you _panicked._ But you're still looking."

"I did," I admitted. "Sorry. You really surprised me with that one." I ran a hand through my hair. "But I'm looking because… even if it happened, that doesn't mean it was right."

"Right," Sasuke agreed with a prolonged exhale. "What do you need me to do?"

I considered it. "I don't know," I admitted. Because Sasuke getting involved would be dangerous for him because of his own history. And yet, I couldn't exactly push him out of it, for much the same reason.

"No plans?" he asked, but there was a faint hint of teasing.

"We'll have to wing it," I said gravely. "Though, if there are people keeping watch on her, they'll probably keep tabs on the people that came into contact with her. You probably don't want to look like you're looking…"

"I haven't seen anyone," Sasuke said, uneasily.

I nodded. "Just… keep your eyes open, okay?" I said. "That's all we can do."

Sasuke still looked troubled, which was fair. This hadn't been a very reassuring conversation.

I felt bad that I had no answers to give him. If I hadn't made a big deal out of it at the hospital, then he would never have considered anything to be wrong.

I didn't like this either. I'd gotten used to having, if not complete knowledge, then at least a decent idea what was going on. It seemed like everything this week was proving me wrong.

I felt very small.

"Want to do some training?" I asked half-heartedly, rolling my neck back to look up at the sky.

Sasuke snorted. "Aren't you supposed to be on medical leave?"

I shrugged. "What they don't know won't hurt them, right?"

He seemed to be considering it. "No." He shook his head. "I have afternoon patrol. I need to go soon."

_Disappointing_. I sighed. "Too bad." It wasn't exactly that I felt up to training, but it would have been normal. We could use some normal.

And I needed to burn off some chakra before my check-up at the hospital.

Well. If Sasuke wasn't going to train with me, I knew how I could do that.

I stayed in the forest after he left, not bothering to seek out a proper training field. I wasn't going to be doing anything that damaging, and I didn't want anyone stumbling over me.

Instead, I leant back against the tree, and fished my new necklace out from underneath my shirt.

"You," I murmured, inspecting it.

It wasn't like the other stones of Gelel that I had seen. I couldn't hear it, couldn't feel it. But it couldn't be inert, either, because it _was_ compressed chakra. It wasn't as physical or material as it seemed. So it couldn't be dead.

But maybe I couldn't feel it the same way that couldn't feel yourself.

Gently, gingerly, I touched a spark of chakra to it. It sank in with no sign that anything had happened. But I could still feel it. It was still _there._

Puzzled, I pulled it back out.

My hand came away from the stone, shadows creeping over it as the chakra re-emerged.

The transformation.

"Ah," I said.

I didn't panic. Not this time. It didn't get very far, barely covered my index finger and knuckle. There wasn't that much chakra.

I examined my finger with almost detached curiosity.

The stone clearly altered my chakra. My chakra then altered me. It wasn't so different from the principles of our jutsu in the end. This level of change might have been found in the upper levels of our clan techniques, but I'd never seen anything like it in action.

Tsunade had said this had been in my eighth gate, beside the heart. That meant that when I had tried to use chakra, this transformation had taken place. Now that it was external, I had to put chakra in and withdraw it for the same effect to take place.

I pushed chakra back into the stone. The shadows slid off my finger like a glove, retreating and retracting.

I flexed my hand. Nothing felt different about it. I gathered more chakra, pushed it into the stone and _pulled. _

My hand wavered, shadows creeping up to the bend of my elbow. The necklace was still suspended it in, shadows solid enough to hold things. I let it go, let it fall to the ground. My hand stayed transformed.

_Doesn't need contact. Nice to know._

I concentrated, trying to manipulate the shape of it. I could stretch it, a little, could bend and twist it in ways that hands generally _didn't_. It was difficult, but I didn't know if that was an inherent difficulty, or simply because it was something new to me. I'd keep trying.

I played around with it. How quickly could it change? How much chakra for how much transformation? I didn't try and do a full transformation, not like the one that had happened on our journey back – for one, I didn't have enough chakra to waste, and… I wasn't quite ready to risk it.

It left me tired though. Not exhausted-exhausted, but enough to remind me that yeah, I was supposed to be on medical leave here.

_Need to work on it more,_ I thought, looping the necklace back around my neck and tucking it away. _It's promising._

More than promising, really. If I could get it up to the level of full body transformation that it had been… that was Jounin level skills right there. I didn't expect I'd manage it quickly, but surely in a year or two… if I could get it by then, it would be brilliant.

At least one good thing had come out of this whole mess.

I took myself home, walked past Shikamaru without speaking, and went to my room.

I had a lot of reading to do.

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><p>.<p>

"That looks much better," Tsunade said in satisfaction, ticking something off on her clipboard.

I swung my feet back and forth, perched on the edge of the examination bed.

I hadn't really expected Tsunade to be the one here. It seemed a little menial for the Hokage herself to follow through on boring things like check-ups. The initial damage, sure, but I'd expected to be offloaded to a regular doctor by now.

Not that I was complaining. I just hadn't expected it.

_I thought you trusted Tsunade,_ Sasuke had said yesterday.

I did.

I answered her questions, omitting only the slight jiggering of chakra I had done to get back into 'acceptable parameters' and considered.

At the end of the examination, Tsunade set the clipboard down and looked at me with serious eyes.

"Alright," she said, making a 'come on' motion with her hand. "Out with it."

I blinked. "Tsunade-sama?"

"Whatever it is you want to say," she elaborated. "Out with it."

I considered. Well. It wasn't Tsunade that we had to hide from, was it? She might not know about Sasuke, but Yakumo would be on her radar, if only from the attack on the tower.

"Yakumo Kurama," I started.

Tsunade sighed. "Medical leave means resting, not poking your nose into other people's missions," she scolded. "I don't know why I expected anything else from you."

"I was just wondering, if she was here at the hospital? Sasuke mentioned that you said she was sick…"

I didn't really want to bring Sasuke into it, but Tsunade basically knew where I'd heard about it all from already. I hoped he didn't get into trouble for it.

She raised an elegant brow. "Why?"

"I just wanted to know if I could speak with her," I said in a rush. "Based on what Sasuke told me, the way that she anchors genjutsu to paintings seems to mimic the fundamentals of sealing. Jiraiya-sama has been a great help in developing my own studies, but I'm very interested in the applications of being able to tie a technique to a picture. Even if it turns out to be a facet of her blood limit, I believe that studying it will provide a-"

"Stop, stop," Tsunade said, interrupting my semi-plausible explanation of my interest.

I stopped, sheepishly aware that I had perhaps sounded a _little _rehearsed. Possibly like the opening statement of a thesis. It was overdone.

I tucked my hands under my thighs, hunching my shoulders in a little.

"Yakumo Kurama is," Tsunade said delicately, "not sick in a way that I can cure. However she is still quite disturbed and very dangerous."

Well that was ominous, wasn't it?

"Aren't we all dangerous?" I asked, then ducked my head when I realised how cheeky that sounded. Clearly Naruto was a terrible influence on me, if I was talking to the Hokage like that.

I did see her smile, though.

"The Third decreed that she was dangerous enough to require Anbu supervision and permanent home detention." Her voice sounded idle, and she tapped her nails against her clipboard rhythmically. "I don't think you're quite at that level."

"Why home detention?" I asked, because Tsunade was willing to talk. I didn't know quite why she was explaining rather than telling me to shut up, but I wasn't going to ignore the opportunity. It might have been a test, it might have been an offer – I didn't know. But I wasn't going to ignore it.

"He considered it a merciful alternative to a more permanent solution."

_Okay. What? _I frowned. Was Tsunade admitting… no surely not. She would hardly be so blasé about an in-village assassination to _me._ But clearly _killing Yakumo_ had been an option somewhere along the line. I felt like I was missing a huge piece of the puzzle.

"With all due respect," I said, hesitantly, not really confident in this conversation at all. "But solitary confinement isn't merciful." There was a reason it was used as a punishment. No, not just punishment, it could cross the line to torture.

"Oh, I agree," Tsunade said. She sounded satisfied, like I'd said something she was waiting for. I felt very off-balance. "What would you suggest instead?"

"I.. suggest?" I faltered. Yeah, no. I had no idea what was going on here anymore. "I suggest that…" That what? I'd thought this was about her parents, but it might not have been, after all. _Disturbed and_ _dangerous_. Tsunade had said. _Not sick in a way I can cure._ What did that mean? What did that leave? "… that unless Yakumo is completely unable to function in a social setting, isolation will only exacerbate whatever issues she suffers? Rehabilitation should focus on the building of support structures and social contacts…?" I trailed off.

Of all the responses I'd expected to asking, this wasn't one of them. I didn't know how to answer, and it made me very, very nervous – a trait that every student was familiar with. I had not studied for this exam.

I didn't know how we'd gone from asking what had happened, to talking about rehabilitation.

"And more specifically?" Tsunade prodded.

There was an answer she was looking for. And I didn't know what it was.

I took a deep breath. What could I say when I didn't know anything about her, about her circumstances? She was our age. Mixed up in something serious. Dangerous. Sick. Alone. _Alone._ "Specifically," I said slowly. Well why not? I'd already told Tsunade I wanted to talk to her. "There is a kunoichi study group that I would like to invite her to."

Something that looked an awful lot like surprise flickered across Tsunade's face.

Okay, that didn't seem to be the answer that she was going for, after all. I bit my lip and stayed silent.

"An interesting proposal," Tsunade said, eventually, and then said nothing more about the topic at all. "Your examination is completed. Your follow up will be in a week. Make sure you make an appointment with reception."

I gave her an uncertain look, as she swept out of the room.

No. I had no idea what all that had been about.


	75. Chapter 74

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: I sort of feel that anyone who has stayed for seventy chapters but still feels like this fic is about the plot is missing something…

Also, new Sidestory up to go with it.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 74

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><p>.<p>

_A shadow leaned over me, whispering, in the darkness,_

_Thoughts without sound;_

_Sorrowful thoughts that filled me with helpless wonder_

_And held me bound._

_~ Alfred Noyes_

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><p>.<p>

"I think it's time to break for lunch," Takatori said with a yawn, stretching his arms up over his head.

I looked up from the book I was reading, pen absently tapping against my lip. "Hmm?" I queried. I knew he'd said something, but the meaning had been lost by the time it had registered. My head was floating in a cloud of calculations, ideas spiraling through but conclusions just out of reach.

"Lunch," he repeated. "Food. Sustenance."

My eyes drifted from his face to the clock. The library was windowless, tucked securely away inside the building, and there was a sense of quiet timelessness to it that made it difficult to keep track of the hours.

"Crap," I said, once it sunk in. "I'm late."

I shuffled my papers into my bag and darted around, putting all the books back on the shelves where they belonged. Takatori watched me with half-lidded eyes and mild interest, as I slung my bag over my shoulder and skidded out the door with a wave.

_I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date…_

I legged it out of the compound and towards the park, keeping to ground level out of the last remaining dregs of respect for my medical leave status. By now, my chakra was almost fully recovered and I hadn't felt _injured_ in the first place, so it seemed terribly pointless to avoid training.

Hinata, Sakura and Ino were already there, which was unsurprising given how late I was. Tenten was out on a mission with Naruto, which meant that despite best intentions, she still hadn't been invited to a study group.

Well. That was just how things worked out sometimes.

"Guess I'm not missing much, huh?" I asked, dropping down to sprawl beside Hinata. She was sitting all proper and daintily, but I'd been hunched over a desk all morning and I wanted to stretch.

"Sakura-san wanted to work on her taijutsu," she murmured to me.

The park wasn't _technically_ a training field, so they probably shouldn't have, but there was no one else here and Ino and Sakura weren't doing more than slow and basic taijutsu. I eyed them critically. Maybe my standards were higher now, but I was sure Sakura had been _better_ than that. Then again it had been months since graduation, and that was more than enough time to lose your edge, especially when it wasn't something you had ever really used in action.

"Probably a good idea," I said. "If she wants to be a field medic, anyway. There are pretty strict requirements."

I wondered if she'd done any work on the strength technique I'd shown her. It… hadn't actually been that long ago, really. It just felt it, what with everything that had happened. So, probably not.

I tried to see if there was anything different about the way Ino fought – maybe she was a little twistier, maybe her moves were a little more circular and serpentine than before – but if there was anything it was negligible. She traded blows with Sakura, a quick back and forth, and said something that made them both laugh.

I smiled.

"You want to?" I asked Hinata, motioning at the field. There was plenty of space. I could use the practice too, even if Hinata would probably trounce me. "No chakra though."

I wasn't _that_ eager to get crushed.

She looked a little surprised, but agreed.

I bounced to my feet and took a couple of paces away from our stuff on the ground before assuming a ready stance, fists closed and up. Not quite my usual style, but if we weren't going to use ninjutsu, then I didn't need to be able to quickly form handseals.

Hinata sunk into a Jyuuken stance, but there was no surge of chakra and no glow to her hands, which meant I didn't worry overly when she slid forward, hand curving towards my chest.

I dodged rather than blocked, light on my feet and twisting around the follow up moves like I would have if they really were Jyuuken.

_Back, back, left!_ I pivoted outside, as if to come around from behind, but she was ready for me, twisting neatly on the spot and lashing out with a kick that would have taken me out at the knees if I hadn't jumped.

I grinned, tipped backwards and handspringed off the ground, flipping for distance.

Hinata smiled back, a light, serene curve of her lips, before launching an absolutely _relentless_ assault against me.

I twisted, turned, dodged and feinted, and resorted to blocking what I couldn't avoid. It wasn't totally one sided, and I gave some back when I had an opening, sending us dancing and whirling across the grass. Wind swept around us, making my hair dance in the breeze, but it was warm and the sun was shining.

I laughed, feeling light and free, and Hinata danced after me, happiness glimmering in her eyes.

And then she swept my feet out from under me with an absolutely _vicious_ ankle hook, and sent me tumbling into the dirt.

"Mercy, mercy!" I gasped, still laughing. "I give."

She offered me a hand, two fingers extended, and I reached up with my own extended similarly to clasp it and complete the seal of reconciliation. More formal, maybe, than this little tussle warranted, but I wasn't going to refuse it.

Then she used it to haul me to my feet and startled a yelp out of me.

"Go Hinata!" Ino cheered.

"Weren't you fighting?" I demanded, amused. "Go on. Shoo."

She poked her tongue out at me. Looked like I wasn't the only one feeling a little silly. And what was wrong with that, really? We were home, safe and happy.

It was okay to be happy.

I hummed, twitching a bit to a remembered beat. A bubble of mischief welled within me.

Well. Why not?

"It's the eye of the tiger," I started singing, flicking a smirk towards Ino. "It's the thrill of the fight, rising up to the challenge of a rival…"

The thing was. I hoarded my memories, spending them like a miser with a handful of precious coins. Because once I shared them, I lost them. Ino and Sakura and Hinata would never know the real song, the singer or the music or the way that it was just one of those pieces that everyone knew. To them, it would only be a weird ditty that I had sung off key in a forgettable place on a forgettable day.

Even if I showed it to them, it wasn't the same.

Sakura looked a little gobsmacked, hands coming up to cover her mouth. I was definitely toeing the line of acceptable here. Ino had every right to take offence. If I'd judged it wrong, she could even be hurt.

But Ino threw her head back and laughed. "Rawr," she said, fingers curling into little claws and stalking towards me. "I'll show you tiger."

I laughed and ran backwards. "And the last known survivor stalks the prey in the night, and she's watching us all with the eye," I drew it out, "of the tiger…"

It wasn't the first time that I'd sung something from my past to them – it was rare but Ino and Sakura had probably heard more of it than anyone, even if they didn't know what they were hearing. But what would they think of that? That I liked singing and making up tunes? It was harmless.

I was aware of two chakra signatures moving towards us, but it was a public place and they were only at walking speed, so I mostly ignored them until they actually approached us.

"Can I help you, Mitarashi-san?" Hinata queried politely.

I did recognize her. Anko Mitarashi had been the proctor for the second stage of the Chunin Exam, and she wasn't exactly forgettable. The second person I didn't know, but she was slightly older than us with long brown hair swept neatly to the side, bangs braided over one shoulder but loose elsewhere. She was wearing a pink kimono over purple baggy pants and mesh undershirt, which was all well within the range of normal ninja outfit. Her chakra was strong, not impressively huge or anything, but enough to tell she was trained in using it.

"You can," Anko agreed. "Oi, Nara. Your invitation has been graciously accepted." She put her hand on the girls shoulder and edged her forward a fraction. "Yakumo Kurama."

I was a little more surprised that it was Anko escorting her, than by Yakumo's presence itself, truthfully. Then again, with consideration, it wasn't that surprising. Anko was an Intelligence Division Special Jounin, personally experienced in betrayal and traitors, and probably reasonably aware of the troubles of reintegrating into society after said events. She was probably an excellent person to look after Yakumo.

Yakumo bowed. "I am very pleased to meet you."

I bowed back after a moment of hesitation. "Likewise." There was an awkward pause, and I took over providing introductions for everyone. It was probably my responsibility, since I'd invited her. Anko hung back, not really taking part, but not venturing too far away either.

"Sasuke met her on his last mission," I explained, glossing over the details of it.

Sakura clapped her hands together. "Really? You have to tell us about it! What was it like? Was he cool?" Her starry eyed crush on Sasuke had never really gone away, and I didn't really expect it to. There was nothing really _wrong_ with having a crush, even if it occasionally made things awkward. People were allowed to have feelings.

"Give her a minute, Sakura," Ino said with a laugh. But then she shot me a look that indicated I was going to have to do some explaining later.

I gave her a harried nod. Yes, okay, springing this on them wasn't exactly great either. But I hadn't exactly expected my invitation to be taken up? No, that was a shitty excuse.

"Yakumo specializes in genjutsu," I volunteered. "I know that that's not quite what we're working on, but I thought it would be interesting to have a different perspective on it." I turned more towards Yakumo to continue the explanation. "None of us have had much of a chance to study genjutsu since graduation. Well, apart from Hinata, since Kurenai-sensei specializes in genjutsu… I think you know her?"

Yakumo nodded, but something dark flickered across her face at the mention of Kurenai. "Yes," she said. "Kurenai-sensei tutored me several years ago."

Hinata smiled at her, clearly pleased with the connection. It probably said something about the strength of the student-teacher bond that Konoha promoted, that students that had never met before were more accepting over that recommendation alone. Then again, if Kakashi-sensei had other students… yeah, I probably would have been _really_ interested in them.

I eyed Yakumo thoughtfully as the conversation took off. _Dangerous and disturbed_, Tsunade had called her. Was that the truth or a layer of misdirection? Would I ever know the difference?

What was I even doing?

I rubbed a hand across my eyes wearily.

I looked up and watched Anko watching us. She seemed intense – alert – but not unhappy. She caught my eye and smirked, like she'd felt me staring at her. She probably had. I was hardly being stealthy.

I dropped my attention back to Yakumo. She was getting on just fine with the others, and I withdrew a little from the group, watching and waiting. I'd take an opportunity if any presented themselves, but for now, I'd watch and wait.

It did, in the end. The topic swung away from genjutsu, touched on the medical knowledge that was ostentatiously our reason for meeting, and around to art. Or, more specifically, Yakumo's art.

"I'd like to see that in action," Sakura said, a little wistfully. "It sounds amazing. The combination of beautiful paintings and deadly genjutsu… a perfect kunoichi art!"

"Me too," I agreed, propping my chin up on my hand. "It sounds really interesting. Did you want to spar sometime?"

The words slipped out before I'd really considered them. It was a casual offer, one that got made reasonably regularly but not always followed through on. Once it was out, I wasn't sure if I wanted her to accept it or reject it – on one hand, I actually did want to see them in action. On the other. Well. I had just told myself I was going to watch and wait, hadn't I?

Yakumo blinked. "Um. Well, I don't know if I can," she said, and threw a look towards Anko.

Anko shrugged as all our attention focused on her. "Suit yourself," she said.

"I would like that very much, then," Yakumo said. "I haven't… I haven't had much of an opportunity to practice with other people."

I swallowed, and pasted on a smile. "Great. I've got a lot of free time at the moment, so whenever it suits you is fine."

We hashed out a time for the three of us to meet. I wasn't entirely sure that having Sakura be there was a good thing but… well, I wasn't going to say she _couldn't_ be there. Not when I'd sort of jumped on her comment to initiate it.

_This is why planning matters._

And then the group broke up, Hinata apologetically taking her leave to make it home on time for dinner, Anko whisking Yakumo away with an offhand wave in our direction and Sakura cheerfully tottering off with a stack of books.

That just left me and Ino in an empty park, sitting at a picnic table.

Ino braced her elbows on the table and looked at me over laced fingers.

"Sorry," I blurted out.

She raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"For…" I waved a vague hand. "Inviting Yakumo. Not warning you. Whatever." I shrugged. "I wasn't sure she would come."

"You don't have to apologize," Ino said, still sounding a little surprised. "The more the merrier, right? And it's not like we've ever stuck to _just_ medical jutsu, even if that's what we started studying. I just wondered when you had time to meet her; Shikamaru made it sound like you were flat out with clan stuff."

"A bit?" I said. "I mean, none of it is urgent or anything, I just haven't had anything else to do. But, um, I didn't. I mean, I haven't met her before."

"Okay, now I'm lost," Ino said.

"Sasuke met her on his last mission," I repeated what I'd said before. "And her technique sounded interesting-" Saying it like that made me sound awful. I had no problems with Tsunade thinking I only wanted to learn her techniques, but it was different with Ino. "-And she sounded lonely and stuff…"

I cringed. That was terrible. Why was I so awful with words?

"That was nice of you," Ino said quietly. "I'm glad."

It was my turn to blink at her in surprise.

"You get quiet," Ino explained. "When you're uncomfortable or upset… like you don't want to been seen or talk to anyone. And you haven't been around lately, and then you were late today… I was worried that something was wrong."

"Oh," I said.

"But, you know," she looked away for a second. "That sounds like something I would have done. Inviting someone along because they sounded lonely."

"Would do," I corrected. It hung heavily in the air, because neither of us were talking about the grammar of the sentence.

Then Ino rolled her eyes. "Like something I would do," she corrected and huffed. "Take the compliment, Shikako. Sheesh. Don't be all weird."

"I'm not weird," I denied. "You're weird."

I grabbed my bag, darted off the table and stuck my tongue out at her.

Her mouth dropped open in shock. Then she scrambled after me. "You're weird, weirdo!"

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><p>.<p>

Our team training ground was always free. Either Kakashi-sensei had reserved it for the whole year in preparation for his Genin team – which probably would have taken a fair amount of pull – or people just… didn't go there. Given that it also housed the memorial stone, the latter explanation wasn't as unusual as it initially seemed.

No one really wanted to interrupt someone else's grief.

Either way, it meant that I could show up at our Training Ground 3 the next day without worrying that someone else would be there, or having to go to the hassle of reserving it for us.

"Is this…" Sakura asked worriedly, hands clutched together. "A good idea?"

I smiled reassuringly at her. "Sure," I said easily. "I want to see her genjutsu in action, don't you? Besides," I added with a tease. "If something goes wrong, we have a medic-nin on hand."

I had given a bit of thought to how Yakumo might fight, and strategies to deal with that, but the spar itself worried me _least_ out of all the issues here. It was genjutsu. I was pretty damn good at countering that.

Sakura huffed, but smiled, so I took that as exasperated-but-pleased, and ran through a slow warm up kata while we waited.

Yakumo arrived right on time, clutching a large artists bag with a combination of nerves and eagerness. Anko strolled casually beside her, hands in her coat pockets, looking for all the world calm and at ease and not like she was actually on a mission.

"Good morning!" I greeted. "Are you ready?"

"I really am looking forward to this," Yakumo said. There was something slightly off about her smile that rang warning bells very, very loudly. "Are you both going to be fighting?"

"Just me to start with," I said easily. "If we get to a round two, then Sakura might join in. Is that okay?"

Yakumo nodded, still smiling. "I should set up then."

"Be my guest." Normally, I wouldn't let someone _prepare_ like that. But the whole point was to see her genjutsu in action, which meant letting her use her genjutsu. In a real fight, that would be akin to someone letting me start writing seals all over the floor and I'm pretty sure there was a saying somewhere about giving fuiinjutsu masters time to prepare. It kinda went "_don't_".

She set up an easel and small folding chair, put a blank canvas on it and started mixing paint on a palette. I watched with mild interest as she started painting with impressive speed – green for the ground, blue for the sky, then darker shades that started bringing in details and depth. The training ground took shape on the page, and she started to detail in a single, small figure-

There was a _thrum_, a deep, soundless vibration that rattled through the entire _world._ I dropped to my knees, hand coming up to instinctually press against my chest, even though I knew it wasn't my heart.

I disrupted my chakra.

"Kai." I clapped my hands into a seal, trying again, the complete process of genjutsu release that we were taught in the Academy.

The world looked… exactly the same. Me and her. The training field. But Sakura was gone. Anko was gone. I wondered, if I travelled away from here, how far it would extend. If Konoha was still there, but empty. If Land of Fire was. Further than that? Would it only be things that Yakumo knew and could project? Or things that I knew?

I swallowed. "This is your genjutsu?"

Yakumo paused, hand hovering over the canvas. "Yes," she said. "This is the true power of the Kurama clan. This is why I was the one they put their faith in, why I was supposed to restore the greatness of our clan…" She trailed off, completing the stroke of grey. On the canvas the sky being overwritten with dark and ominous clouds.

_Lightning strike_, I remembered. _That's how she attacked the tower._

That was… not good.

I curled a tiny shard of chakra around my canine tooth, and bit my lip. It sank easily into the flesh, pain shooting out and making my eyes water.

Nothing changed.

Up above me, grey clouds started rolling in.

"It's very impressive," I said. "Genjutsu isn't an art that we see a lot. It's hard to take it to this level."

The only other greatly impressive genjutsu I had seen was-

-was-

My hands shook. I pressed them flat against my thighs. _Was Tsukiyomi_, I completed the thought, deliberately.

The parallels hovered around in my brain. _Stupid. Stupid. _Letting myself be caught in it like this. _Inviting _it even. I was _stupid._

I had to- had to keep it together.

Had to focus.

"Yes," Yakumo agreed. "And it makes people… it makes people so _jealous._" She sounded distraught.

I was a little too preoccupied to share her much sympathy.

"Kurenai-sensei … I thought she would teach me how to be a ninja. That was all I wanted! To live up to the expectations of my clan, to use my genjutsu to serve the village! But she hated me! Was so jealous of what I could do that she never would… She sealed it away, took my potential from me and left me nothing!"

I blinked, breathing with forced and exaggerated rhythm. "She… sealed you?" My head was aching, like I was being forced in two different directions, like I was splitting straight down the middle.

"It's breaking now," Yakumo confessed. "I'm getting it back. For so long… I could do nothing. Do you know what that's like? To have it all take away? I hate her. I want to kill her! I want to destroy this whole place!"

_Dangerous and disturbed_, Tsunade had said. I was seeing it. Why had I doubted her?

Thunder rattled. Even as she spoke, she hadn't stopped painting. I was learning, but… I really also needed to keep fighting. I didn't want to find out what happened if that attack actually hit me.

"I-" I said. "I don't know what it's like, to be sealed. But I do know what it's like to be helpless. And … I do know what it's like to lose everything. But, killing Kurenai… destroying the village… that's not actually going to make anything better. You know that, right?"

The thing was… I couldn't actually feel her genjutsu. There was no probe intruding in my system. Disrupting my chakra hadn't worked, because it _wasn't in my chakra._ But… that left the very, very puzzling question of how the hell it was working.

"I do know that," Yakumo agreed. "But it's not just that she sealed me. It's not just that she took away my dreams." She turned to look at me, and there were actually tears in her eyes. "Just before I was sealed, my parents died when our house caught fire. The flames spread quickly, too quickly for my parents to react. But they were _Jounin_, they would never have been taken off guard like that. By a fire! A fire that mysteriously broke out in board daylight. The investigation ruled it was an accident but the report was sealed and kept secret. I was never allowed to see it."

I stared at her, stomach twisting nervously. I could make the same connection. Had already made the same connection.

"My parents were put to death, by order of the Third Hokage!"

"That's…" I tried to find words. "That's awful." I'd thought about what I would say to Sasuke, when he discovered what had happened, thought about it over and over, but I'd never come up with a set of magic words that would make it better. I couldn't find any now. "But… why?"

"Because they were jealous!" Yakumo shouted. "I heard them talking about it! Kurenai-sensei and the Hokage! They were afraid of the secret power of the Kurama clan – my power!"

That wasn't – that wasn't right. The Uchiha had been planning a coup, that was one thing. But…. And how would Yakumo have heard it? The Hokage was the _Hokage_, it would be too hard to eavesdrop on a conversation like that.

My head throbbed. The world seemed to be growing darker, like a cloud had moved across the sun. I snuck a glimpse at the painting, but it hadn't changed. Yakumo was still staring at me, chest heaving and eyes running.

"But," I said slowly, frowning. Something was niggling at me. "If they were going to seal your power anyway…"

The genjutsu wasn't on me. It was on _everything around me._ An illusion on reality itself. Her painting was an anchor, recasting the jutsu continuously, so that each time I breathed, each time I blinked or listened or touched, I was taking it in, submitting myself to it.

Was it still an illusion, when the world itself believed it was true? Until it ended, was it the true reality? What if it didn't end? Could she just leave it here, leave me trapped alone, alone forever?

Some part of my mind giggled hysterically.

But if seals, ink and paper and _words_, could reshape the world, then why not this. I had been right, about that at least. Her art and my seals were not so different.

The world was growing darker and dimmer. This, I thought with what I considered to be admirable calmness, would be a really, really bad time to pass out.

"What are you saying?" Yakumo scoffed. "That there was a _reason _for it? How can there be a reason that justifies what they did?"

"That's not…" I swallowed again, head splitting. "What I said."

I blinked, my eyes fuzzing like they were coming uncrossed. I thought… I could see an outline of Sakura. Anko. They were just in black and white, transparent and ghostly. But they were there.

And Yakumo. Yakumo was there twice. Once in colour, crying and yelling. Once in black and white, frozen in front of her canvas.

I was seeing double, images sliding apart and re-joining before sliding apart again. They aligned, overlapped, real and illusion at once.

The pain stopped.

I was in a genjutsu. (But I was not in a genjutsu.)

I stood up, breathing calmly, panic faded away to nothing. (My body collapsed to the ground, face pressing against the grass. I could smell the grass, the dirt, could feel the wetness of it against my face. It was real and true, even if everything was greyscale. My fingers twitched, but I was too weak to move it.)

This wasn't, I knew objectively, a good thing. When I'd trained in the clan jutsu, sometimes I had felt an echo of myself – all the things I pushed away, the things I hid and didn't acknowledge. Right now, it was strong. The mission that I had just had, this conspiracy, the reminder of Tsukiyomi… all those things made it strong.

If I had shown up to training in this state, dad would have forbidden me from using any jutsu until I dealt with it. To have your shadow become strong enough to _separate_…

No, it wasn't good.

But.

_I_ was in a genjutsu. (I was _not_ in a genjutsu.)

And that meant that I could fight her. I could multitask – fight her both in here and out there. I couldn't evade the genjutsu, or break it, but I could shield that other part of myself, my shadow, from it. I could be in two places – two _worlds _– at once.

"What did they seal, Yakumo?" I asked.

"I'll show you!" she declared, swiveling to face the painting. Her hand lashed out, white paint striping down the page. (She moved, hand lashing out, white paint striping down the page.)

I moved, as she did, running even before the brush had touched the page. Lightning was impossibly fast, but she wasn't. (I twitched, couldn't move, but nothing changed. Sakura hovered worriedly, exchanging words I couldn't hear with Anko, but neither interfered.)

The ground exploded into pieces where I had just been standing. A chunk of stone clipped my shoulder. (The pain was a dull thump, bruising but not breaking. I made a choking sound of pain, unable to stifle it. Tears gathered in my eyes.)

She looked startled, like she couldn't believe I had dodged it.

Dodging and running wouldn't get me anywhere. I had to be able to retaliate.

I reached. Not outwards, but inwards. Found that echo, that duplicate, that line that separated me from myself and-

-_switched._

I gasped into the ground, planting my hands and heaving myself up. Sakura yelled something encouraging, but I was already in motion, racing towards Yakumo and her painting. She was still drawing, readying another attack.

(I drifted along, a shadow on the ground, barely real enough to hold a form even if I wanted to. I moved closer, inching my way towards her shadow, ready to see if I could still pin her down even inside this illusion.)

From my kunai pouch I withdrew a knockout tag, hoping that if she was unconscious then her genjutsu would fade. Otherwise I could destroy the painting.

(_Shadow paralysis complete_, I thought, and her hand jarred to a halt.)

She scrambled away, almost falling from her chair, brush and palette landing in the grass and then froze. I darted closer, slapping the tag on her forehead and activated it. There was a long, long second as she fought it, then it took hold and she crumpled.

I barely caught her, stunned as the genjutsu snapped, the recoil of the technique slamming into my brain.

I was-

I was not-

We both sank to the ground, Yakumo's limp body pressing heavily into my stomach. It wasn't comfortable, but I just … wanted a second before I moved.

Something sharp dug into my sternum.

I froze.

"You are," Yakumo rasped, voice very, very low and distorted. "An obstacle in my path."

I contorted, heaving Yakumo up and bunching my legs under her body to launch her away. The paper knockout tag floated to the ground, useless. I rolled to my feet, crouching low for balance and stared at her.

"Secret power of the Kurama clan," I murmured. Sealed away. That was starting to make sense, at the very least.

It looked like a curse seal transformation. It was almost unnervingly like one. Darkened skin, elongated fangs, protruding horns and black sclera.

Fuck, but we ran into way too many people that were able to do this.

It didn't feel like natural energy, as far as I could tell, and it wasn't Gelel. It probably _was_ part of her bloodlimit, but that didn't exactly tell me how to go about defeating it.

"Yakumo-"

"I," she rasped. "Am not Yakumo. I am… all the pain that gathered in her mind, all the suffering that could not be alleviated. I am… what protects her."

I very, very deliberately did not think about the parallels of that or what it could mean for me.

"You don't need to protect her here. She isn't in danger," I said, putting as much sincere authority in my voice as possible. "No one is going to hurt her."

"Liar," it rasped. "I felt it. The pain of disappointment is unmistakable to me. The pain of failing to meet the expectations heaped upon her, crushing her with their weight. My purpose is to protect her from it, to obliterate those that are responsible for it. And that means _you._"

I tensed, ready to jump into action. This was not good, but I wasn't out yet. If we were about to get serious, then I could get serious.

"Annnnd, play time is over," Anko said, cutting in. Her hands flashed through seals even before she started talking, and Yakumo's body froze. She slapped a paper tag on Yakumo's forehead, the same way I had done only minutes ago. I squinted at it, barely catching sight of the writing scribbled across it before it began to glow and sunk through the paper. The transformation undid itself, leaving Yakumo blinking wide-eyed at us.

She swallowed heavily. "I- I remember now," she said, voice shaking. "The one… the one that killed my parents… was me."

_Oh._

"You were never supposed to find out," Anko said, though it was gentle. "Kurenai sealed the memory away, along with that transformation when it became clear you couldn't control it. Personally, not a decision I agree on." She shrugged, one shoulder rolling more than the other, and my eyes darted to the mark on it. "The question is, though, now that you know what are you going to do?"

Yakumo's eyes dropped to the ground. "I… I don't know," she whispered. "I… I…" Her eyes began to water and she started to cry.

Anko sighed, dropping a hand onto her shoulder.

I straightened from my crouch, now that it seemed everything was over. The adrenaline burst of it all was fading.

Sakura edged closer to me. "Oh, it'll be fine," she hissed, reaching out with greenly glowing hands. "This does not look _fine._"

I hesitated. "Looks pretty good to me," I murmured back to her. No one was dead and the truth was out, and it was much less terrifying than it could have been.

"Says the Shikabane-hime," she said, sounding torn being fright and annoyance.

I blinked at her, startled. . It wasn't an entirely _positive_ response, but it wasn't as bad as it could be. And I'd made that joke in the first place… so, it kinda was supportive in a backwards way.

Although I wasn't entirely sure where she'd got 'princess' from.

"Yes?" I said uncertainly. "Everyone came out of it okay."

Her hands moved over my shoulder, chakra sinking in and easing the bruise there. I almost told her not to bother, but thought that that might lead to another fight. Better to just sit silently and let her heal. Once she was done, she even went as far as to touch a thumb to my lip and heal the tiny bite mark there.

"There. All done." She cast a critical look over me, like she might have missed something with her scan.

I thanked her, because it wasn't like I _liked_ being in pain. I just didn't like the fuss that people made over the injuries.

"We're off, then," Anko said, wrapping an arm around Yakumo's shoulders and giving us a lazy two fingered salute.

"See you next time!" I said hastily, since we hadn't really discussed any future plans.

The two of them vanished in a cloud of chakra smoke and body flicker.

"I don't really understand what just happened there," Sakura admitted.

I sighed.


	76. Chapter 75

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: ThoughtBubble – believe it or not, I've had thoughts in that direction for a while, using sealing to make it. It's just there are so many ideas that it hasn't been brought up.

ImpressedAnon: That's pretty much it. The shadow jutsu side effects, and reincarnation side effects combining for interesting results. The second part is metaphorical, not literal – though it would make for an interesting SI twist, that's for sure.

Violet-skya has put up the second part of their lovely Chapter 70 comic, and there are a few more pieces of fanart that I recommend everyone check out. Links are in my profile as per normal.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 75

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><p>.<p>

_And they settle 'neath your skin  
>Kept on the inside and no sunlight<br>Sometimes a shadow wins_

_~Sarah Bareilles; Brave_

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"Were you waiting for me?" Sasuke asked, dropping to sit beside me on the edge of the roof. Given that it was the top of his apartment building we were perched on, I assumed that was a rhetorical question.

I swung my legs idly, heels drumming against the brick wall below us. "I just wanted some peace and quiet," I said, closing my book.

"Peace and quiet," Sasuke repeated, deadpan, with a look at the bustling street below us. It was residential district, not commercial, but there was still a decent number of people coming and going. And that didn't even count the traffic on the roof tops behind us.

"Mmm," I agreed, because it might be there, but I didn't have to interact with it and that was good enough. Home, my usual bastion of quiet, meant Shikamaru. Meant mom. Meant research.

I was perfectly aware that hiding from my problems didn't fix them. I knew that. But sometimes it just took a bit of time to work up the motivation and energy to do anything about them.

"You should walk me home," I said.

Sasuke blinked at me, drawing a knee up and hooking his forearm over it. "I should, should I?"

Given what I'd learnt, it probably wasn't essential to drag Sasuke to the Nara grounds to talk about Yakumo, but at the same time, I hardly wanted to talk about it _here._

"Unless you've got something better to do?" I slid backwards, stood up and offered him a hand.

Sasuke sighed, but took it and let me haul him to his feet. "You never used to be this bossy."

"You were fooled by my calm and pleasant demeanour," I said, deadpan. "Now that you know the truth you shall never be allowed to escape. Mwahaha. Ha."

He rolled his eyes at me.

We roof hopped towards the Nara compound. Once upon a time, I would have looked at the distances between the roofs and gone 'no way', but now it barely even seemed like an obstacle. A quick application of chakra into a Leaping Monkey technique that was drilled into us well before we left the Academy, and you were bouncing over the gaps like they weren't even there.

Shikamaru was sitting out on the veranda, playing solo shogi, when we got home. I gave him a half-hearted wave and proceeded to drag Sasuke around the house and towards the forest rather than say hi.

It didn't go unnoticed.

"What was that about?" Sasuke asked.

I shrugged. "He doubts my ability to make valid life choices."

"I doubt your ability to make valid life choices," Sasuke said dryly.

I shoved him with my shoulder. "You would make the exact same ones, so you don't even get to voice an opinion." The idea that Sasuke would quit being a ninja because it was dangerous and he got hurt was laughable.

"Alright," Sasuke said, once we were in the forest. "What's wrong now?"

I dropped down to sit with my back against a tree trunk. "Listen closely, this is probably going to be the only time I say this." I took a deep breath. I hated to admit it, but even if I explained he was going to call me on it. "I was wrong."

"Can I get that in writing?" Sasuke smirked.

"No." I waggled my finger at him. "I was wrong. Yakumo was wrong. The actual truth is something like this. Yakumo had a very strong expression of her clan's bloodlimit, but she was otherwise pretty sick as a kid. She still wanted to be a ninja, but it didn't look like it was possible. And then the Kurama clan started declining in strength right at the point where the village needed more genjutsu users, so people were looking to Yakumo's talent to restore them. That put a lot of stress on her, as you can imagine. She then developed a secondary personality to protect herself," I summarised. "I don't know if the Kurama have a secondary bloodlimit, or if it was just an odd manifestation of the main one, but it was able to take control with a transformation not unlike the curse seal."

Sasuke blinked at me.

"Not like-like," I clarified. "But the whole demonic appearance thing. Anyway. Said personality was trying to protect her from all that stress, and was maybe fuelled by resentment against the clan for putting it there in the first place, and used her genjutsu abilities to cast a fire."

"That killed her parents," Sasuke said quietly, filling in the blanks.

"Yeah," I agreed. "The Third apparently was aware of it, and organised Kurenai-sensei to either teach her to control it or seal it away along with all her memories of the event. She chose the latter option, obviously. Then they put Yakumo under house arrest and observation. Only, the seal started breaking down recently, and she was recovering her powers, hence the attack on the Tower."

"So she knows now?"

"She knows now," I confirmed. "Anko took her away again. I hope she's okay."

Sasuke shook his head, staring out into the trees. "That's crazy," he said quietly. "How awful would it be…"

I wasn't sure I was supposed to hear that. I leant back and waited.

"But," he said after a moment. "I don't get why you believed her in the first place. I mean, maybe not guessing all of_ that_ but it makes more sense if you just assumed she didn't know what she was talking about. But you didn't. You believed her. You never even met her and you believed her."

It was hard to defend myself while knowing I had been _wrong_. Anything I said now was just going to sound paranoid. I huffed. "Because that's the kind of accusation you take _seriously?"_

"This is Konoha," Sasuke said with a bite of impatience. "Not Hidden Mist. Do you really think that kind of thing goes on here?"

_Oh, Sasuke._ My heart ached for him.

But maybe it was better if he didn't believe it. If he thought Konoha just wasn't capable of that level of treachery. Maybe then, when the other shoe dropped, when the truth was revealed, he would doubt it. Maybe it would take away one weapon that Tobi had to use against him. Maybe.

Or maybe it would just make the betrayal all that much greater.

I ran a hand through my hair, ruffling my fringe. "Sorry." I swallowed. "Maybe I'm just paranoid."

I didn't look at him, so I didn't know how that went over. But he didn't say anything.

"How'd you find all this out anyway?" Sasuke asked, after a beat. "Did she get out again?"

"Oh, I invited her sparring," I said. "The seal broke while we were fighting."

There was a long silence.

"What?" he asked incredulously.

"I… invited her sparring?" I repeated uncertainly.

"That is the _stupidest_ _thing I have ever heard,_" Sasuke said flatly. "You invited her sparring? She wanted to destroy Konoha! I told you what her genjutsu were like! And you just thought 'oh, no, that sounds absolutely _perfect, _I'll let her cast one on me_'_?"

"I-" I stammered, eyes wide. "It wasn't that bad," I muttered defensively.

Sasuke breathed very deeply through his nose. "No. Shikako. I thought Naruto was supposed to be the one that leapt into things without thinking about them."

"Hey," I objected. "I thought about it."

"Really?" he asked. "And it still seemed like a good idea after that?"

I didn't really appreciate this. "It all worked out in the end!"

"That doesn't mean it was clever," Sasuke argued. "You have to see that that was a moronic plan."

I stopped myself from snapping at him. The fact that I _wanted_ to snap meant he was probably closer to the truth than I wanted to admit. I was feeling cornered – I _hated_ feeling cornered – and it was because he was right. "It… wasn't the best plan I could have made?" I admitted in a small voice. It wasn't. Even the 'ask Tsunade' stage of the plan hadn't been brilliant. I'd been scrambling from start to finish, and I was really lucky that nothing had backfired on me.

"And you did it _alone_," Sasuke said. "I wish you'd..."

"Look, Anko was there as her guard, okay?" I said. "And Sakura. It wasn't like I was completely alone."

Sasuke gave me a baleful look that said the minor concession to safety did not impress him at all. "I just- Why?"

I drummed my fingers against my thigh, and ordered my words carefully. "We haven't really fought any serious genjutsu users. It's a rare art to do well."

"There was-" And he cut himself off, scowling.

"There was Itachi," I finished softly. "Yeah. But… Itachi is Itachi. Saying he uses genjutsu is like saying a Jounin and a Genin are both ninja so you can fight either one. He's in a different league." I struggled to put it into words. "Yakumo is like _us._ She's our age, with the same or less training. Strong bloodlimit or not… I thought that… it would be good practice…"

"Yeah," Sasuke said, and he looked suddenly tired. Drained. I thought that this was probably the most that we had ever discussed about Itachi. Maybe we should have talked about it, but what was there to say?

I felt pretty drained too. "If," I said, "I meet her again, do you want to come too? Maybe not spar, but just… exchange notes or whatever." I shrugged. It sounded like a neat solution, but I was clearly not having as many great ideas as I thought I was.

But he wasn't wrong. And… I didn't really want to do this alone if I didn't have to.

"Maybe," Sasuke said.

That was good enough for me.

_._

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Shikamaru rapped his knuckles against my open door. "Naruto is here," he said, tone bored.

I closed the book on chakra theory that Takatori had sourced for me, and looked at him. "He's back already?"

Well, it had been almost a week... It seemed much shorter than that somehow.

"Hey, Shikako!" Naruto cheered as I came down the stairs. "Are you okay? Is your medical leave over? Can you come back to training now? I hope we can do a mission together soon, that would be awesome! Not that it was bad to do a mission with Lee's team, but I missed you and Sasuke."

I paused under the barrage of words for a second, and tried to parse them. "Uh, nearly over, yeah," I agreed. "How was your mission?"

"It was okay," he said, and shrugged. "There was this curry restaurant that we stayed at that Lee knew – he trained near there with Gai-sensei last year, he said, and baa-chan remembered him so she made us special curry, but it was so hot. And the town was being controlled and stuff by this missing-nin guy called Raiga, and he used to be one of the Seven Swordsmen. I asked if he knew Zabuza, but then he just got mad at me."

"Raiga Kurosuki?" Shikamaru asked, looking a little poleaxed.

"Mmm, I guess so." Naruto shrugged. "He was really nuts though. Like, crazy-nuts. He had a cool apprentice though. His name was Ranmaru. Hey, do you think all the swordsmen had apprentices? Like, Zabuza had Haku?"

"I don't think so," I said, amused. "Kisame didn't have one." That I knew of, at least.

"Oh, hey, he was one of them too! I forgot. I should have asked if he knew him." Naruto punched a fist into his other hand. "Rats. I coulda, like, gathered information. Then next time we saw him, we could have kicked his ass. Stupid blue fish guy!"

Well, at least he was considering gathering information. That was something. "So Ranmaru?" I prompted.

"Oh, yeah, he had some weird doujutsu," Naruto said. "And he was sick so he couldn't move very much? Raiga basically carried him around all the time. And he was kinda like Haku, too, because he only wanted to be acknowledged and useful to the person he cared about. Except Raiga was even more of a jerk than Zabuza."

Naruto even sounded disappointed, like that was a serious level of jerkiness to achieve.

"We had to fight him. He had a lightning sword too. But it wasn't as cool as yours," he added generously. "We were awesome though, and he didn't stand a chance! Ranmaru even helped us out."

I wondered if it had truly been _that_ easy, given that Raiga was in fact a Jounin member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. On the other hand, if he wasn't injured, no one on the team was dead or massively hurt, then did I really need a play by play?

"But you can come to the hospital tomorrow and meet him, right?" Naruto added. "Baa-chan said she could probably even heal him and stuff."

"Wait," I said, confused. "Heal who? Who's at the hospital?"

"Ranmaru," Naruto said, as if I should have followed that.

"He… came back with you?" I repeated faintly. More surprising than Naruto befriending an enemy was that Tsunade would let him in the village. Even for a doujutsu.

"Yeah! You'll come and meet him, right?" Naruto said.

I shared a long look with Shikamaru, both of us on the same wavelength for now, just so we could communicate our disbelief with someone that understood.

"Sure, why not?" I sighed.

"Awesome!" Naruto beamed. "So, uh, what have you guys been doing?"

"Nothing really." I shrugged. "Hanging out, taking things easy. Doing a lot of reading."

Naruto made a face. "I suppose that's good," he said, clearly of the opinion that it was very boring.

"And playing shogi," I said thoughtfully, struck by a little spark of inspiration.

"Oh yeah?" Naruto perked up. "I haven't played in ages." He folded his arms behind his head. "Can we play the cool way? Please?"

"The cool way?" Shikamaru asked sardonically.

"Let's go outside." I grinned, sliding open the door and stepping out onto the veranda. There was more than enough space in the backyard. "The floor is yours, Naruto."

He clapped his hands together, fingers twisting into a cross seal. There was a surge of chakra, and the yard filled with clones, already arrayed in varied outfits of black and white.

Shikamaru made a sound of surprise.

"Hey," I said, as if it had just occurred to me. "Why don't we add some more rules to keep it interesting?" Naruto was better at it this way, where it was actually _people_ rather than just game pieces, but Shikamaru would still wipe him away. Not only did he know the game inside and out, he also had experience. Shogi was a game with a lot of history, a lot of set plays that you could make and counter.

I could throw a curveball into that.

"We can give the Genin elemental affinities. Then each one can only defeat the affinities that it's advantaged against. Fire beats wind beats lightning beats earth beats water beats fire," I rattled off quickly. "There are only nine of them, though, so two of everything except wind? Because it's so rare in Konoha."

I actually had no idea how this change would impact the game. But it would impact it big time.

"You can't just add rules to shogi," Shikamaru said.

"Can," I replied, very maturely. "Did."

"Hehe, that sounds fun!" Naruto said, and the front row of players altered their transformations so that their headbands showed an element sign rather than the Konoha symbol.

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at us, and folded his hands into a circle.

The game was on.

It was messy and it was chaotic. Naruto and I played off each other, argued, and occasionally got in the way of move sets the other was planning. Shikamaru plotted and planned, succeeded and was foiled time and time again. The change to the pawns, the genin, really did upset the whole thing quite a bit. His carefully learnt stratagems were obsolete, and he had to adapt to new and changing circumstances, just like we did.

I was quite pleased with that.

"Checkmate," I said, as the last clone moved into place. Naruto punched a fist into the air.

Shikamaru considered the field, eyes sparking. "Again."

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I waited outside the hospital for Naruto to arrive, and was mildly surprised to see Sasuke in tow when he did.

"Lucky Sevens together again, nah?" I said cheerfully, as we brushed past reception. Naruto seemed to know where he was going.

Sasuke gave me a bland look. "Don't call us that," he said. "It'll stick."

"I didn't think it was that bad," I teased. "It's pretty funny even."

"You say that now," he said.

I shrugged. "Better the 'Rookie Nine', though you have to give it points for being descriptive."

We wove through a waiting room where there was a single Chunin flipping idly through an out of date gardening magazine, and knocked on a door.

"Hey Ranmaru!" Naruto called, stepping inside.

I was a little surprised. When Naruto had said 'apprentice' and described him like Haku, I had thought he would be our age. But he wasn't. Seven or eight at most, and very small. Youth didn't mean he _wasn't_ dangerous but… Maybe that accounted for Tsunade's lenience.

He had blue hair and red eyes. Why was it always red eyes? Why couldn't there be a doujutsu that was a nice shade of green? But no, it was always red.

"Naruto," Ranmaru said quietly, but he smiled. "You came to visit me."

"Yeah, well I said I would, didn't I?" Naruto said awkwardly. "This is Sasuke and Shikako, my teammates."

I waved. "Hey. Welcome to Konoha."

Sasuke offered a nod, and Naruto took off chattering. I had a quick nosy at the hospital notes sitting by the foot of the bed, but it was only Care And Feeding Of type instructions, so there was a limited amount I could glean from that.

"So, I forgot to ask last time, but Raiga was one of the Mist Swordsmen, right? Did you ever see this blue guy, with a bandage wrapped sword?" Naruto asked.

"You mean Kisame?" Ranmaru asked. He frowned. "I know he slipped away from Kiri, but I don't know any more than that…"

"Aww, man," Naruto complained. "That's nothing."

"Sorry."

"No, it's not your fault." Naruto waved a hand. "We just ran into him once."

Even Sasuke looked a little disappointed at the lack of information. I guessed that Naruto had used the possibility as an excuse to drag him along.

It wasn't much longer before we left, though Naruto managed to convince us both to go to Ichiraku with him. It wasn't even lunchtime yet. Distance apparently made the heart grow fonder, because we both caved with minimal arguing. Sasuke barely did more than sigh.

"Oh, hey! Old man Genno!" Naruto called, sliding into the seat. "You're having an early lunch!"

The old man looked up in surprise, but chuckled warmly. "Ah, Naruto! I haven't seen you in a while. Yes, we just finished the last of the Academy upgrades this morning, which means my contract is finished. I was here to celebrate with a last bowl of Ichiraku."

Sasuke and I slid into seats next to Naruto and ordered from Ayame. Somehow, it didn't surprise me at all that Naruto made friends with other ramen stand patrons.

"So you're leaving Konoha then?" Naruto said, looking a little crestfallen. "That sucks! We won't be able to see each other anymore. But I guess you're going to go treasure hunting with your grandson like you said, now, right?"

"Yes, that's right. It's been a long time since I had a good treasure hunt." He looked a little wistful. "Actually, it's lucky that you're here. I had a bit of a present for you, before I went." He winked. "It's a surprise though. You'll have to wait till tomorrow."

Naruto practically vibrated in his seat. "A present?! For me? No way!" He then proceeded to pester the guy for details, and got nowhere.

I smiled, but politely stayed out of the obviously familiar conversation.

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><p>.<p>

However tempting it was to hang out with Naruto and Sasuke all day – and it was tempting – I left after we'd batted each other around the training field for a good hour. I had things to do.

Things that I had been putting off.

I wandered back to the Nara compound, going over the potential conversations in my head, the way I would plan a battle. It helped keep the nerves under control.

I walked slowly, curving through the woods, past a small clumping of houses until I found the one I wanted. I didn't bother knocking on the door; he wouldn't be inside anyway.

Kasuga Nara sighed when he saw me. "Your brother just left, girl," he complained. "No point looking for him here."

I bobbed a quick bow. "I know, ojii-san."

He wasn't my grandfather– Shikano Nara's death during the Third Shinobi War had been what promoted dad to Clan Head – but he was grandfatherly enough. Clever and cagey, but still kind, and he'd been the one supervising our training while dad was gone. I figured he was knowledgeable enough – and experienced enough – to be my best chance of getting answers.

That answer didn't make him happy, no matter how politely I'd said it. "Oh," he said, a displeased twist to his lips. "This is going to be one of _those_ conversations isn't it." He looked me over, a long, shrewd stare.

I tried not to fidget, but didn't say anything. The more I said, the more I gave away. If I gave things away, it would at least have to be for benefit, not in the opening moves of the game.

"Go on then, girl," he said at last. "Make us some tea. And do it properly!"

I shuffled inside, switching my sandals for house slippers as I went. 'Properly' meant not just banging a tea bag and some hot water in a cup, though thankfully not the full bowing and scraping of a formal tea ceremony. I would probably wouldn't have come here until I was desperate, if I thought I would have to go to those lengths.

I shuffled back outside with the tea tray, and set it down on the veranda, kneeling down in seiza beside it to mirror Kasuga. I poured the tea, and waited until he'd taken the first considering sip.

"Alright," he said. "What is it? Though, if it's womanly problems, I reserve the right to tell you to go ask your mother."

I was at once bemused by the sheer idea that I would come to him with _womanly problems _in the first place – and what did that even mean, honestly – and jumpy with anxiety over having to initiate this conversation.

"I'm good," I said dryly, taking a sip of green tea. I let the cup rest on my knees. "The clan jutsu." I paused, both to pick my words carefully, and also partially in hope that he would take the opening and answer my questions before I had to ask them.

He didn't.

Well, I'd always known I wasn't going to get out of this without admitting that something was wrong.

"There are side effects, to the clan jutsu, aren't there?" I asked, carefully casual.

"There can be," he agreed, neutrally. "Especially if you do it wrong. Sometimes, even if you do it right."

I nodded. Took a calming breath. "What are the common consequences of incorrect usage?"

There was a pause. Of course he knew what I was really asking. I knew what I was admitting to. I hated to admit it, but I needed to know what to do next.

"Why don't you tell me what's wrong," he said. "And then I will tell you why."

"Sometimes," I said, "when I use the clan jutsu, I hear an echo."

Kasuga's hands stilled around his cup. The look he gave me was just as steady and assessing as the first. "An echo of what?"

"Me." It sounded dumb. But I kept silent, resisted the urge to try and explain further, because there weren't really words that I could use to explain. I'd only babble and get myself all tangled up. Everything I could try boiled down to that. He'd either understand, or he wouldn't.

"Oh, girl. You always were the problem child." He sighed. "When did it start?"

"Only recently," I said, even though I wasn't sure it was completely true. But I'd _split_ myself, and that was the part that worried me.

He took a sip of his tea. "I'm sure your father gave you the run down on the dangers of spiritual manipulation."

"That's why I'm here," I responded. I knew the seriousness of it.

"Don't get snippy with me," he chided. "Your little _echo_ is what happens when things don't line up quite right."

I nodded, because I'd realised that much.

"The problem," he explained. "Is cohesion. Ideally, you want to be manipulating your energy so that it maintains the same shadow-density throughout. The best way for that to happen is to have all your spiritual energy on the same wavelength and cycling interchangeably. In theory, easy enough. In practice, it's not an ideal that's easy to live up to."

I frowned. That was all information I knew, but put together like this was giving me a niggling of an answer. "What happens when there are … different densities? How do you _get_ different densities in spiritual energy?"

He huffed. "How do you think, girl? It's spiritual energy. It's made up of all your thoughts and feelings, hopes and dreams. You strengthen one part over another, they don't mix together properly and all of a sudden you get gradients. If the differences get too extreme… that would be your little echo."

_Shit._ I could see it. How it had happened, though… I'd always considered myself to be fairly self-aware. Sure, I put things to the side, sometimes, but it wasn't like I was fooling myself.

Was I?

"How do I fix it?" I asked flatly.

Kasuga gave me a long, mildly amused look. "That very much depends on what you mean by 'fix'."

It was too much to hope that it would be simple or easy, of course. I knew that much. But the prevarication didn't make me any happier.

"To make it go away?" I suggested.

"Quit as a ninja," he said, as if it were the easiest thing in the world. "Stop using shadow jutsu at all."

"No." It wasn't an option. I couldn't let it _be _an option. There had to be something else.

"Then that's not what you mean by 'fixed'," he said, equally straight forward.

I tried to hide the face I made by drinking my tea. I suspected that it didn't work very well. "Then how about something like… controlled with enough assurance that I can be trusted to operate on missions and not endanger people around me?"

The worst thing I could think of – the most terrible, horrifying thing – would be to become Yakumo. To wake up and know that _I_ had been the one to kill someone I cared about. It was that possibility, shoved so brutally in my face, that made me search for answers.

Kasuga turned the full weight of his attention on me. "Did something happen, Shikako?"

I pulled back, feeling too exposed. "No. I just want to eliminate it as a possibility." Nothing had happened, not with me. I just didn't want it to get to the point where it _did. _

"Do you think it _is_ a possibility?" he asked.

I hesitated. How should I know? I wasn't the expert on shadow jutsu, here. I was guessing blindly. "I don't want it to be."

He stared at me for a long time, frown settling between his eyes. I began to feel like I'd made a mistake. Somehow, somewhere along the line, I had made a mistake.

"I have some exercises you can do," he said finally. He stood with a groan and a creaking knee. "Come inside."

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><p>.<p>

I woke, close to four am, from the sound of a muffled explosion.

It was distant, maybe even clear on the other side of Konoha, but unmistakable all the same. I listened carefully, but there was no follow up explosion. There was no alarm. There was nothing.

I got up.

No alarm meant there was no immediate response necessary. But I doubted there were many shinobi in Konoha that could hear an explosion in the middle of the night and not worry.

I moved through the house until I could look out the window and have a clear view of a signalling station. Sure enough, the village security level had been increased, and there was an additional 'curfew in effect' lamp burning. There was an 'in pursuit of suspect' signal, but none of the lights that indicated who was in charge of the operation, or who to defer to if you became caught up in it.

"Anbu," Shikamaru murmured behind me, fighting a yawn. "Go back to sleep."

I made an agreeable sound, leaning on the window frame. _Want to remind me how safe the village is?_ I didn't say.

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><p>.<p>

There was a knock on the door while we were still eating breakfast. I could tell it was Sasuke – I'd felt his chakra come – and wondered if it were too much to hope that he was just stopping by for food.

It was.

"Mission," he said curtly, looking far too awake. I wondered if he'd been up for whatever had happened last night.

"Both of us?" Shikamaru asked with a yawn, eyes flicking over to me. "What a drag."

Sasuke shrugged a shoulder. "You have to report to the Hokage. We're supposed to collect the rest of the team."

"How many?" I asked, hurriedly finishing eating so I could go grab my stuff.

"Us, Team Eight, Team Ten and Team Gai," Sasuke replied.

I paused and looked over at him. "All of the Konoha Twelve, huh?" Damn. It must be something big. I was literally only just finished with my medical leave. I hadn't even reported in for a change in status yet.

Shikamaru stood and stretched his arms above his head. "Troublesome," he muttered, clicking his neck to the side. "I guess I better go and see what Hokage-sama wants." He sounded completely unenthusiastic, grabbing his Chunin vest from the hook by the door.

I sighed. "Gimme a second?" I asked, rushing up the stairs to get changed into more mission appropriate gear.

There was no rest for the wicked, around here.


	77. Chapter 76

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: Also many, many thanks to erimies who has very patiently listened to me ramble about DOS for the last couple of months, and been inundated with half-formed ideas. She's just started her own fic 'The Clan of Samsara' with a whole sweep of reincarnates. I really recommend it. XD

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 76

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><p>.<p>

_One may go a long way after one is tired. ~French Proverb_

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><p>.<p>

There were a few conference rooms in the tower big enough to accommodate a group of twelve. Not the kind with a table and chairs, but there was floor space and a pile of seiza cushions to kneel on.

It felt weirdly formal, but this was a mission briefing, so maybe the weirdness was that I was used to them being _in_formal?

The atmosphere in the room was more boisterous than tense, however. There was a bit of wild speculating going around – I wasn't the only one who thought that getting these four teams together was a sign of something big – but no one had any more information, or was willing to share if they did.

"Ah, damn," Kiba moaned at me. "That's the last time I come to you for information."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I only found out this morning, same as you did," I complained back. "How am I supposed to know more?"

"I don't know, but you always do," he said. "Come on, Shino, back me up." He nudged his teammate with a shoulder.

Shino shifted his glasses in a move that seemed to convey mild exasperation. "It is illogical to assume that Shikako would be privy to more information than we are in possession of. Why? Because the rapid assemblage of multiple teams indicates an emergency response."

I smirked at Kiba. "I think that means he's on my side. And it's good to see you again, Shino. It's been a while."

"Yes, it is pleasing to be involved this time," Shino said. And wow, that was a little passive aggressive, wasn't it.

"Hey, you know you were the first one we asked for last time," I said, because being left out of the group sucked. I knew that. "And I, for one, would have really liked you to be there. There was a particular giant spider I would have left all for you."

"Hey," Kiba butted in. "I thought we'd agreed not to mention that." In his jacket, Akamaru made a sad growling noise at me.

"Sorry, Kiba. I'm bad at secrets." We shared a smirk, because the back and forth banter was just so _easy._

"Then I will endeavour to be around in future," Shino said, looking pleased. "In order to protect you from spiders."

It startled an actual laugh out of me. Shino's sense of humour tended to take people by surprise. "Now there's a promise I can accept," I said with amusement. "Careful, Shino. You keep sweet talking like that and you'll have a fan club the size of Sasuke's."

Shikamaru slouched in nearly half an hour later, a sheath of papers held loosely in one hand. "Everyone's here?" he asked rhetorically, running a hand through his hair. "Great."

"Oh, don't sound so enthusiastic!" Ino said irritably. "You better not have been keeping us waiting just so you could dither around-"

Chouji wrapped an arm around her shoulder to stop her from getting up and possibly assaulting our team leader. I would have wondered if Ino was on edge because this was her first mission since her injury, except that was actually fairly normal Shikamaru and Ino interaction.

Beside me, Naruto muffled a snicker.

Shikamaru sighed, and rolled his shoulders back until he looked at least vaguely at attention. "Alright, everyone pay attention. This mission comes direct from the Hokage. It's A-rank, classified, and extremely sensitive."

Several people straightened at the information. Naruto perked up. Even now, the promise of a high ranked mission was like candy to him.

"It have anything to do with those explosions last night?" Kiba asked, guessing what we had all suspected was the reason for this meeting. "Village security went up another level this morning, too."

"Yeah." Shikamaru gave a brief nod in his direction. "Just let me explain. The explosions last night were part of an Anbu operation to bring in a fugitive who had infiltrated the village. He evaded them for a while, but was eventually cornered and refused to surrender, setting off a bunch of explosive notes. He was pronounced dead at the scene."

There was a shift of confusion amidst the teams.

"I do not understand," Lee said. "If the target is dead, then what is our mission?"

"I'm getting to it," Shikamaru said, eyes dropping to his papers for a second. "As far as I know, the Anbu had him under surveillance for about two weeks and the reason that they attempted to bring him in last night was that, last night, he finally made a move. He broke into the construction company headquarters and made off with a bunch of important blueprints."

_Oh, shit._

I wasn't the only one that seemed to be thinking that.

"I don't get it," Naruto said, looking around at the rest of us. "What's so important about a bunch of blueprints?" He frowned, turning slightly towards me and Sasuke, but it was Neji who answered him.

"If Konoha's enemies got their hands on those blueprints, it could be disastrous," Neji said, and he didn't sound at all put out about having to explain something that should have been obvious. "Once they have a detailed analysis of the structures within the village, it would be a simple matter to find the most efficient way to break in or cause harm."

Realisation stole across Naruto's face. "Oh, yeah. That would be bad," he agreed.

"The Anbu searched the blast site," Shikamaru continued. "But they concluded he was unlikely to have been in possession of the plans at the time. Which is where we come in."

"Can we be certain that the blueprints are still within Konoha?" Shino asked quietly. "Because the most logical conclusion is to assume that the reason the infiltrator was not in possession of the plans is because they have already been delivered."

"No," Shikamaru said seriously. "We can't. We can only hope that the plans aren't already in the hands of our enemies."

That was sobering. The last thing Konoha needed right now was a gigantic hole in our defences. If Hidden Cloud were serious about attacking us, then that would be an opportunity that they simply wouldn't be able to pass up. We would have an invasion on our door step in weeks.

I'd never known anything about another invasion, but after Gelel, I was reluctant to assume that meant anything at all. I didn't – desperately _did not_ – want to be wrong.

"Additionally," Shikamaru continued. "This guy has a reputation for setting some pretty nasty traps, so we're likely to run into some during this mission. Keep your eyes open."

"Understood," Ino nodded firmly. "Just tell us where to start looking."

"We'll start by heading to the construction HQ," Shikamaru said. "They've put together a list of plans that are missing, so we know what to look for." He handed out the pages that he was carrying. "This is the dossier for the guy. He came into the village a few months ago, in the guise of a carpenter."

"No!" Naruto protested loudly, shooting to his feet. The dossier page was clutched crumpled in his hand. "This has to be wrong."

I shared a glance with Sasuke, then grabbed one of the pages myself. At first glance, I couldn't see anything wrong. The photo was nigglingly familiar for a few moments, before I managed to place it.

"The old man from the ramen stand," I said with resignation. "You know him, Naruto?" Of course he did. That was another layer of complication to a mission that didn't look simple to start with.

Naruto nodded vigorously. "Old man Genno doesn't have a mean bone in his body!" He said. "There's no _way_ he's some kind of imposter ninja."

There were other people trading glances too. They did not seem overly supportive.

"Maybe that's what he wanted you to think," Kiba said with a snort. "Sure looks like it."

Naruto glared. "No. I knew him, okay?"

"Maybe you didn't," Sasuke said quietly. "Sometimes you don't." He wasn't looking at either Naruto or the information page, and the comment wasn't even that loud.

I sucked in a breath, the words I was going to say getting caught in my throat. I could see so much meaning behind those words.

_Sasuke, are you-_

"I _did,"_ Naruto insisted, steamrolling right over the protests with sheer bullheadedness. "And I'm saying that he wouldn't do something like this. There's a mistake."

Shikamaru sighed. "Come on, Naruto. He might have seemed harmless, but it was an act. He wanted us to let our guards down. And it worked."

Naruto clenched his jaw, ready to burst into another round of protests. I could see the divisions in the room forming, of people siding against him. Hinata was nervously twisting her fingers, glancing between Naruto and her team. I could see she _wanted_ to believe him, but wasn't convinced of the logic of it. Lee, maybe, could be swayed by Naruto's sheer conviction, but Neji looked surprisingly thoughtful too.

"Either way," I said, hastily, because we didn't want to start this mission a team divided. "We have to investigate this. If you're right, then we should find some information to exonerate him and prove that he wasn't involved, right?"

We didn't need to be all on the same page about why we were looking, as long as we kept looking. Maybe it was even better to have a doubter involved, so we didn't interpret information in the light that we wanted to. That was a problem when you had your conclusion long before you found supporting evidence – you tended to try and shove puzzle pieces together to make them fit the picture you wanted.

"Or find he _did_," Kiba muttered.

I hoped someone stood on his foot. I was too far away to do it myself.

Naruto held my gaze for a long second. I tried to look as calm and as serious and thoughtful as I could – it felt like sinking into mission mode, like gearing up for a fight.

"You're right," he agreed, almost grudgingly, before throwing himself into it. "Let's go and find out what _really_ happened!"

Personally… I wasn't sure where I stood on the matter. On one hand, I didn't want Naruto to be wrong. On the other… well. It looked pretty likely.

I trusted Naruto but he wasn't exactly known for being observant.

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><p>.<p>

"I can't tell you how ashamed I am that we did not guard those blueprints properly," the foreman of the construction company repeated for probably the third time. "I can never face Tsunade-sama again."

The construction foreman seemed very like a normally stable man reduced to a state of flustered shock. Given what had happened and how badly it was likely to reflect on him and his company, it was understandable. Also, it was highly likely that we weren't the first ninja to knocking on his door today – and I suspected that the others had been Anbu. That would make anyone flustered.

But, it wasn't actually our job to pass judgement on any of that. We were just here to _find_ the missing blueprints.

"I need you to tell us everything that you know about Genno," Shikamaru said. "Where he came from, what he was doing here, everything."

"Well," the foreman said. "He came to the village about three months ago, with a letter of recommendation from a master carpenter in the Land of Wind. I'm sure you're aware that there's a bit of a construction boom in Konoha at the moment; every local carpenter has all the work he can handle. We desperately needed more skilled hands, so we took him on. He was an adequate carpenter. Nothing special. I didn't see any reason to offer him a permanent position, but like I said, we needed all the hands we could get. He took his job seriously, showed up on time, always did as he was told. After he was here for some time, I discovered that the letter he'd given me was a fake. I don't know if it'll do any good, but here it is."

Not exactly good news, but not unexpected either. We already knew he was an infiltrator.

"How'd you know it was a fake?" Naruto asked, puzzled, as Shikamaru looked over the offered letter.

"I was going over my records, and I found another record from the same carpenter. When I compared the two, I found that the handwriting didn't match." He shuffled through his papers, and frowned. "That's odd. I can't find it. To be honest," he admitted. "We didn't really care that the letter was a fake as long as he kept his nose out of trouble and did his work. Now I realise that that was a mistake. I never considered that the old man could be a shinobi."

And that, right there, was the number one problem with any security system. The weakest point was always, _always_ the people involved. They'd let something slide, because it didn't seem important and then bam. Trouble.

"Do you have a list of the missing blueprints?" Shikamaru asked, moving away from that line of questioning. "Which of these sites did Genno work on?"

"None of them," the foreman said. "The structures on that list involve the safety of the village. An outside contractor would never be allowed to work on something so important, even if we are so shorthanded."

That at least was security conscious. Didn't make up for what had happened, but hopefully reduced the risk quite a bit.

Shikamaru sighed. "We still need to check these over and make sure he didn't slip inside to set traps anywhere or sabotage the construction. Neji, Hinata; we'll need your Byakugan for that. Take …" his eyes scanned over the group, selecting and discarding options, "Lee and Tenten with you."

Both Hyuuga gave curt, professional nods, and took half the list each.

"Yosh," Lee said, bouncing to his feet. "Hinata and I shall finish our half before you and Tenten, or I shall do five hundred chin ups!" He pointed a finger at Neji.

Neji ignored him. "Do not over exert yourself, Hinata-sama. Don't rush or … allow yourself to be rushed." The statement could have seemed harsh, especially given what I knew about their relationship, but it seemed more like well intentioned advice than censure.

"I will be thorough," she said quietly but with certainty.

Neji left the hall, Tenten shadowing him on his right.

Hinata stood gracefully and bowed slightly to the rest of us. "Lee," she said softly. "We should hurry if we want to finish before Neji-niisan."

Lee might have actually swept her off her feet in his rush to get going, but all I saw was a blur of green, so I couldn't actually say.

"Also, there's a chance that Genno was able to hide the plans before the Anbu cornered him," Shikamaru said, glancing towards Kiba and Shino.

Kiba smirked. "And you want us to think like thieves and figure out where, right? No problem, leave it to us. I'll have all his hiding places sniffed out before it's time for lunch."

"Alright. And Sasuke. I need you to liaise with the village patrols to see if you can work out what happened last night. No doubt the Anbu have already covered that angle, but it can't hurt." He cracked his neck. "Ino, you need to talk to the Hospital and see if they've learnt anything from the body."

Both of those were good choices – Sasuke had been working with the patrols recently, so he'd know who to talk to, and either Ino or I would be mostly likely to understand what the hell the medics were talking about.

"Shikako, I want you to go over the records here. Maybe see if you can find that other letter. Or whatever."

I nodded, wondered if Shikamaru was giving me the easiest, safest assignment and was abruptly angry with myself for even thinking that. He'd given everyone tasks they were suited to, and I couldn't argue that this wasn't well within my abilities. Who else was going to do it, Naruto?

Whatever was going on between us, whatever we were arguing about – this was a line I didn't want to cross. I wasn't going to bring this kind of ill feeling into a mission. I wasn't going to doubt legitimate orders just because I wasn't happy with the person giving them.

And it was Shikamaru. I still trusted him. I still thought he would have the best plan for dealing with all of this. How could I not?

"Naruto, Chouji and I will go and investigate his lodgings and talk to his co-workers. See if we can learn anything."

Everyone moved out.

I turned to the foreman, feeling calm and settled. I was on a mission. I knew what I had to do. "Do you have a record of Genno's work history? A list of the sites he was working on?"

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><p>.<p>

"That's not a face that tells me you have good news."

I held up a hand, forcing Shikamaru to wait while I finished making notes. My hand was starting to cramp, and the entire page was filled with a list of tiny writing. "That's because," I said. "I really don't have good news."

He sighed. "We're updating the Hokage in five. Neji and Hinata are done, and Kiba and Shino admit that they're stumped."

I nodded, standing and stretching. "Find anything?"

He shook his head. "'suppose it's something," he said, hands in his pockets. "We didn't actually _want_ the Hyuuga to find things."

It meant that Genno hadn't left any traps behind. Or, more pessimistically, he hadn't left them anywhere we could find.

Tsunade was waiting for us when we got to the tower, and we filed into her office. It was a little crowded, but we spread out in an arc around her desk.

"We conducted a background sweep on this guy, his place of residence and recent known locales," Shikamaru began without preamble. "The fact is he was remarkably unremarkable. He was an average carpenter; did his work, never stood out and never made any big mistakes. He didn't have any friends but didn't have any enemies either. He was the kind of person that if he disappeared one day, no one would miss him. He could just … fade away. His undercover technique was so good it ought to be in the shinobi textbooks."

I winced. That was not a promising opening.

"The only person who seemed to think he was something special was Naruto." Shikamaru jerked a thumb in his direction. "His apartment was empty, he wasn't involved in any clubs or groups, and the only places he ever seemed to go was out to eat. His entire stay here is a carefully constructed dead end."

"We also agree with that statement," Shino said. "Why? Because even Kiba and I were not able to find any trail more recent than twenty four hours old. Unless he maintained a frequently visited hideout inside Konoha, we are unlikely to be able to retrace his last steps."

"Yeah," Kiba agreed, frowning. "I can find you every place he visited in the past week, but sometime yesterday the trail just stops cold. I don't know what kind of scent blocking technique he used, but it's good. I couldn't even find the scent of things he was wearing and carrying. Usually people pick up the scent of things they interact with and you can track those for a bit, but I got nothing."

Tsunade nodded, but looked a little grim. Fair enough, those were the two best ways to go about finding an imposter and both had turned up nothing.

"In contrast," Neji said. "I can report that the structures that Hinata-sama and I examined were not trapped or tampered with in any way." Beside him, Tenten sighed in apparent relief, though she clearly already knew that.

"I've got a general timeline of events from the on duty guards and patrol units," Sasuke said. "Between the initial alert, and the explosion detonating, there's a gap of two and a half hours, which is when we presume Genno hid or exchanged the plans."

I made eye contact with Ino, asking if she wanted to go first or I should. She looked reluctant, and tilted her head slightly to the side.

_Me, then._

I took a deep breath. "Bad news," I said, apologetically. "Those blueprints aren't the only items missing."

There were several hissed breaths.

"The letter that the foreman mentioned is gone, as well as a variety of other plans and documents. Nothing as crucial as the blueprints, of course, but some of its still sensitive information. There's a whole sweep – accounts, supply order forms, employee records, a copy of Konoha's building codes… it's all very random. I suspect that it's mostly a smokescreen to hide a few specific documents, but what they are, I can't tell."

I held out the pad with all my notes on it.

"I cross referenced with all the jobs that Genno was known to have worked on, or people he was known to have worked with. There are a few hits, including the Academy upgrades and for lack of a better option, I'd suggest starting there."

Tsunade took the pad and skimmed it closely. There were a lot of documents. Mostly it just seemed like Genno had grabbed handfuls of things at random, which was why I assumed it was a cover for whatever it was he didn't want us to know he was after.

"I have worse news," Ino said, holding out a hospital report. "The body that the Anbu brought in… isn't Genno."

And I thought that _I_ had dropped a bomb. No wonder Ino looked reluctant.

"It was badly burnt," she said. "But initial autopsy is consistent with a man of between ages twenty five to thirty, not sixty to seventy, who lived a life of low physical exertion. So not a labourer or shinobi, in other words. Also, he was most likely to have been dead in excess of twenty four hours before he was brought in. So he would have died before the explosion anyway."

"So he's still alive?!" Naruto exclaimed, sounding less distressed than probably everyone else in the room was feeling.

"The Anbu didn't notice that?" Kiba asked. "Seems like a hard thing to sneak past them."

"They would have been a fair distance away to avoid the explosion," Tenten said. "So there was probably a short period of time where Genno was able to make a switch. But that means…"

"It was a trap," I finished. Of course it was. If this guy was good enough to lose the Anbu in the middle of a chase, then he could easily have drawn them to a predetermined location rigged with the things he needed.

"It did seem strange that a guy that good would be caught by the Anbu in the first place," Shikamaru acknowledged. "So that means our mission is even more time sensitive. He could be retrieving those plans right now."

So even if they weren't in the hands of the enemy, they could be very, very shortly.

"The perimeter guards are still on high alert," Tsunade said. "But I'll raise it another level. No one gets in or out without inspection. If those plans are still inside the village, they won't be able to get out."

It was a big if, and we knew it. But if we couldn't track him inside Konoha, how the hell were we going to track him outside it? He could have gone anywhere.

"Alright," Shikamaru decided. "Team Eight, Team Ten, you're with me. We'll go and check out the explosion site, see if there are any clues as to how he pulled this off. The rest of you will start on Shikako's list."

We filed out of Tsunade's office. I noticed that Shikamaru hadn't specified who was in charge of our team, which technically meant Naruto was – being the only Chunin in the group. But Naruto was slightly… emotionally compromised.

I met Sasuke's eyes. This could be awkward. Just our team, and we'd work together the same way we usually did. But the addition of Team Gai made things different.

"The Academy is probably the priority," I said softly, working to present the information in such a way that everyone would agree on a tactic. "Not only is it a site that Genno actually worked on, the repair list and specifications that are missing are only slightly less sensitive than a full blueprint. And… it's the Academy." I gave a helpless shrug. According to the foreman's security protocols, Genno really shouldn't have been working on it. He had only been included in minor repairs of training halls, and only because they were busy and he had never caused any trouble.

Still.

It was the Academy. All those kids…

"I agree," Neji said. "An attack upon the Academy could be devastating. And given the volume of people that pass through it every day, any traps are almost certain to be triggered accidentally. It would be prudent to eliminate such a possibility before spreading our attention."

We exited the tower and turned to head towards the Academy. We were walking quickly, but not running. At this point, it would only needlessly tire us with no benefit.

"Hyuuga has a point," Sasuke said grudgingly. It wasn't completely hostile, but it was close.

I bumped his shoulder with mine in remonstration. I was about to continue with a vague outline of a plan, when someone shouting Naruto's name caught our attention.

"Ehe, I'm on a mission right now, Ayame-nee," Naruto said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I can't come and eat right now." He looked longingly at the restaurant.

The Ichiraku waitress ducked out of the stall. "Oh, is that so?" She said. "Okay then. We'll look after the note that Genno left you until you're finished."

I blinked.

"Eh?" Naruto asked, surprised. "He left me a note?"

"Yesterday," she confirmed. "After you left. He said it was part of your surprise! I was a little worried that you weren't going to come by today and see it. You seemed so excited about it yesterday." Her face crinkled into a happy smile.

She had no idea the kind of news that she was bearing, or the importance of it.

"Take it," Sasuke directed after a momentary pause. "We can spare five minutes." It was a bit of a weak redirect for how intensely focused we all were in this conversation, but Ayame didn't appear to notice.

"I don't believe it," Tenten hissed as Naruto went into the stall to get it. "A _note?_ What kind of trap is this?"

"We'll have to see," I said, reluctantly. Because there was no way that Naruto _wasn't_ going to try and see whatever the note was about. What had Genno said yesterday? Why hadn't I been paying more attention? Something about a treasure hunt? No, hadn't Naruto said that?

It probably looked really strange for six ninja to be huddling over a piece of paper in the middle of a street, but then again, this was Konoha. It probably wasn't that strange.

**It's time to start your search for treasure! **

**The hunt begins at your leisure.**

**Be quick of mind and sharp of eyes,**

**And answer the riddles to find your prize.**

**Find the next clue near deep water,**

**Man walks over, man walks under, **

**Footsteps echo with a clatter, **

**in times of war it burns asunder**

Really.

No. Really.

I wasn't the only one that looked completely baffled.

"Eh?" Naruto asked. "What does it mean?"

"It's a trap," Tenten repeated. "He's trying to lure you somewhere."

"I told you," Naruto said mulishly, jaw setting with stubbornness. "Genno is my friend. He wouldn't do this. This whole thing is a big misunderstanding.

I bit my lip and considered our options. As far as leads went this was probably the best we had. Yes, it was probably a trap but…

"The easiest way to find out would be to spring the trap," I pointed out. "Follow the riddles to the final location. It's risky, but…"

It was risky. To spring a trap without getting caught in it was tricky at the best of times. If Genno was a trap master, then he would also know how to deal with people who thought they could get around his traps.

"Yes!" Lee agreed enthusiastically. "This is a splendid plan. I shall go with Naruto, and we will be prepared for any surprises me might encounter along the way."

"No," Sasuke said cutting him off. I thought he was vetoing the whole plan, but he continued. "Tenten and I will go with him. You three continue on to the Academy."

That… yeah, that was a better combination of people. Lee and Naruto together would just play off each other and get more and more energised. Sasuke and Tenten had better heads on their shoulders.

Maybe we could have split up into Team 7 and Team Gai, but I had been the one to find all the missing documents, so I was the one who knew the most about that arm of our mission. Even if I was a little disappointed to be missing out on the more interesting part. Really. Riddles.

"Alright," I agreed. "Good luck."

"Finally!" Naruto exclaimed. "… so what's the answer to the riddle?"

"A bridge," I said, maybe a little impatient. That still left a lot of locations. Although… "Did you tell Genno about our training grounds?" Because there was a little red bridge there that we met on, sometimes. It was a personalised location, and reasonably isolated. If no one was specifically looking for it, chances were anything there wouldn't have been seen yet. "Otherwise probably one of the main Nakano crossings."

"Yeah, a bit," Naruto agreed. "Let's go check it out."

Lee looked a little disappointed, but not particularly upset about being turned down, or that Sasuke had just taken charge. That was good.

"Do you know which parts of the Academy Genno was working on?" Neji asked as we started walking again. "It will be helpful to know where to focus."

"Unfortunately no," I said, because he was right. If he had to go over things inch-by-inch, then having target locations would help. And it would be mostly Neji doing it. The Byakugan was invaluable here. "All those documents were missing. I'm hoping that the Academy records will have a copy, or at least specifics of what was repaired so we can narrow it down."

Unfortunately for us, the Academy office was staffed by a single middle aged Genin with a broken arm, who fully admitted he had been there all of a week and had no idea where any such records were kept. We could look ourselves, but without some kind of clue, we had no idea where to start either.

It would take more time to try and locate a specific file, than it would to simply begin our search. We could look for the paper later, if we still needed it then.

We started on the roof and worked our way downwards. Lee and I did physical sweeps while Neji activated his Byakugan and scanned everything that way. I wondered if he was starting to get tired – he'd clearly been using it all day to check the last list of construction sites – but he was probably well aware of his own limits.

We got as far down as Training Hall B – the same one that Lee and Sasuke had used to fight before the Chunin Exams – before we spotted anything strange.

"That's new," I said, referring to the wooden target post dominating one wall.

It was also slightly unusual. Training logs like that normally went outside, where stray kunai wouldn't damage the walls, and you had more room to move freely around it. An inside post might be good for when the weather was nasty, but a single one wouldn't do much for a class of thirty.

It seemed a little strange.

I dropped down off the balcony to inspect it closer. It had a circular target painted on it, but didn't actually seem to be different from any other training log I'd ever seen.

"Wait! Don't touch it!" Neji ordered sharply, staring at it with his Byakugan.

I stepped back. "Have you found something?"

"Yes," he said grimly. "It has an explosive note beneath it."

"That," I said. "Is not good." Still… beneath it? That was odd. "Is it pressure activated? Or…"

"The bulls eye of the target is the trigger, I believe," Neji said. "But there is another fuse leading away from it. I think…"

"What is it, Neji?" Lee asked, confused, after his teammate faded into silence.

Neji was looking for something, that much was clear. It was a little creepy, actually, how his irises were moving but you could _tell_ that he wasn't looking in the direction he seemed to be looking in. Three sixty degree vision was undoubtedly handy, but… it was weird.

"There are at least four more explosive notes within the exterior walls of the Academy," Neji confirmed. "And there are more fuses leading out of my range. They're all connected to the same trigger."

I ran a hand through my hair. Oh, that was not good. That could _flatten_ the Academy. And, you know, the Academy? Was full of people. Kids.

Shit. What were we going to do? I could feel the creeping of panic starting to set in. The situation had been serious before this, but it hadn't been so immediate. Missing blueprints were a long term problem. This could be bad, _right now._

"Someone needs to inform the Hokage," I decided. "I'll go. Maybe Lee could find Shikamaru and tell him what we've found?"

Neji nodded. "I will locate the rest of the explosives."

I jumped away and made a beeline for the Hokage's office.

Tsunade-sama took the new information in stride, which was incredibly relieving. There was something to be said for operating inside the village and being able to get orders quickly.

"Issue an order to evacuate," she said, quickly writing down a proclamation and stamping it. "Get the kids out, and then we can send in some experienced trap breakers to clear the tags out. Don't try and remove them on your own, but keep an eye on the trigger. Get both Hyuuga working out where any more tags might be."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," I said, taking the scroll quickly.

I jumped back to the Academy, glad it wasn't far away, and found Neji standing outside, near the road. He didn't look happy.

"No good news?" I guessed.

"No," he agreed. "It appears that the fuse branches in several directions, leading out into the village."

I pursed my lips and considered. "Well, Hinata will be here soon, so we can get the two of you following that. Do you have an estimate of how many there are?"

"I have seen the fuse branch six times. That would be the minimum. If it continues to branch further, as I suspect, then there could be dozens," Neji said. "Hundreds, even."

And wasn't that a terrifying thought. Even worse than knowing what was behind us.

"Let's not borrow trouble just yet," I said. "I'll get the evacuation started." I hesitated, an idea springing on me. "Are there any Hyuuga currently at the Academy?" It wasn't totally unprecedented to drag more ninja into a mission as the situation called for it, and I figured this probably called for it.

I could see Neji following my train of thought. "Yes, several of them. Hanabi would be capable of assisting us. Sumiko, as well. The others might not have the focus necessary to identify the hidden notes."

"Okay, I'll see if I can pull them out of class to help." It wasn't exactly one hundred percent fantastic to get Academy students messed up in this – and I knew Hanabi was only Konohamaru's age – but at the same time, the Byakugan was our best bet at finding these things, and who knew how many actual ninja Hyuuga were in the village.

We designated the Training Hall as our meeting place so we could keep an eye on the trigger and I headed inside to start the evacuation process.

It might not have technically have been to procedure, but the first room I knocked on was Iruka-sensei's.

"Shikako," he said, blinking at me in surprise. "Can I help you?"

"Sorry to interrupt," I said, smiling as blandly as I could. "I need to borrow Hanabi Hyuuga for the day. Also, I have a message from the Hokage."

Iruka-sensei took the scroll and read it. Then his eyes jumped to mine, faintly alarmed.

I doggedly held that bland smile in place. Nothing to see here folks. No reason to panic.

Iruka-sensei knew damn well that 'random' evacuations of the Academy didn't really just happen. At the same time, he also knew that freaking the students out was not going to benefit anyway.

"Alright, kids," he said, giving me back the notice. "We have an evacuation drill. Everyone pack up your things. Hanabi, you're excused. Please go with Shikako."

I waited until she had efficiently tucked her books and pens away, and came down to meet me.

"Go to Training Hall B," I said. "Neji will be there to give you further instructions."

I repeated the process to get Sumiko, who was a branch house member that was thankfully in the graduating class so I didn't have to worry about dragging _two_ little kids into this mess. Okay, she was still eleven, but it was closer.

Then I raced around and presented the evacuation orders to the rest of the classrooms.

By the time I got back to the training hall, the Academy was rife with the low murmur of people moving. It sounded steady and practiced, and I knew that it was well drilled into them. We'd done evacuation drills at least once a term, and these kids would have already taken part in a _real_ evacuation during the Exams.

Lee had returned with Team Eight and Team Ten, and I dropped from the balcony to land lightly beside Ino.

"Progress?" I asked quietly.

She shook her head. "We found how he escaped and fooled the Anbu, but that's about it."

I kinda wanted to know the explanation behind that, but I could wait till later, it if wasn't crucial.

Neji had clearly filled Shikamaru in on the developments from our half of the team. He looked grim.

"Locating these exploding tags is clearly important, but we can't forget that Genno is still out there with all of the papers. If we operate on the assumption that Genno was the one to plant all the tags, then there _might_ be clues. At this stage, we really need that kind of lucky break." He looked over the group. "Shino, go with Sumiko. Kiba, with Hanabi. Ino and Lee can go with Hinata and Neji. Be thorough, but try not to attract too much attention; we don't know if he's watching us. We don't want him getting the bright idea to set these tags off anyway."

He'd put our better trackers with the younger Hyuuga, clearly in hopes that they'd pick up anything that the pre-Genin missed. Unfortunately, that left the best remaining trackers as Ino and _me._ Not great.

Everyone accepted their assignments with firm nods.

"I did not mention this before," Neji said. "But underneath the training post, there is more than an explosive note. There is also a scroll. I do not know what it says, but it could be important."

Shikamaru sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Great. We'll work out how to get that out too."

"Do we have any leads?" I asked, as they filed out, leaving Shikamaru, Chouji and I behind. Chouji was snacking away on a bag of chips, and I took an offered handful because yes, it was getting late and I was hungry.

Shikamaru shook his head. "Not unless Naruto's team finds something." He huffed in exasperation. "Was it really the best plan to send them?"

I shrugged. "Not the worst," I said. "And Naruto is pretty damn stubborn when he wants to do something. I could have cajoled him, but the instant we hit another roadblock like this? He would have switched right back to wanting to go."

At least this way Sasuke could direct him a little. The two of them would bicker like anything, but they'd work together. And as far as 'spring the trap' teams went, well, Naruto was unpredictable. Not so observant, but that was what Sasuke was for.

"Do you think it's strange?" I asked, frowning at the training log.

Shikamaru glanced at me sideways. "The trigger?" he clarified.

"Yeah," I agreed. The fact that he'd pointed out the exact thing I was thinking meant we were on the same track. "It's so… haphazard. Someone has to hit the bulls eye to set it off. It would be totally random as to when that would occur. It might not happen for weeks. It might happen right away. It's a weird thing to leave to chance like that."

"Maybe he left instructions for someone to set it off?" Chouji volunteered. "After he was gone and everything."

"Maybe," I said, doubtfully. Then paused. Reconsidered. "Neji said there was a scroll under there." If Genno had set Naruto up to trigger the trap…

That was so far beyond awful that I couldn't even wrap my mind around it.

"You think…" Shikamaru trailed off. "Troublesome. Okay, let's get it out."

It was a little nerve wracking to try and disarm the trap. We didn't really disable it entirely – I didn't know if there were backups or fail safes and I didn't want to find out by setting them off – just raised it off the base high enough for Shikamaru to slip a Shadow Stitching tendril in and hook out the scroll.

Without touching the explosive note that was also in there.

"Troublesome," he repeated.

I unrolled the scroll on the floor.

**Can weather even the mightiest blow,**

**And will crumble only to river flow?**

I sat back. "That's… short." And much less helpful than the clue that Naruto had picked up at Ichiraku.

The answer was stone, clearly. Strong, but eroded by water? But which stone and where? I flipped the paper over, half hoping there was more written on the back, but there wasn't.

"At least we know it was definitely Genno," Shikamaru said, leaning back.

"We weren't really doubting that," I countered, frustrated.

Maybe if Sasuke and Naruto followed the trail here, then they would have more clues.

Instead we marked out a floor plan of the Academy and drew in the locations Neji had indicated the tags were for the trap removers. Then I went to the office to start looking for the Academy copy of the records. At this stage, it probably didn't help us much, given that we'd _found_ the traps, but at least we'd have a copy for the records if we didn't manage to get the plans back.

When I felt Naruto getting close, I regrouped in the Training Hall. The log had been removed; clearly disabled. If I concentrated, I could feel two people moving around the outside of the Academy – that had to be the team Tsunade had sent. They even seemed familiar…

_Koharu and Homura?_ My eyebrows shot up. But I supposed that you couldn't doubt their skill. As far as finding people on short notice to do extremely complicated work went, that was a neat solution.

But it was also no wonder that Shikamaru looked slightly cranky.

They were not his favourite people.

"No way!" Naruto exclaimed. "You guys beat us here."

"Idiot," Sasuke grunted. "You knew they were coming here. _We_ were supposed to come here."

"Not Shikamaru," Naruto retorted, and okay, he was kinda right. "Hey, where is everyone else?"

"Out looking," Shikamaru said. "Tell me what you found."

Tenten groaned. "Riddles and more riddles. Not a single trap, either."

"Yeah, there were lots of super hard riddles," Naruto exclaimed, waving his hands and dropping a whole bunch of scrolls on the ground. "But we got them, and hey, one was even in my apartment and that wasn't there this morning because I totally would have seen that."

Sasuke interrupted him. "The last riddle is in three sections," he said, crouching to lay two scrolls flat on the ground. "The last one is here at the Academy somewhere."

Mutely, I retrieved the scroll we'd found. That made sense, if it was part of a set. On its own, it wasn't very descriptive.

**Find the truth in parts of three,**

**Here, your home, the Academy,**

**Find them all and find the plans, **

**They'll be safe when in your hands**

**What has roots that no one sees,**

**touches sky and kisses breeze,**

**Upon its side has faces five**

**But does not grow, is not alive**

**Can weather even the mightiest blow,**

**And will crumble only to river flow?**

"We were pretty sure that it was referring to the mountain, even without the last part," Sasuke said. "But we figured that we – Shikako?"

I felt all the blood drain from my face. "We evacuated the kids to the mountain," I said hoarsely, looking up to meet his eyes.


	78. Chapter 77

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: And that makes DOS three years old today, from its first posting on FFNet. Scary thought, isn't it?

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 77

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><p>.<p>

_When we were young and brave  
>We fought to save the one thing that we loved<br>We took a sacred vow  
>And signed our names in blood<em>

_And through it all, we kept on shining_  
><em>We fought the doubt and faced the pain<em>  
><em>We built it up from dust and ashes<em>  
><em>To cheat the odds and rise again<em>

_~Lynyrd Skynyrd; Through It All_

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><p>.<p>

I flew out the doors of the training hall.

There was shouting behind me, but I ignored it, dropping my training weight seals, and leaping upwards. I hit the side of the Academy, bounced to the roof, angled myself towards the mountain and _pulled._

The world around me hazed with the lines of body flicker, and I dropped out of it in full sprint.

One step. Two.

And Sasuke was beside me with the whooshing of air that suggested he'd used a body flicker of his own.

"Slow down," he said lowly. "They can't keep up."

I grimaced, aware that Naruto couldn't match either of us for speed. Yet my feet didn't slow.

We had evacuated the kids to the mountain. We'd sent them there. And it wasn't safe at all.

One step. Two. My toes brushed the edge of the roof and I _pulled_, open air the only thing beneath me as I barrelled, uncontrolled, to the mountain.

I felt… compelled. Driven. We had to fix this before it became a disaster.

"Hey wait up!" Naruto's voice drifted faintly after us. "Ah! Summoning Jutsu!"

He sailed over our heads, riding on the back of a toad bigger than he was.

"Or that works," Sasuke conceded, matching me stride for stride. We hit the stairs, taking them four-five at a time, flying more than we were running.

Naruto was waiting for us, sliding off the back of his ride and peering into the dark tunnels of the mountain.

"Which way do we go?" He asked, an anxious curl twisting the corners of his eyes.

"Send out clones," I said. My breathing was a little too harsh, I'd pushed too hard. It didn't matter. "Lots of them. Tell the teachers that the evacuation drill is over."

They could probably return to the Academy if the tags had been deactivated. Better than telling them to go elsewhere and finding that that was just as dangerous.

"Start a branching search pattern," Sasuke added, hard on the heels of my comment. "Split a new clone at every intersection. We need to find Genno."

Naruto nodded, face set with concentration, and clapped his hands together. Orange spilled into the mountain, each and every face just as determined.

I could still feel the clock ticking.

_If he knew- if he knew we knew- how long do we have- if he knows-_

I closed my eyes, ignoring the pounding of my heart and whirling of my mind and tried to _feel._ Where was he?

There were too many-

I couldn't-

Naruto was like a river of light, blanking out everything around him. There was the low humming of a hundred children, all packed together. There was the village behind us, the familiar shapes of Shikamaru and Chouji almost out of reach. There were blurry smudges in the mountain, and oh, of _course_ there were defences against sensors.

The muscles in my neck bunched and strained with tension. I wanted to shout. I wanted to stamp my feet.

I _couldn't find him._

"The weakest points are going to be the places that people have to access frequently," Sasuke said bluntly, staring at the mountain with steely eyes. "Archive Library. The main entrances. The-"

"The construction," I said, words spilling out before I'd consciously put the information together. It seemed like my brain was being cut out of the decision making process, left quivering in the corner like the useless lump of flesh it was. I turned sideways and stared up at the half completed face of the Fifth Hokage. My lips pulled back over my teeth, annoyance at missing the _blinding fucking obvious._

We dashed up the side of the mountain, feet sticking easily to the rock. Sasuke took point, eyes spinning Sharingan red to search for traps. There was nothing, and we landed lightly on the scaffolds set up around the sculpture.

"Where's the entrance?" Naruto asked, bouncing around the small working area. The wooden planks bounced underfoot as he went. "There has to be one, right?"

There was, probably. Somewhere for the workers to get out here, if they weren't ninja. Somewhere to store tools, to take a break.

I pressed my hand flat against the stone. It was hard and gritty, rough beneath my palms.

Everything I could sense was blurry, like looking through a frosted glass door. But less so here than it had been further along the path, rough and unfinished. The construction did nothing for the security of the things behind it. It wasn't much, but it was the difference between being able to tell 'someone' from 'nothing'…

"We've got an entrance," I said, and held my hands out towards the two of them.

We didn't have time to waste.

Sasuke hesitated a half beat of a second, eyes searching mine for assurance that I _could_ do this. Then he stepped in close, arm wrapping like a steel band around my waist. I pulled Naruto in close and _slammed_ us into the rock.

It was like fighting – an end and goal in sight and knowledge of how to get there, but needing the strength and will to do it. The stone was hard and unyielding, bitter and rough, clamping down around me when I needed it to give. It was a struggle. Not only was the stone so hard and difficult to move through, I was trying to drag two extra people with me. I'd never done that before.

By the time we surged out the other side, my lungs were working like bellows, trying to draw in oxygen. I was dizzy and sweating. My chakra levels had once again dropped to an almost alarming low.

_Fast, yes. Efficient, not really._ And the Earth Walking jutsu probably didn't do anything good for the integrity of the rock. Well, whatever. We were inside now.

"Genno!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing at the man waiting for us.

He spun around. "Ah, Konoha's number one most unpredictable ninja indeed! I led you here every step of the way, yet you still surprised me by finding another entrance." He eyed the wall behind us, which didn't, in any way imaginable, qualify as an 'entrance'.

Sasuke shifted his grip on me, lowering me so I could kneel instead of letting me simply collapse.

I wasn't done, not by a long shot, not really. But we didn't lose anything by letting Genno think I was. I tucked my chin close to my chest, peering at him only from beneath the fringe of my hair.

"Old man, you've gotta tell me that this is all a bit mistake," Naruto pleaded. "You didn't take those blueprints or set all those traps, right?"

I surreptitiously glanced around the room – cave? It was all hewn stone, did that count? – and made note of what I could see. There was a tripline trap on the entrance, a set of scattered tool boxes and a battered old trunk sealed with three explosive notes near the outer wall. There was a suspicious looking depression on the ground about a meter in front of Genno, like stone had been carved away. Maybe some kind of pressure activated trap, or maybe there was something buried there.

_Be careful, be careful._ We'd sprung the trap. Now we needed to survive it.

"Oho, so you found all my traps as well, did you?" Genno smiled. "You've surprised me again."

Naruto looked devastated.

"But why?" he demanded.

"I suppose you've never heard of the Kagero Village," Genno said thoughtfully.

My shadow was starting to creep along the walls. I didn't have the chakra to stretch it far, or hold it for long, but if he was distracted, then maybe he wouldn't notice it and I would be able to connect.

"I have, actually," I said, voice rough. "It was a small town in the Land of Mountains. It wasn't a Hidden Village, but it was home to at least one clan of shinobi and was considered close to one. It was destroyed sometime during the Second War."

Those kind of mid-way villages didn't really exist anymore. There were clans out there, certainly, ones that had decided against joining a Hidden Village, though even those were a dying breed. But as far as villages went, you were either a Hidden Village, or you had nothing to do with shinobi.

"That is correct," Genno mused. "It was nearly thirty years ago now. Our villages were at war with each other, you know. Or rather, we were on opposite sides of the war. I don't imagine my home was large enough to _truly_ bother the Hidden Leaf. For good reason – one night, our ninja were lured out with a false alarm, and we returned to find our village burning to the ground. There were very few survivors, and they unanimously told us that it was the work of Leaf shinobi."

He didn't sound angry. Just distanced and dispassionate.

"The leader of the attack was your very own Hokage," he added. "Tsunade of the Senju was a name to be feared, in those days. Tsunade the Mountain Crusher, they called her. She was like an avalanche, fierce and unstoppable."

Naruto's face was stricken.

Beside me, Sasuke shifted lightly on his feet. "And what does that have to do with anything?"

"We could hardly let that go, could we?" Genno said mildly. "I was dispatched with the most critical mission of my career – to make Hidden Leaf regret what they did. I took it gladly too, for my wife and son, who both perished in the fire and ruin. For three months, I wandered this village, infiltrating it, placing explosive tags at every corner. It was different then – you had less security, fewer Anbu in the village, once I made it inside I could almost do as I pleased. I was supposed to detonate the tags while the rest of our forces attacked from the outside. We would have crushed you."

"Thirty years ago," I said. Obviously it hadn't happened. But were those still the same tags _now?_ Had they been sitting there, waiting, for _thirty goddamn years?_

That was almost more horrifying than the rest of the story he was telling us.

"Yes. But it wasn't to be. While we were weak, we were attacked again, and this time there were no survivors. So my mission could never be completed."

"So why come back now, after all this time?" Naruto asked, aggrieved. His hands were clenching into fists at his side. "Is it just to fulfil your stupid mission?"

"Well," Genno replied. "It just seemed like such a _waste._ I thought they should be put to use."

My shadow crossed the last few inches, sneaking between two toolboxes and grounding itself on his shadow.

"Shadow Poss-" I began to say-

- And there was a sudden, blinding flash of light, so bright it was _hot,_ searing straight into my eyes. I screamed, jerking backwards, arm flying up to cover my face. There had been no warning, no chance to turn away or protect myself.

_Chakra activated trap,_ I realised numbly. I'd set it off with my chakra, not Genno. He knew who we were and what we could do, obviously. He was ready for us.

I flung myself sideways on the ground, moving to avoid any possible counterattack that I could no longer see to avoid.

I could feel the rushing of air, and the clattering of metal, and knew that I had only narrowly escaped.

My eyes were watering, and when I opened them, everything was dim and blurry. Spots danced in front of me. I squeezed them shut again.

Someone slapped their hand against the floor. "Mother_fucker,_" Sasuke hissed.

Naruto staggered forward. "Genno!" he yelled. His chakra surged in a familiar pattern, ready to bring forth an army of clones.

Belatedly, I remembered the pressure plate. Would Naruto have noticed it? Would he remember to avoid it? The more people in the room, the more chance that someone would set the traps off.

_Shit._

I threw a brace of kunai towards Genno, didn't wait for confirmation that they had hit or been deflected and moved sideways, clamping my hands over Naruto's and resisting his initial, instinctive move to throw me off. "Stop! You'll set off the traps!"

Sasuke was moving now, and I cracked my eyes open to watch him leap nimbly towards Genno, kunai in hand. His eyes were flat black, and there was a gleam of wetness on his cheeks, which indicated that Sharingan and flash bombs didn't mix.

Naruto stilled, and dropped his hands. "Crap," he said.

"Water Style; Water Bullet Jutsu," Sasuke said, shooting off a series of small, incredibly fast projectiles. Genno ducked and it wasn't until the first struck the wall behind him with a metallic clatter that I realised they weren't just water – like his Phoenix Flower Jutsu, they hid shuriken in their middles.

I was glad he hadn't used that one actually. Right now, light sounded like a bad idea.

"Oho, you're clever," Genno said approvingly, and launched a kunai not towards us, but the roof.

There was the slight wuffing of a spring releasing, a trap I hadn't even _seen,_ and a set of weights were launched down, separating to reveal a net just in time to tangle dangerously around Sasuke, too fast to really be dodged at close range. If he'd had his Sharingan, he might have stood a chance, but he didn't.

He'd be okay, but he was also out of the fight for a few seconds.

Naruto leapt forward, thankfully over the pressure plate, and filled the gap that Sasuke had left. I circled around, attacking from the opposite side.

I was wary about trying Shadow Possession again, after last time.

"Are you serious?" Naruto cried. "You'd destroy this whole village just so everyone will know what you did 30 years ago?"

He landed an ugly uppercut to Genno's stomach that made the old man double over. I took the opening, with a snap kick to the back of his knees, and only narrowly missed with a knife hand strike to the back of his neck that would have made game over.

Genno coughed and pulled on something hidden in his sleeves. Thick purple smoke billowed out of his shirt, filling the room.

I held my breath, in case it was poison, and managed to hook my fingers into the back of Genno's jacket.

He rolled sideways, and I was pulled off balance, not anchored firmly enough to resist. My arm twisted and I had to let go.

There was a grinding sound, of a pressure plate depressing, and then Genno's chakra vanished with a replacement jutsu, leaving a log of wood to be tackled furiously by Naruto.

There was a heavy crash of stone, and the air inside the room seemed even heavier and more claustrophobic than before.

"Door's locked," Sasuke said tersely, having thrown off the trap. The smoke was thinning enough for me to see him, and I could make out the crumpled shape of his fuuma shuriken wedged underneath the stone slab blocking the entrance. He'd been fast enough to try and stop it closing, but not fast enough to escape.

"I'm going to Rasengan it," Naruto said, clenching his fists. "I can't believe him. That old man-"

"Wait!" I said, feeling like I was doing nothing but interrupting Naruto at every turn. "It'll be trapped. Use a clone."

"If Genno expected us to enter that way," Sasuke said, "the traps should be focused in the other direction."

I hoped so. But he'd got us good. He'd been one step ahead the entire way.

The door shattered under Naruto's Rasengan. The clone holding it dispelled almost instantly, though I couldn't tell if it had been hit by the shrapnel from the door, or from some other trap.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto cried, and sent a wave of clones down the hallway. The first exploded two steps down, and I ducked back, cringing.

"Well that's one way to do it," Sasuke said drolly.

It probably wasn't the _best_ way. If there were exploding notes, or traps that did a lot of damage, or trip wires that set traps off somewhere _else_… then no, just setting everything off with an endless supply of disposable soldiers was not a great move.

But it would clear the hallway fast.

I felt like one of us should object out of habit, but Naruto was already charging into the chakra smoke.

I followed, falling into step with Sasuke.

The halls weren't well lit, but I could tell when we were getting closer to an exit by the lightning of the gloom. My eyes were aching, and I swiped at my cheeks to brush away the reflexive watering.

Stepping out into the sunlight was almost painful.

We were on the mountain plateau, overlooking the village from the tip of Tsunade's head. No wonder Genno had expected us to come from this direction – the door was close and obvious. If we'd bothered to look we would have found it in seconds.

I'd been expecting the rest of the team to be waiting for us. I'd been able to feel their chakra as we got closer to the exit – the muffling seals of the mountain doing their jobs well – and if they'd followed us, there was nowhere else that they were going to be.

Genno threw down another smoke bomb, but Tenten leapt high above it, soaring into the air and pulling out one of her weapons scrolls. A veritable rain of weapons pelted down, everything from kunai to kusarigama, a widespread scatter that was intended more to corner a target than aimed to kill. That was something interesting about Tenten – she was prized for her accuracy and she used that accuracy to _not _hit things.

Chouji's hands, partially expanded to be large as the rest of him was, clapped at the edge of the smoke cloud, catching the agile form of Genno between them as he tried to escape Tenten's barrage.

"So these are your friends, Naruto?" Genno asked, coughing slightly. "You work well together."

"Don't bother trying to distract us," Shikamaru drawled. "We've already disarmed the traps that you planted up here. You're finished, now."

"Oh, have you?" Genno asked, slyly as though he knew a secret. "This wasn't how I intended for this to go, I admit, but what a finale. It has been fun."

"Fun?!" Naruto shouted. He waved an arm out towards the village. "You call that _fun?_ Hurting people and trying to blow things up? That's not _fun!_"

Genno chuckled dryly. "You have such a one track mind, my boy. Whoever said I wanted to blow them up? I merely said that I didn't want them to go to waste. A good trap can be put to use in other ways."

"What?" Naruto sounded confused.

"You didn't have even a little bit of fun?" Genno asked. "All my riddles, all the treasure for you to find… I have to admit, you exceeded all my expectations."

"No one was hurt," Sasuke said softly. He wasn't looking at Genno anymore. He was looking at Naruto.

Naruto who had insisted, all along, that Genno wasn't dangerous – right up until we'd caught him in the act. Who had been so betrayed.

"Well whatever your intention was," Shikamaru said, hands in his pockets. "You're still charged with the theft of important documents. I don't think there'll be any fun in your future for a very long while."

"There was a reason I came back now," Genno said. "I'm old, and sick. There is no fun in my future anyway. I had thought to claim my last piece of vengeance and put some old ghosts to rest…" he smiled. "But I think this was better in the end. It was just like old times. I think my son would be happier to know it ended like this."

"W-what?" Naruto stammered. "What are you saying, old man?"

"I came to Hidden Leaf with the intent of setting off all my traps. But then I met you, and you reminded me so strongly of my son," Genno said. "I just… didn't want to do it anymore. And there was no reason. Kagero village has been gone for years and when you get to my age, some wounds no longer bleed. Even the ones that you thought would last forever. So instead, I planned this treasure hunt for you, and turned my tags into part of the prize."

I let out a jagged breath, but didn't take my eyes off him. He seemed sincere, but I couldn't chase away the sharp spike of fear that had sent me racing away from the Academy.

No one had been hurt, that was true. But we'd spent a day fearing the absolute worst. There was a kind of damage in that.

No. It hadn't been fun. Maybe in time we'd be able to look back on it and laugh, but it hadn't been _fun._

"Uh, can we wrap this up?" Chouji said, a little awkwardly. Given that he was still holding onto Genno with giant hands, it was probably a good reminder. I actually had no idea how long Chouji could hold his Partial Expansion Jutsu for.

Shikamaru sighed. "You going to come quietly?" he asked, jerking his chin towards Genno.

Tenten idly flipped a set of kunai in her hands, which demonstrated the idea that he really _should_ without actually saying anything.

"Very quietly," Genno said, with that same amused smile. "Don't mind me at all." He closed his eyes and sighed. "It's all over."

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><p>.<p>

The Hokage's Office was crowded. Koharu and Homura hovered behind Tsunade's shoulders, much to her apparent annoyance, and the twelve of us packed ourselves in how we could.

Hanabi and Sumiko had been thanked and sent home with the rest of the Hyuuga that had been rounded up to assist on short notice, a grim faced collection that had gone over Konoha with a fine comb.

"Preposterous," Koharu sniffed, at the explanation of Genno's motives. "Likely another trap itself. Once you let down your guard he will strike again."

"That will be difficult," Tsunade said dryly. "I already have a report from the prison pronouncing him dead. With certainty, this time."

Naruto made a shocked, upset sound.

"Initial diagnosis is a suicide pill, but it might not have mattered. He was showing signs of late stage terminal illness, which might have been what he was referring to. Even with medical intervention, he was unlikely to survive much longer."

Reactions to that were mixed. Naruto looked like he was going to cry, and Hinata patted him softly on the arm, but others weren't quite so invested.

I couldn't help the little petty 'good' that I thought, even if I was immediately ashamed.

"The chest in the mountain storage room contained all the missing blueprints," Shikamaru said, taking the attention away from Naruto. "Including the previous letter of recommendation that was missing from the foreman's house. Without something to compare it to, it's hard to tell, but it's highly likely that the original is also a fake, and was what Genno used to infiltrate the village the first time around."

Tsunade nodded. "We began to suspect something of the sort when we began retrieving the explosive notes," she admitted. "The Academy was clearly a new target, but many of the notes scattered throughout the village are of an old style that aren't in use anymore. If they were planted so long ago, that explains why."

"Yeah, that's what I don't get," Kiba said. "How can all those explosive notes have just been sitting there for so long? Someone ought to have noticed them."

I agreed. I really, really agreed. In this village full of ninja, it was nearly unbelievable to think that no one had stumbled across a single one, and then followed the fuses, in thirty years. There were hundreds of ninja in the village. Large swathes of it had been destroyed through the years, with the Chunin Exam Invasion, the Kyuubi Attack… had no one noticed _then_ either?

Or… maybe people had.

There were, if you considered with very cold logic, benefits to having a last resort trap wired into your own village, if you could be certain that only you controlled it.

It was maybe the sort of thing that would only occur to people who looked for worst case scenarios. The kind of people who thought 'if I can't have it, no one else can either'.

There was someone that sprang to mind, when I considered it. Who would have taken something like that, hidden it, and waited for the moment to use it.

Who was a person that I really would not have wanted to have an explosive trap wired into the walls of my home.

"On the contrary," Shino said to Kiba. "It is easy to miss something that no one is looking for. As well hidden as they were, they would never have been spotted unless someone was using Byakugan in the right spot."

"That's why we have random sweeps," I said. "Spot checks. Audits. Inspections. So that we find things we don't know we're looking for."

Then I shut my mouth, the niggling conclusion still bouncing around in my head. I had no proof. I was maybe being paranoid.

But.

Was it so improbable?

I dropped back, and let the rest of the debriefing flow over me. We'd managed to sum up the main points, anyway. The Academy was fine, and the students none the worse for wear for traipsing up the mountain and back. The explosive tags had all been retrieved. The plans had all been retrieved. Security plans were in action to cover all the newly revealed holes and flaws.

"Naruto, Shino, Ino, Shikako. Stay behind. The rest of you are dismissed," Tsunade said and waited till everyone shuffled out. Even the two Elders left with disapproving sniffs.

"Congratulations, Nara," she smirked at me briefly. "You get what you wanted. For the next week and a half, you're taking over from Anko on day shifts with Yakumo Kurama."

I blinked. I hadn't considered that something I'd asked for at all.

"Thank you?" I said tentatively.

It wasn't bad. I just. Hadn't asked for that? I mean, yes, I had asked about Yakumo… but I hadn't expected the results I'd got in the first place, let alone more. And that was a bit of a downgrade, wasn't it, from Special Jounin to Genin? Maybe Tsunade considered the worst of the danger past.

I didn't really understand what the Hokage was trying to do here.

"You three are assigned to Anko for a B-rank mission to the Land of Sea," Tsunade continued, turning to the other three. "She's currently on an exterior patrol for the emergency response, so your departure time is at her discretion. I suggest you be prepared."

Naruto looked like he wasn't really paying that much attention. Given that he was still upset about Genno, I could see why. But I wasn't really worried about him.

Ino nodded sharply. "Understood, Hokage-sama," she said.

This would be her first real mission since the Sound Four. Since Orochimaru. I hoped she was ready for it.


	79. Chapter 78

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: So I made a couple of AMV's for DOS in an attempt to kickstart some creativity. You can find the links in my profile, as always. Please be kind – I've never tried to vid anything before.

… And apparently that opened the floodgates. N. Hamilton has made an amazing Dreaming of Sunshine AMV. Thank you!

And as always, major thanks to Juno-nine and erimies for letting me bounce ideas off them and putting up with various half-finished scenes being flung in their direction for opinions.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 78

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><p>.<p>

_Hello darkness, my old friend  
>I've come to talk with you again<br>Because a vision softly creeping  
>Left its seeds while I was sleeping<br>And the vision that was planted  
>In my brain still remains<br>Within the sound of silence_

_~ Sounds of Silence; Simon and Garfunkel_

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><p>.<p>

Anko didn't get back to the village till late, and arranged to meet me early the next morning for a briefing slash mission handover.

I wasn't exactly thrilled about that, but it was a mission, so I couldn't complain, could I?

The village was beautiful at sunrise – I could appreciate that – but it was also cold, and I strode along with my shoulders hunched and my hands shoved into my pockets.

The tower at this time of morning was almost eerily quiet – not deserted, but it lacked the normal bustle of activity. Everything seemed muted and dim; foreboding, like you weren't meant to be here at all.

But I was, so I lifted my shoulders, rolled them into a position of confidence, and pushed open the door. Inside, it was just as quiet, the bare bones of a night shift skeleton staff whiling away the hours. I nodded to the Chunin at the front desk, and wound my way through the corridors to the briefing room.

Naruto wasn't there yet and I wondered if I should have swung by his apartment to make sure he was awake. But Naruto had never been late to any of our team meetings, or had problems with early mornings, so I didn't really doubt that he'd get here.

"Morning," I greeted the rest of the team, voice quiet.

Ino smothered a yawn behind her hand. "Hey. I didn't realise you were coming to this meeting too."

I shrugged, turning to Anko.

"Saves time," the Special Jounin said, snapping the scroll she was reading closed with a sharp flick of her wrist. There was a small frown creasing her forehead, and she looked tired. Not just dawn-o'clock-wake-up-tired, but pulled-an-all-nighter-tired.

"Nara. You're taking over watching Yakumo until I get back. Lucky for you, you're already informed about the situation." She smirked, briefly. "It's classed as an escort mission, Level Three security restrictions."

Security levels started at Level One (Non-resident; No Access) to Level Two (Resident; Low Access) - which was what Konoha citizens were by default – to Level Three (Shinobi; Low Access) and up to, supposedly, Level Ten for the Hokage. In general promotions in rank went hand in hand with promotions in security clearance, though it was more of a correlation than a causation. You could have one without the other. Clan shinobi tended to rank up faster than first generation ninja, as a simple matter of fact, which might not have been fair but was what it was.

Level Three was Academy students and Genin, mostly. Which was interesting, because it treated Yakumo like a reasonably trusted member of the village. I _might_ have been a Level Four, depending on paperwork, though Tsunade was being pretty lenient with us at the moment in regards to what we were supposed to know.

"No house arrest?" I asked curiously.

"That's been lifted," Anko said, bracing a hand against the side of her neck and cracking it. "There've been no repeat incidents, but if there are, you're authorised to use all necessary force." She pulled a scroll and set of notes out of her pocket. "These are the chakra restriction seals that have proven to be effective on her transformation. They should be your first resort."

I took them and nodded crisply. I didn't want to hurt Yakumo. That was the last thing I wanted.

Also? Chakra restriction seals? Sounded pretty damn amazing and I was thrilled to be able to have a look at them. How did they work? How strong were they? Would they be able to, say, stop a Jinchuriki from transforming? Maybe not, but Jiraiya had made seals that could do that; were these the same type of thing?

Getting my hands on these was worth a week and a half of downtime, no question.

"Your shift ends at curfew, after which Yakumo will remain inside. Night time monitoring is handled separately. Unkai has raised the possibility of her moving back to a less isolated part of the compound, so you might have to liaise with him about that."

I nodded, accepting the information. It all sounded fairly straight forward, really.

Any further questions I had were cut off as Naruto burst through the door, unrestrained and energetic despite the hour. "Good morning!" He hollered cheerfully.

Ino sighed, chin dropping into her palm. "Not so loud," she admonished.

Anko smirked. "Well someone is enthusiastic," she said. "I guess that's something." She caught my eye and tilted her head towards the door. "We can start the mission debriefing now."

That was my cue to leave, obviously.

I glanced over at Ino. I wanted –

I wanted to tell Naruto to look out for her. I wanted to tell Ino to look out for him. I wanted to tell Shino to look out for them both. To make sure that they would be okay.

I didn't. That would have been so insulting. They all knew to do that anyway. They all would. And… they could look out for themselves. They weren't helpless, not now, not ever.

They didn't need me trying to interfere to protect them.

The thought made something weigh heavy inside my chest, press up against the backs of my eyes. I blinked, swallowed, and pushed it away and down so quickly it barely had time to register.

"Good luck with your mission," I said, the rasp to my voice no worse than usual.

_Sheesh_, what had that been about?

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><p>.<p>

I went home for breakfast because it was still well before I had to go to Yakumo. I was a little annoyed that I'd had to get up so early when it wasn't really necessary, actually, because that debriefing had taken all of about ten minutes.

"A mission, already?" Mum said, with a sniff of disapproval. "You'd think they'd give you some down time after rushing around all yesterday."

"It's only an in-village escort," I said. "It barely counts. Personally, I think Tsunade-sama is just trying to extend my medical leave as long as possible."

Not that she really needed excuses, if Tsunade didn't want me taking missions, I wouldn't be taking missions. End of story. I was actually glad that if I was on Tsunade's radar, it wasn't in that way.

That would be … problematic.

"Thought you were busy working on research stuff," Shikamaru said casually, which meant it wasn't.

"I am," I countered, equally casually, and aimed more for sarcastic than passive-aggressive. "There's this thing called multitasking, where you do more than one thing at once. I know it must seem strange to you, since you try and avoid even _one _task at a time…"

Shikamaru snorted.

"No fighting at the table," Mum said, waving a wooden spoon threateningly in our direction.

I smiled at her. "Us, fighting? Too much effort, mum."

I really had to work on my deflections. It seemed like no one was buying them, ever.

I bowed away from the table, grabbed my bag, and left. It was still a little early for me to be going, but I could take the long way around. Maybe pick up something for Yakumo in town. Make it seem a little more like I was a visiting friend, not a jailor.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot open because of the early hour. And I had no idea what Yakumo would like anyway. In the end, I spotted a bakery that had light spilling out of the door, and brought a tray of dango and some sweet bean buns.

I went to the Kurama compound and followed the directions on the mission scroll to Yakumo's house. It… wasn't what I expected. Frankly, it looked like a mansion, and I would probably have assumed it was the house of the head of the clan, if I hadn't known otherwise.

My sensing told me that there was no one inside but Yakumo, and even her chakra was muted with sleep. I considered knocking, but I didn't want to wake her up.

On the other hand, letting myself into someone else's house felt a little weird, even if I had a key and permission.

There was a pair of muddy shoes haphazardly lying in the genkan, and I straightened them out of habit. The mud on them was still damp. That was interesting – it implied they'd been worn very recently. They _were_ Yakumo's size, however. I set the food down in the kitchen, and ghosted through the house, performing a quick perimeter check and scan.

Yakumo was asleep and there was no one else in the house.

It was a large house and felt very empty. I settled awkwardly on the couch in the living room, and pulled out the seals and a notebook, carefully keeping half my attention on the sleepy presence of Yakumo's chakra.

The seals were fascinating. After about an hour, I was pretty confident that I could recreate them. I'd made copies, anyway. I thought I'd made a good job at translating parts of the seal, but I wanted to look up a few parts in my Sealing Styles book – I was sure Jiraiya had said something about them. They were done in the common Konoha style, and it had taken me an embarrassingly long time to arrive at the conclusion that the common Konoha style? Was Jiraiya's style. It was the common Konoha style _because_ it was Jiraiya's style. The mess with the explosive tags yesterday and the old style of the seals on them had reminded me that sealing styles changed over the years, which I knew, I just hadn't connected that to it changing _because_ of a new seal master.

Unfortunately, that book was still with Tenten, so I'd have to go and find her to get it back.

Upstairs, Yakumo was waking, chakra beginning to move around. I contemplated leaving and knocking on the door like I'd just got here, but it felt… dishonest. Not that simply being here was much better, but at least it wasn't a lie.

"Oh," Yakumo said, as she shuffled down the stairs sleepily. She was wrapped up in a set of traditional sleepwear and a housecoat, hair ruffled and unbrushed. "Good morning. Anko told me you were coming." She yawned, and rubbed at her eyes. "Sorry, I was asleep. We didn't get in till late. Did you want something to drink? Tea?"

I smiled up at her and the attempt to be a good host. "Good morning. It's fine – I hope you don't mind that I let myself in. I brought some dango and buns; I didn't know what you'd like."

I put the book down, and shuffled into the kitchen with her, offering to help make breakfast.

"What happened last night?" I asked curiously.

Yakumo blinked at the counter, picked up a cup, put it back down again, and reached for a bowl instead. "I was with Anko-sensei," she said. "We were on patrol? Because a criminal stole something yesterday, and she had to go and look for him. But she was also supposed to be watching me, so she took me with her." She seemed pleased with that.

"Ah," I said, nodding. "Tsunade-sama did say she was on patrol." I wasn't totally sure that taking Yakumo with her fit the whole 'escort/protection detail' thing, but that had been Anko's choice. It didn't seem to have done any harm. "That must have been hard."

"I liked it," Yakumo said. "It reminded me… why I wanted to be a ninja all those years ago. Not just to bring honour to the clan, but to help protect and defend people."

Personally, I thought patrol was really boring – necessary, but boring – but if it helped her, then more power to her.

"I am tired, though," she said sheepishly. "I haven't done that much exercise since training with Kurenai-sensei… Anko-sensei had to carry me home."

I smiled at her. "That just comes with training," I said. "I'm sure you'll manage in no time."

I expected a quiet day after that, and I wasn't wrong. After breakfast was cleared away, I asked Yakumo what she usually did all day.

"Paint, mostly," she said quietly, and lead me to a room dedicated to her hobby. I looked around while she slipped away to get changed.

Some of these were really gorgeous.

"What do you do with them all?" I asked, when she'd come back. "Sell them?"

Yakumo shrugged. "Uncle does sometimes, I think. I hang some of them up… but mostly I just paint over them and start again."

That was _sad._

"That's a shame. They're beautiful," I said. "I would totally buy some of these."

There was one, still sitting on the easel, of a bunch of girls in a park. I could see the splash of familiar purple denoting one figure, and thought I knew who it represented.

"It's not finished," Yakumo said, a flush rising over her cheeks. "But… you can have it when it is."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Because I wasn't joking. I would pay for it." I didn't want her to feel obligated. And there was a hazy line about receiving gifts on duty. I didn't want it to be misinterpreted.

"Yes," Yakumo said. "A… gift. For a friend."

"Then I'd be honoured," I said. And since she was here, I couldn't resist asking her about her paintings. First the more mundane questions, like what types of paints she liked to use, and the kinds of things that she liked to paint.

"Have you ever used chakra ink?" I asked, watching her mix paint. I'd found a place to sprawl on the floor, comfortably browsing my own books. "It's what I use for seals."

"Yes," she replied affirmative. "It makes chakra conduction easier, but it is limiting. I like to use colours, and coloured ink is hard to come by. It doesn't really make the genjutsu much stronger, anyway."

Given how hard they had been to break already, I supposed she didn't really need the extra boost. They would either work on someone, or they wouldn't, and that small amount of improvement would make virtually no difference.

"Do you infuse your own chakra into it?" I asked curiously, because that was what I was really curious about.

Seals didn't run solely on the casters chakra, they took in natural energy as fuel. But I hadn't felt any such thing while she was painting during our spar. The genjutsu had – maybe – influenced the natural energy, or been carried on it, but it hadn't been fuelled by it.

"Yes," she said, casting me a slightly confused look. "While I paint. This one isn't like that, though. This is… just a painting."

Not entirely like seals, then. But not entirely _unlike_ seals, either.

Of course, if it ran off of her chakra, then there was the risk of the technique running out of chakra. I … hadn't been paying attention to how much it had taken for her to maintain, or if it had just taken a certain amount to activate. It couldn't have taken that much, not the amount I would have expected for a genjutsu of that level, or she wouldn't have managed it at all.

I chewed on the tip of my pen, thinking.

"Could someone else use one of your genjutsu?" I asked. "Like, you paint it, but someone else activates it at the end? Or does it have to be you, all the way through?"

Yakumo paused. "I've never tried," she said, sounding surprised. "I don't know."

"Huh, okay." It was possible it wouldn't work, since it didn't seem to work the same as fuuinjutsu. But it was worth a try.

What I really wanted to ask about was the alter-ego she had, and how she was dealing with _that _and all its associated revelations, but it wasn't exactly the kind of thing that came up easily in casual conversation. I was probably pushing the limits of propriety by asking about her jutsu in the first place.

After lunch – eaten late because breakfast had been late – she asked me to train with her.

I was a little surprised.

"Anko-sensei has been teaching me how to tree-walk," Yakumo said, looking down. "I want to keep practicing."

"Yes, of course," I said. Chakra control exercises were cake. I could show her enough chakra control exercises that they started coming out her ears.

I guessed part of it was also that Yakumo _was_ lonely. I'd thought she must be; I'd only been here a morning and the mansion seemed huge and empty to me. I'd have probably gone mad if I'd had to live there alone.

"I know it's strange… that I want to be a ninja when all I can really do is genjutsu," she said. "But there used to be a boy at the Academy who was trying to become a ninja with only taijutsu, so it's not so different, is it? I wonder what happened to him…"

I blinked. "You mean Lee? Rock Lee? He graduated the Academy last year. He's a Genin right now."

She looked at me in wonder. "So he did it," she breathed. "It is possible."

I had to wrap my head around the idea of a world where _Lee_ was somebody's hero. That wasn't fair, exactly, because Lee was excellent but… It was Lee.

"Did you want to meet him?" I asked, before I really considered it. "I think he's in the village right now. I'm sure he's love to meet you."

I wasn't even joking. Lee would love her determination to be a ninja despite shortcomings. They had the same dream, just from different angles.

"Do you think that's possible?"

"Sure," I said. "I even have to talk to one of his team mates soon, so you'd probably be doing me a favour if we went together." Otherwise I'd have to wait until after curfew set in, or until my job here was over completely. And who knew where Tenten would be at that point.

Yakumo hesitated, then nodded firmly. "Yes. Let's go."

I knew where Team Gai trained, so that was my first choice of place to try and find them. I didn't actually know where Lee lived, so if they weren't there, things might get tricky.

They were though. I felt their chakra before I set foot in the Training Field, and I hovered by the edge a little nervously. I didn't want to walk straight into the middle of a fight – that was both rude and dangerous – but what could I do to attract their attention?

I didn't need to, it turned out. Tenten jumped down from the tree tops, rolling up one of her long scrolls and walked towards us.

"Saw me here, hey?" I asked.

"Neji did," Tenten replied with a shrug. "The boys are going at it, so you don't want to end up in the middle of that." She glanced curiously at Yakumo.

Right. They hadn't met.

"This is Tenten, she was away on a mission last week, so she wasn't at the kunoichi group. But she's amazing with thrown weapons, she probably has the best accuracy out of all the Genin in Konoha." I hoped that didn't sound _too_ over the top. "And this is Yakumo. She's training to be a ninja right now. Uhm. Is Lee free for a few minutes?"

Tenten's eyebrows jumped upwards. "Lee? Well. Okay. Sure, let me break the fight up?"

She leapt back into the forest to find her teammates, and in a couple of minutes all five of us were standing around awkwardly.

I cleared my throat. "Yakumo is training to become a ninja specialised in the art of genjutsu. Or rather, using only genjutsu. She'd heard about the fact that you managed to become a ninja using only taijutsu, Lee."

"It's very impressive," Yakumo said, clasping her hands together and bowing. "It gives me hope that I, too, might be successful."

Neji and Tenten looked rather like I'd felt – like they needed to readjust their world view a fraction. I was glad that Neji was starting to change, actually, because if he'd said something about fate and worthlessness of attempting it, I would actually have had to kill him.

"That is splendid!" Lee said, giving her a thumbs up, and a bright, sparkling grin. "To overcome such an obstacle requires incredible determination. You must be working very hard!"

"I have been trying," Yakumo said.

And it was hard, obviously, to keep training when you had no goal and no hope that things would ever change. The fact that she _had_ anyway was probably more than I would have done without some kind of outside push.

"She's been learning tree-walking," I volunteered, on her behalf.

Lee took the invitation like the champ he was. "That is fantastic! Please come and show me!"

"Wow," Tenten muttered, shaking her head, as the two of them walked away, Yakumo looking hesitantly over her shoulder at me. I waved.

"Yep," I agreed. "She's had a pretty tough time of it, though, so I figured she could use some of Lee's brand of support. I hope he doesn't mind too much. And sorry for interrupting your training."

"It's fine," Tenten said. "Neji and I can work on other stuff."

Neji was actually staring at me in what looked like disbelief. "You might not be aware," he said, carefully. "But I was recently on a mission where we encountered Yakumo…"

Oh. That was right. I'd nearly gone to Neji to ask about her in the first place. I'd forgotten that he knew that part of the story.

"The emergency response drill?" I said, equally carefully. "I'm sure you'd be glad to hear that there was a minor misunderstanding which has since been cleared up?"

A minor misunderstanding. Listen to me.

Tenten could clearly tell that there was some kind of subtext there, and glanced between the two of us, but seemed content to let the matter drop.

Neji, well. I couldn't tell what Neji actually thought of the matter. But if he wasn't going to protest, then that was all I really needed.

"Anyway, Tenten," I said, switching my attention. "Do you have that sealing book? There are a few things I wanted to look up in it."

I should have really made a copy before I gave it to her, rather than having to come and find it every time I wanted it. But making copies before it was _finished_ seemed a huge waste, because if I added things or discovered that some entries were wrong, then I'd have to find and update the copies too.

"Do you want it back?" Tenten asked immediately. "You can take it. I think I've looked at everything I need."

"No, it's fine. It's nothing serious. I just couldn't remember a few things. They're a bit different to what I normally do," I explained.

Which lead to Tenten and I having a spirited discussion about sealing, while I kept half an eye on Yakumo.

"Do you think…" Yakumo asked, as we walked back. "That I could really be a ninja?" She sounded very quiet and wistful.

I regarded her seriously. "Do you really want to be?"

"Yes," she said immediately. "But I –" she swallowed and looked away. "There is a reason why Kurenai-sensei sealed me away… I don't want to be dangerous to the people around me."

Oh. So we were going to talk about this. Well.

"That's not an unfounded worry," I said carefully. "And it's not something that we should ignore. But it's also not a complete obstacle."

We let ourselves into the quiet, lonely mansion. I slipped my shoes off and stacked them neatly in the shoe rack.

"What do you mean?" Yakumo asked. She was so… unguarded, almost. Even more than the other girls I knew – like she was willing to listen and believe I had all the answers.

I paused. "How much do you know about it? You called it 'the secret power of the Kurama clan'."

"I didn't know it was like that," she said, voice hushed, eyes wide. "I make things real, like the paintings. I thought that was all there was to it. The… the monster… it… I don't know where it came from, or why it was there."

"It said…" I said, very slowly, pieces of the puzzle edging closer together in my head like the shifting of tectonic plates; slow, but inevitable. I didn't know what the shape of them would be, when they formed. "That it wanted to protect you – that it was created out of pain and suffering…"

She swallowed. "I never wanted it to do that. I never wanted it to hurt-" She hunched forward where she was sitting, hands coming up to her face. "I didn't want that."

"You couldn't control it," I agreed, watching her closely. I had to tread carefully here. "You might never be able to control it. Or make it go away. But that doesn't mean you can't work with it, or around it. It doesn't have to be an enemy for you to overcome."

Oh. There it was. The landscape of the revelation.

_It doesn't have to be an enemy for you to overcome._

I'd been afraid, when I'd split apart. Jumped instantly to the worst possible outcomes. What if I hurt someone, what if, what if, what if? I'd gone to Kasuga looking for answers. No wonder he had worried, had thought that I had done something.

What had I done, when I was a shadow? _Exactly the same things_ as the other half of me. It was still _me._ Was that what Kasuga had been trying to ask? Why he'd turned all those questions back on me and asked what I thought the danger was? It was my thoughts and feelings, just the ones that I didn't want to deal with, the ones I tucked away, put behind a brave face and mustered motivation to work past. What were the things that I put away, tucked into the corners of my mind and left there? Loss, and fear, and sorrow. Tiredness. Loneliness, sometimes. Jealousy and guilt.

They were the things I couldn't deal with – or couldn't deal with immediately. Was there a version of me, tucked up in my head, who felt only those things? God, what that must be like. To be only scared, tired and angry, all the time…

It would be awful. If there was a person sitting next to me, who felt only those things, how much sympathy would I have for them? How much would I try to help, and make them better? How could I do any less when there was no other person, just myself and my shadow?

I took that thought, and wrapped it in regret, and then wrapped the regret in the swell of pure gratitude rising in my chest. And then I tucked that away into the dark spot in the back of my mind.

"One day," I said to Yakumo. "You might need the protection that it offers. But until then, to protect others from it, you need to protect _you_. If it comes from your suffering and pain, then you have to look after yourself, treat yourself so that your emotions don't get to those levels. You can't just ignore them, even if that seems like the easiest way to cope."

"You think that will work?" She asked quietly.

"I hope so," I said.

I looked out the window, staring out at the sky. There's a saying that the best way to learn something is to teach it; I guess there's some truth in that.

_I hope so._

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

Saying 'I don't have time right now; I'll think about it later' was exactly the kind of thing that got me into this mess in the first place. And in some circumstances, it had been the right decision.

It wasn't the right one now, I could see that. Guarding Yakumo was more about being a friend, reintroducing her to Konoha, and being on lookout for the worst case scenario than it was about keeping an exact twenty four hour watch.

That didn't mean I could fix everything _now._ This wasn't going to be something that I could just decide and do – it was going to require careful management for the rest of my life.

I flopped backwards onto the floor, sprawled out, and listened to Yakumo humming while she painted. I hoped I'd done the right thing for her, even if some of my advice amounted to little more than 'breathe deeply', 'count to ten' and 'evaluate how important it is'. It probably did me good to go over all the lessons I'd been given about being in control and about _feeling_ in control, because they were things that I'd been forgetting to apply.

Stress was a downwards spiral. You stressed, and you stressed about being stressed, and then that gave you more stress… very unproductive.

"Hey, you want to help me with something today?" I asked, rolling my head vaguely in Yakumo's direction.

She looked at me quizzically, apparently a little bemused for my penchant for lying on the floor when there were perfectly acceptable chairs around. I felt like we had skipped the step in our friendship where proper guest behaviour was required though, and I liked to stretch out.

I rolled over, laying a piece of A4 paper on the ground, and kicking my feet into the air behind me. "See, I'm doing some research," I explained. "About people storing chakra into things. Say, if I take a rock and put chakra into it… how much chakra, and how long does it stay, and things like that. And if someone else takes an identical rock and does the same thing, how much changes." Research was only really good if it were repeatable, after all. "Measuring the chakra is no biggy. We already have things that do that. But obviously, there are things that will affect how two different people go about the same exercise, and one of those things is chakra control." And elemental affinity, probably. There were ways to measure that, but chakra paper was expensive and I didn't think my research budget would cover that for everyone involved, but it probably wouldn't be _that_ difficult to come up with a seal that would indicate affinity-

I waved that thought off for later. "I made this seal which should help measure control, but I need people to help me test it," I concluded. "See the Fibonacci Spiral? I've put LED's – Light Emitting Diagrams – at intervals along the spiral, and the closer they get to the center, the more accurate you need to be with your chakra to activate them."

I demonstrated, threading my chakra along the path. The lights lit up, one by one. They weren't especially big or bright, and clustered tightly together as the spiral got smaller. It took a particular twist and curl to get the last ones, but all ten lit up in the end.

That was the problem. I didn't have perfect chakra control. I knew that. But I'd made the seal, and I knew how it worked, and I'd had quite a few repetitions to get it working correctly. Practice made perfect, after all. Which indicated that repeated use would invalidate the results, but that was a hurdle for a later stage.

Yakumo looked intrigued. "And you want me to have a try?"

"Yeah," I said. "If you don't mind. It's not dangerous or anything, and I'm not recording the results. It's just difficult to do myself now. I was wondering if I should make it cover only the top, say, fifty percent of the spectrum instead of the whole thing; it would make it more accurate and the most important part is clearly the top twenty to thirty percent…"

She looked a little lost, but gamely came over to sit beside me.

I withdrew my chakra from the seal, making the lights fade and scooted it over so she could try.

"Oh, I see," Yakumo said, peering into the seal as the lights lit up. "As the spiral gets smaller you have less margin for error."

She got the seventh light easily enough, but the eighth flickered before stabilising. The ninth refused to light.

"So probably somewhere between eighty and ninety percent efficiency," I said. You could calculate for chakra control efficiency – and did for medical jutsu – but as far as I was aware it was more of a theoretical thing than anything. "Of course, it's only really measuring one type of external manipulation, rather than anything inherent…"

"Why is the top thirty percent more important?" Yakumo asked, following what I'd said earlier. She withdrew her chakra from the seal and started again.

"That's the place where most shinobi are going to fall, I think," I said. "Anything below fifty percent is… well, you wouldn't be able to achieve very much. Maybe that's where the Academy students who're just learning would be, but I don't think anyone who actually works with chakra would have control so low."

Naruto had famously low control, but even he was probably not under about seventy percent. He could do the _Rasengan_. Even if you considered that he could bear a bigger chakra loss than most people, he wouldn't be able to do it at all if his control was truly so bad.

"The people that have the highest control would be the medical ninja, or genjutsu users," I continued. "And at those levels, it would probably be more useful to have a more exact measure."

I took out another paper and used a ruler to divide in the squares that would let me draw a perfect spiral. "If I use ten squares, for twenty percent, each light can be worth a two percent increase…"

As far as seals went? This was really damn simple. The spiral channelled the chakra around, and the LED's were triangles on a line, just like they would be in a circuit diagram. The trickiest part was setting the 'limit' that would require certain values of control to activate, and even that wasn't really difficult. In a way, the seal itself was 'incomplete'. It didn't hold chakra, and it didn't do anything. The LED required constant application of chakra to light up – in effect, you were completing the circuit with your own chakra like closing a switch – rather than running off the natural energy in the air.

Again, when I channelled chakra into it, all ten of the lights lit up. Yakumo got three of them, which meant eighty six percent. Not bad.

"Are you going to test it with others?" she asked, fascinated.

"I'll have to," I said. "I was going to ask Sakura… she has the best control out of our group. Though the more people I ask, the better my results will be."

"Okay, let's go!"

I hadn't meant _now_ but, okay, why not? There was no reason to stay in the mansion all day.

Sakura wasn't at her house, so I waved hello to her parents and we headed off to the hospital instead, where she was in class. We had to wait till that was finished, so I grabbed some dango from a nearby stall and took Yakumo to visit Ranmaru, since he was the only person I knew currently in hospital. We must have been getting better at this ninja thing.

Poor kid looked horribly surprised to see us.

Surprisingly, after an awkward start, the two of them started to bond over being sickly kids and using genjutsu. Huh. I thought about throwing in my own two cents, but I'd never been sick like that.

"Did you do that on purpose?" Yakumo asked, as we left.

"Actually," I admitted. "I had no idea that he was a genjutsu user. Naruto ran into him on a mission a little a while ago, and brought him back to Konoha. I've only met him once. I just thought we could kill a little bit of time while we were waiting for Sakura."

"I see," Yakumo said softly.

I eyed her a little curiously, wondering what it was she saw, but she didn't elaborate.

We hovered in the corridor as the med students trickled past, waiting for that distinctive flash of pink hair.

"Shikako," Sakura said, surprised. She hefted a massive looking textbook on her hip. "What are you doing here?"

"I can't visit a friend?" I asked, hand over my heart.

She snorted. "Okay, now I know you want something."

"Ouch," I said, good naturedly, falling into step beside her as we headed for the gardens. "You got me. I kinda want your help with something."

"I knew it," Sakura said, claiming a picnic table. "It's not the…" her eyes flickered to Yakumo a little nervously. "The technique you gave me last time."

The subterfuge of it amused the hell out of me. Oh, Sakura. "Nah," I said. "Although, have you made any progress on that? Wait, nevermind. This first." If I let myself get distracted, we'd never get back on topic. It had only been a month, anyway; I didn't really expect her to have done much more than thought about it.

I took out the two seals and explained what they were.

"So I just put chakra into them?" she asked, laying a hand on top of the first.

I nodded.

On the first seal, she got nine lights, and frowned.

"Ninety percent is good," I said.

But there was a determined light in her eyes as she laid a hand on the second seal. Right, Sakura was incredibly competitive.

This was either going to be great, or terrible.

One by one, the lights flickered on. Her forehead creased in concentration. Ninety two. Ninety four. Ninety six. Ninety eight.

There was a tiny surge of chakra. Ninety eight flickered and died. She'd tried to brute force it and that was the exact opposite of what you needed to do.

It came back on.

And-

"One hundred percent," I said, shaking my head. "Way to go, Sakura."

She nodded, looking satisfied. And then hesitated. "Is this _really_ accurate?"

"Hard to say," I said evasively. "That's why I'm testing it. But… to the best of my abilities… yes, it is."

"I wonder what the others have…" That competitive gleam returned to her eye.

And somehow, that lead to a whole posse of medical students clustered around our table, trying out the seal, with Sakura presiding over the lot. I faded to the back of the group and observed.

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

Afterwards, I took Yakumo to our training grounds to work on some taijutsu.

"Even if it's not your primary method of fighting, it's good to have as a fall back," I said. "It's a good way to build up stamina, and _knowing_ that you can fight if you have to can help you to feel in control."

Which, I didn't need to clarify, was especially important for Yakumo.

She was an eager pupil, I had to give her that. It was only Academy style Shorin-ryu, so it wasn't the most exciting lessons ever, but she didn't complain.

"Maybe we should stop here," I said, once we'd done roughly as much as the Academy teachers would have made us do.

"No," Yakumo protested, but she was panting pretty heavily. "We can continue." She braced her hands against her thighs and gasped for breath. "I just need… to catch my breath."

I was actually a little worried. "Twenty minutes," I said. "Walk around a little to cool down, otherwise your muscles will seize up."

Was I pushing her too hard? She was – or had been – sickly, though I didn't know exactly what that entailed. But physical fitness was a huge part of being a ninja, even if it was just in the travelling. She wouldn't get far if she couldn't run.

I hadn't made a decision either way by the time the twenty minutes were up, but in the end, I didn't have to because Sasuke turned up.

"Really, Shikako?" He asked me, after taking a good long look around the clearing. Mostly, I assumed he meant Yakumo.

"Tsunade-sama gave me the mission," I said in defence of myself. "And we're not sparring. I was showing her some taijutsu."

Sasuke sighed, sounding very put upon. "I've been looking for you," he said. "We need to practice."

I blinked at him. "Practice what?"

"Blind fighting."

He wasn't wrong. We'd been seriously caught off guard by Genno and his flash bomb, and even before that fighting at night had put us at a disadvantage.

"I'm kind of on a mission..." I trailed off. "You could start training and I'll catch up later?"

"Lee already knows," Sasuke said, crossing his arms. His pride probably drew the line at getting totally kicked around in the name of training. Mine did, unless there was no other option.

It made sense, that Lee was already experienced, if Gai-sensei was training him to fight against Sharingan. And if Lee could, then Tenten was probably a little trained too, and good luck ever blinding the Byakugan. And that probably applied to Hinata too, and Kiba and Shino had clan advantages with other senses. So the only teams that had problems were us and team ten…

I grimaced.

"Hey, Yakumo, wanna see something cool?" I asked.

Sasuke helpfully held a bandanna out towards me. He'd planned this. Jerk. For himself, he simply retied his headband lower, across his eyes.

I waited for Yakumo to take a seat near the posts, so we didn't accidentally run into her, and put on the blindfold.

"Taijutsu only," I warned. "Otherwise we'll damage ourselves."

Sasuke grunted in confirmation. Then his chakra rushed forward, straight at me.

I closed my eyes and focused on it. Feeling it get closer and closer.

I dodged to the side. Lashed out with a kick. But he must have anticipated? Because he twisted and, instead of slamming into his side, it connected solidly with his elbow.

I wasn't sure which of us yelped louder.

Oh boy. This was going to be so _great._

I staggered back a pace or two, mood unhelped by the sound of soft giggling from Yakumo's direction.

It didn't really get any better from there.

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

By the time I got home, I mostly just wanted a shower and to sleep.

But the instant I walked through the front door, I knew it wasn't to be. The house was dark. Neither mum nor Shikamaru were home. But Kofuku-oba was sitting at the table, drinking a cup of green tea, despite the late hour.

I felt unease creeping up my spine, the beat of my heart starting to pick up in anticipation, nerves jangling tightly with the sheer abnormality of it.

This was out of the ordinary. It couldn't mean anything good.

And that was before she opened her mouth.

"Shikako Nara. You are in so much trouble."

I gaped. "What?"

She didn't look like she was kidding either. There was a tight pinch to the corners of her mouth.

"What for?" I swallowed. My mind raced. _Why? _Because I could think of a whole lot of things that I had done – things that I _knew_ – that could get me in trouble, but the kind of trouble that would come from those things wasn't the kind that ended with a quiet talk in my own house.

No. If it were _those things_ then I'd know.

Something to do with the Nara Research and Development, clearly, if Kofuku-oba was the one here. But _what?_ I'd barely done anything with them at all. There was a scroll on the table and she motioned at it. Hesitantly, I padded forward, feeling unreal in the utter stillness of the house, to unroll it.

It was stamped with the official mark of the tower. My trepidation rose. Looking at Kofuku-oba gave exactly no reassurance.

_Holy shit. It's an official reprimand._ I read on, eyes widening. That was bad news. That was the kind of thing that went on your permanent record, and led to fines, restrictions or friggin court martial.

And it had my name on it.

I swallowed.

"What were you _thinking?_" Kofuku-oba's voice cracked. "Testing seals on Konoha shinobi!"

"I wasn't!" I protested immediately, because it sounded _so bad _when she said it like that. "I didn't!" Panic was clawing at my chest, squeezing my heart. I gripped the scroll tightly, the words on it hammering into my mind with their severity.

"Then explain this to me!" She actually slapped the table. "If this is how you act, then I _will_ ban you from the department and bar you from the libraries. This is not a game, and these are not toys! There are laws against this for a reason! Do you understand the damage you've done to the clan? The kind of penalties we'll face from the village for this?"

"I didn't!" I said, wide-eyed and almost panicked, under the barrage of condemnation. "It doesn't even _do_ anything! I just wanted Sakura to see it."

"Explain," Kofuku-oba ordered, thankfully halting in her lecture and letting me _actually do so_.

I pulled out the seals, showed them, explained what they did and what had happened. It was those fucking medical students that had got me in trouble – and they'd been the ones who _wanted_ to try it out. So eager to compare their scores against each other.

"We need to get this registered, _now,_" Kofuku-oba decided. "That'll eliminate the problem of it being untested… but you _cannot_ do this again, do you understand? I don't care if your friends agree – any seals you want to test on anyone other than yourself? You do through the official channels. At least that way we can cover you if things go wrong."

"Yes, oba-san," I said meekly, eyes down, shoulders hunched; the perfect appearance of submission. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet," she said grimly. "We have a long night ahead of us."

She was right. She dragged me out of the house, to the main R&D office, and dropped a stack of paperwork in front of me.

"Fill that out. I have damage control to run," she said briskly. "And don't even think about going anywhere."

I didn't. I felt like I was physically bound in place by the weight of disappointment and disapproval. I could barely breathe with it. And when I lifted my hand to grasp the pen, it shook like I was coming down off an adrenaline high.

I swallowed, and began to fill out the papers. There were problems almost immediately – it was clear they were designed with the main pharmaceutical staple of the clan in mind, all the terminology geared towards drugs, and did not crossover well to seals.

Name? I penned in 'Chakra Control Measurement Gauge Seal' then wanted to cross it out because it was needlessly complicated and redundant but didn't because I only had one copy of the form and didn't want to make a mess.

I didn't want to do anything that would make Kofuku-oba more upset at me.

But the contents were only paper and chakra ink, and that meant I couldn't answer the next three questions or provide supporting documentation as to their purity. It wasn't a pharmaceutical product. It was just ink. Just paper.

I spent close to an hour filling it out, thinking and rethinking my answers and nearly gnawing my lip right through out of nervous biting.

"I've rounded up several ninja who are willing to assess and vouch for your seal," Kofuku-oba said, appearing out of the hallway and snapping up the papers. "You're going to owe them very large favours for the foreseeable future. Come."

I scrambled after her.

I was a little relieved to see that Takatori was one of them, even if I didn't _especially_ want him to also be disappointed. The others, I didn't really know personally. Ryosen Nara, who worked in Analytics. Todai Nara who did something relating to quality control approval.

"Is this the seal?" Ryosen asked immediately. "Is it accurate? How much chakra does it take to run? Can it be mass produced? Is the scale consistent from person to person? What's the margin of error? How much does individual repeatability vary?"

"More importantly," Takatori said. "Is it safe? What's the output? What's the _input_ and where does the difference go? What happens if it gets overloaded?"

I wilted back under the barrage of focused questioning. "Umm," I said, intelligently, holding the seal almost like a shield in front of me. No one came to my rescue.

I decided to focus on Takatori's questions first, which sounded, at the heart of it, more important.

"The output of the seal is ten points of blue light, that is electromagnetic waves of approximately 500 nanometers and about the same intensity as a single candle," I started, clearing my throat.

I had a feeling this was going to take a while.

I was right. Once they ran out of questions for me – and that took a _long while_ – then we moved into testing the seal. Firstly they wanted to prove that it was safe, which, okay, fine, and measure the chakra input and output and the intensity of the light and I had to draw up about ten identical seals for repeatability testing. Then there were more questions and more testing, and by the end of it, I was mostly just following commands on autopilot.

"Form and function are both very simple," Ryosen said, eventually. "The ability to accurately and easily measure chakra control of test subjects will come in extremely handy for large survey groups, especially as the seal is reusable and reproducible. Medical might find it useful as well." She nodded. "I'll sign off on it."

"It passes the safety tests," Takatori said, covering a yawn.

"I'm not happy with the rush testing," Todai said, crossing his arms. "I'll sign, but I'm putting a month long sale restriction on it – I want a full test completed before we even think about producing these."

Kofuku nodded crisply. "That's fair. I'll get the paperwork completed and submitted to the Hokage's office in response to their complaint. Thank you all for your time." She dropped a hand to my shoulder and _gripped._ "Come along, Shikako. You aren't finished yet. I want a proposal for intended uses, benefits and advantages of this seal."

My eyes flicked to the clock. "I have a mission in the morning."

Her voice was unyielding. "Then you had better write quickly."

I hunched over the desk, sullenly filling pages with bullshit explanations on the 'real world applications' on a seal that had taken me no more than an idle thought to design. Ryosen had provided more than a few potential uses in her own field, and had seemed legitimately interested in the field, so that was something.

But the more I considered the situation, the more it _burnt._

Everything I'd done, the secrets I held, the decisions I'd made in the field – and this was the thing that got me punished?

It was ridiculous.

I stretched by arms above my head and bent backwards until my spine cracked. The clock told me that it was nearly four o'clock in the morning, which meant I wasn't getting any sleep tonight no matter what.

I bared my teeth in a move that no one would mistake for a smile, and found my original proposal for the chakra stone project. Then, with lines of my pen so savage that the nib scored holes in the paper, lined the whole thing out.

'Amendment to Proposal SN-012610-01' I penned neatly, at the top of a new page. And then proceeded to outline a study into chakra matrixes that was completely divorced from the idea of user variance and thus required _no fucking chakra control analysis._

If I could do it, and no one else could, fine. Great. Fantastic even.

Clearly no one wanted it anyway.

"You don't have to re-design that now," Takatori said, leaning against the door. "Kofuku-oba isn't that angry. She was just worried and trying to get enough paperwork together to prove your case. She _is_ fighting this on your behalf."

I shrugged stiffly, not looking up at him. "I'm minimising the chances of a repeat occurrence by eliminating the need for outside participants."

"Oh. I see," Takatori said, sounding far too shrewd and knowing. "This isn't about appeasing anyone at all. This is about tanking the seal that got you in trouble so that it never sees the light of day and no one ever benefits from it at all. That's a little petty, Shikako-chan."

I couldn't stop the reflexive flinch of my shoulders. I refused to look up at him.

"You know that you won't be allowed to work on anything outside the scope of your project until you can prove trustworthy again. And that, if there's no one to take charge and pushing it through the testing, that seal will just linger indefinitely in quarantine." He plucked the proposal off my desk and skimmed it. "And that if it ever did get to the point of sale, the hospital would probably be a big purchaser. My, my. No one quite does passive-aggressive like a Nara."

I said nothing.

"Ryosen will be disappointed," he added lightly. "She's already quite excited about the possibilities of adding it to her population surveys. Something about kicking the myth of kunoichi being better at control?"

I didn't rise to that bait either.

He sighed. The paper fluttered back to the desk, and his hand landed heavy but friendly on my head. "It's not the end of the world kid," he said kindly, fluffing my hair. "We all fuck up sometimes."

My throat closed, leaving me speechless. I wasn't sure what I would have said, if it hadn't, but I doubted it would have been pretty.

_That wasn't the point._

When I'd fucked up, I'd gotten myself killed. This wasn't a fuck up. This wasn't _anything._ It meant nothing, it did nothing, and it was so fucking _unfair._

I breathed in through my nose, muscles so tense that they shook.

"Get some rest," Takatori said gently. "It'll look better in the morning."

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><p>.<p>

I didn't get sleep, and it didn't look better in the morning.

I washed my face in the office bathroom, combing wet fingers through my hair and trying to look a little less like how I felt. It would do no good to show up at Yakumo's like that.

It felt like it took herculean effort to straighten my shoulders, and smooth my face into something that looked calm and happy.

_Good enough._

"Good morning," I said to Yakumo, voice carefully bright but not chirpy.

She smiled in return, not appearing to notice anything out of the ordinary. "Good morning."

I felt myself relax a fraction. "Did you have plans for today?"

Yakumo shrugged. "Could we do some more training?" She asked. "I promise I'll try harder."

"Of course," I said. "I think I can come up with something."


	80. Chapter 79

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: Violet-skya has finished the chapter 70 comic, and it is beautiful! Thank you. Link in my profile, as always!

Guest – A vast majority of the fanart is on the DOSCG site, run by **Nomurai** and **Diamond Pawn. **Otherwise, my DeviantArt has a favourites folder with all the DeviantArt fanart in it. Either of those should be easy to navigate.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 79

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><p>.<p>

_Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. ~Arthur Ashe_

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><p>.<p>

"Oh, Shikako," Mum said with a sigh.

I braced myself for the scolding. I'd dragged my feet returning home because of it, ugly anticipation twisting in my gut, but there was really no way to avoid it forever. I'd just have to suck it up, sit quietly, and nod.

"Come and sit down," she said instead, patting the couch beside her.

I padded over, feet silent against the tatami floor.

At least Shikamaru was upstairs, and not sitting there watching with his stupid smug face. I didn't need to know _his_ opinion on this too.

"You look miserable, my girl." Her hand brushed the bangs off my face. "It's been a tough few days, hasn't it?"

I blinked. That wasn't… that wasn't to script.

She exhaled. "I wish your father were here. He'd have had this all sorted out before it even became a problem. But I'd be a poor mother if I relied on him for everything."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, tilting my head in puzzlement. This wasn't what I had prepared for. I didn't know what to say.

"Tell me what's wrong," Mum said gently.

I frowned. "But you know what's wrong." Of course she _knew._ Kofuku-oba would have explained. Heck, she'd probably been the one to receive the reprimand on my behalf, if it had been delivered to the clan.

"I know what happened," she corrected patiently. "But I don't know what's wrong."

"I don't either," I said, voice suddenly very small. Why did someone else saying it make it so much easier to voice? "I don't… I don't understand. Why am I in trouble _this _time? I've made bigger seals than that and no one cared."

I'd spent _years_ fluffing around with explosives, for crying out loud. Sometimes around clan heirs. And it had never garnered anywhere near that kind of response. Parental supervision, yes, but we'd never been in _trouble_ for it.

"Oh, sweetheart." Mum's eyes filled with understanding, and she wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "You know, when I got married, there were a whole lot of things that I had to learn about how to live in a clan. And it wasn't even the big things that tripped me up, because I knew to watch for them. But there were some things that were so common that no one ever thought to warn me about because they were so _obvious._ It was their mind set, the way they'd grown up… and I hadn't."

I leant against her, listening, even if I couldn't quite see the comparison.

"You might have grown up in a clan," she continued. "But you were trained for the field, not the hospital or research labs. I don't think they quite understand how different that is. You wouldn't throw a medical ninja in the field without more training, and they shouldn't have expected you to do the opposite." She sounded quite firm about that.

"I don't…" I trailed off. Was there something there? Something that was so obvious that I didn't see it? Staring at me, right in front of my face? I was no stranger to having a perspective that was _just_ a little too different to see all the right things.

"For you – and for me – a seal is a weapon," she said. "You can use it in battle, or in training, or you can pass it to a friend… it can be dangerous, yes, but that's what weapons are."

I nodded. The analogy was apt. It was so apt it wasn't even an _analogy._ Seals were jutsu were weapons. It was how you used them that made them dangerous, absolutely, and a kunai could cut dinner as easily as an enemy… but it was a weapon all the same.

"But for medical ninja, that's not how they see it." Mum glanced at me. "They see seals as more… like medicine."

I frowned.

"Everything in the hospital is controlled, before it ever gets used on a patient," Mum said.

I nodded. I knew that. I approved of that. Health standards and quality control and all that sort of thing. It wasn't _quite_ like the system I was used to, since you still had things like the secret Nara Medical Encyclopaedia and ingredients and medicines were still _secret_. But the clan was trusted – entrusted? enforced? – with ensuring that the medicines and ingredients we used were up to standard, and did what they said they would do.

It might not also have been _strictly_ true, since medical ninja were a lot more likely to employ on the spot inventions and experimental drug treatments in response to extreme injuries.

"Well, that doesn't just apply to the medicine itself. Fuuinjutsu is also very common at the hospital, as a tool for the medic nin to use. So they're also very strict about the quality of the seals that they use."

"Oh," I said, as I understood. If they considered it the equivalent of handing out untested drugs, then yes, I could see why they made it a big deal. It _wasn't_ the same but… "It was because I was at the hospital."

"And because you work for the research division," Mum added. "Even if you weren't doing it _directly_ for them, you're still affiliated with them and have to follow their rules."

Which meant that if I hadn't been working for them, but had done the exact same thing… would it have been such an issue?

Maybe. Maybe not.

I slumped even further, feeling exhausted.

"Kofuku and I never exactly got along," Mum continued, and I knew that. Mum and Dad getting married had been a Thing, capital T, and relations inside the clan hadn't exactly thawed out until Shikamaru and I were born. That was probably due more to Shikamaru than me. Everyone wanted a strong heir.

"But she is the best person to be running damage control on this," she said, smoothing a hand over my shoulder. "It won't turn out too badly. I don't expect you'll get more than a warning for it."

I heaved a sigh. "It's just… troublesome," I complained.

It was easy to forget – and I was guilty of this – that mum nagged because she loved us and we were miserable at actually doing the shit she told us to do, not because she got any particular joy in repeating the same thing over and over again. We'd have been worse off if we didn't have her constantly prodding us into action.

It was probably a good thing that mum had talked to me first, because when I headed to my room, I found Shikamaru sitting at the top of the stairs.

I'd sensed him – but I'd rather thought he would leave before I got there.

It was clear that he had heard us… and that he'd had the same thought that I had.

If I had not been in the research division, would I have been in trouble now? And… who, exactly, was responsible for the fact that I was?

He looked stricken.

I was angry with him. And hurt that he'd tried to undermine me. And exasperated at the whole situation.

But he was still my brother - he was still the boy that had fought a god for me and won - and I still loved him. I didn't want him hurt or upset. Not even when I was angry at him.

"Go to sleep, Shika," I said, sighing. "They'll fix it."

"I'm sorry," he said.

"You're not, really," I contradicted, quietly, because I knew that underneath the guilt he still thought he was _right_. Maybe, from his point of view, he was. "You're sorry it went wrong." I stepped past him, bumping his shoulder gently. "I'm tired. I really want to sleep."

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><p>.<p>

The hearing was set for the day after my mission officially ended, which was a mixed blessing. On one hand, I didn't have to _quit_ my mission, or be suspended, which was what I suspected should have happened if the situation had been a little less muddy. On the other, it was awful to have so much time to consider it, because there was nothing I could do to prepare or change the outcome of it – it just hung over my head like a very pale imitation of the sword of Damocles.

I spent the rest of the week intensely introducing Yakumo to the idea of 'normality' or whatever that was, trying to get her re-involved in the village and its people. We went shopping, to the onsen, went training, met up with friends… I wanted her to have things to fall back on when I wasn't constantly around. Also, it was better to have first meetings in a semi-controlled setting, just in case.

Not that she'd had another … event, anyway. I wondered how many she had had before they'd decided to seal her power away. Surely it couldn't have been that many. Yes, the one I knew about had been destructive, but since then there had been a single one while we were in the middle of a fight, and talking about her parents death.

You could hardly blame her for feeling a little threatened there.

"I yield," Yakumo said, gasping, as I pinned her to the training field ground.

I pulled my forearm away from her throat. I had restricted myself to taijutsu, which was why I was in so close, in order to keep it a little fair. I hadn't _forbidden_ her from using genjutsu, but I'd made sure it was damn difficult for her to do so. Her paintings needed a fair bit of set up time, and I just hadn't given it to her. Apart from that, her genjutsu were good, but not unbreakable, and I'd shaken them, even if it had been tricky at times – with layered illusions, or time based ones, or ones that activated as I dispelled the last.

She wasn't bad but, even holding back, I was better.

"How do you feel?" I asked.

She paused. "A little disappointed," she confessed. "I thought I would do better."

"But not worried," I said. "Even when I pinned you down, there was nothing."

"I guess I knew you wouldn't hurt me…" Yakumo said.

Which was a dangerous mind set, really. Because she wouldn't believe anyone was trying to hurt her right up until they did, which was going to be the least appropriate time to work out if she was going to transform into her alter ego or not. But there was very little I could do about that – I doubted she'd believe any of the other Konoha 12 were going to hurt her either, so I couldn't even ask them to spar with her.

Or I could try and convince her that I _was…_ but no. I'd have to go a long way to be convincing and that would break all the trust that had built between us.

I didn't think it was worth it.

I sighed. "Ready to go again?"

The problem with having one deadline looming over me, was that it reminded me of the greater, further off deadlines that I had to deal with. I hadn't _forgotten_ them, precisely, but they were harder, vaguer goals with a nebulous timeframe.

I had tried but there was very little in the way of results. Even linking Aoi to Hidden Rain was iffy – I had no idea if he knew anything worth knowing or if Konoha would give the information the weight that it really had.

What was this compared to that?

I knew what I _should_ have been focusing on, though I could only guess at how. It was just… it had been fun. It had been fun, and interesting, and felt like it would be rewarding to get involved with research. I had gained access to information, that was true, and I knew that would come in helpful with my own sealing, but…

It had been fun.

And now the idea of it filled me with dull dread rather than anticipation.

I had been back to the research division, mostly to complete whatever forms my aunt wanted, and to actually hunt down some kind of goddamn rulebook so I didn't cross any lines again. But it had lost its shine.

I would finish the project I was working on, because I'd said I would, but beyond that I didn't know. All the little things that had threatened to spin off into side projects suddenly seemed less interesting, less important.

I had the Book of Gelel. That was a resource better than most of what I was getting from the clan. If I didn't continue to do research for them, I would still be able to progress in my own sealing. Maybe a little limited in scope, but I would be fine.

It was a thought I turned over again and again during that week.

"Anko-sensei!" Yakumo greeted happily. "You've returned! Please come in!"

Anko stepped into the house, followed closely by Ino. They were both still carrying packs strapped across their backs, having clearly come straight here. Ino looked… not happy, exactly, but confident. Settled.

"Welcome home," I murmured. "How did it go?"

Ino smirked at me. "That's classified," she teased. She flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. "But you know, we made a new friend. Brought her home with us. Her name is Isaribi; she's at the hospital getting checked out by Tsunade-sama right now."

Despite the teasing tone, she seemed to be serious. It was actually classified, then? Had it evolved to be classified? Or – no, I didn't know what their mission had been in the first place, did I? Land of Sea, but what and why…

"Oh, no, is she seriously hurt?" I asked.

"She's not injured," Ino answered. "She ran afoul of some people who were interested in bloodlimits. You know how it goes."

Ino, with her new found knowledge of Orochimaru and his history. Anko, with her own. A girl with bloodlimit experiments. Classified.

It wasn't a totally secure conclusion. There were other possible explanations. But.

"I see," I said. "That's terrible. I hope she gets better soon."

Ino nodded. "Yeah, she will." She shrugged. "Well, Anko said she was coming here, so I just wanted to swing by and let you know we were back all in one piece. I should go home; have a shower. I swear I've got road dust in my hair."

I smiled. "You'd never notice," I assured her.

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><p>.<p>

The hearing took place the next morning.

Mum wrestled my hair into twin pigtail braids, rather than its normal single braid, and fished a formal shirt out of my closet for me to wear. I wasn't even allowed to wear my kunai pouch or leg holster.

I looked all of about ten years old.

It seemed that we weren't above taking advantage of my age and relative lack of experience in arguing our side of the case. It wasn't, particularly, that looking young bothered me. It had been a long time since I looked the age I thought I was, and I had recently looked ten. Or eight. Or five.

It was just that it frustrated me, that we had to go through this rigmarole and illusion, rather than simply presenting the facts and having the correct judgement made from that.

"It will have to do," Mum said critically, twitching a piece of hair so that it curled closer to my face.

I gave her my best wide, sad bambi eyes, and fiddled with the sleeves that were a fraction too long and covered my hands.

She looked nothing but amused. "Keep that up and we'll have no problem," she said dryly. "Put your shoes on. Now remember, Kofuku is going to do most of the talking, but if they want your opinion-"

"Then I am very sorry and I won't do it again," I said dutifully, even if I rolled my eyes. I sat and pulled my sandals on.

Shikamaru had left for a mission with Chouji and Kiba during the week, for which I was mostly thankful; otherwise, I knew he would have insisted on coming with us. I didn't think we needed an _audience. _

Kofuku-oba was waiting outside for us and we headed into town together. I felt increasingly awkward the further from home we went, dressed differently, hair done strangely and on my way to an official meeting.

I fiddled with my too long sleeves.

We entered the tower, Kofuku leading the way and winding through the hallways until we reached a set of hallways signposted as the Judiciary. It wasn't an area that I had been before.

There was a receptionist, to whom Kofuku submitted a set of papers and had a quick and quiet conversation, and a waiting room with a few stiff backed chairs where mum and I took a seat.

Then we waited. It was very boring.

They could have at least supplied us with magazines.

My hands twitched, curling in my sleeves. I hadn't actually brought any of my notebooks with me, so I couldn't even take one out to work on. I suspected that wouldn't have gone over well anyway – hence leaving them behind in the first place.

Well. Even if I couldn't write it down, I could still think. They couldn't stop me doing _that._

Sometime later, mum jostled my shoulder, shaking me out of my contemplation and back to my surroundings. Reluctantly, I slid to my feet and followed the two of them into one of the offices.

"Now, Shikako Nara, is it?" The man behind the office desk asked, peering at me through his glasses. He looked about sixty, maybe, hair white with age and face lined. There was no sense of hidden strength to him, or power, like there had been with the Hokage, though he seemed perfectly commanding in this room.

Bambi eyes, I reminded myself. "Yes, sir." I bowed.

"Alright, take a seat." He waited as we did so. "Now the complaint was lodged by the hospital and is a charge of failing to abide by testing restrictions and endangering the health and safety of Konoha shinobi."

Kofuku-oba laid out the situation, neatly and concisely, though she was very vague on the details of what I was actually working on for the clan.

They debated a little over the differences between 'shinobi testing a seal' and 'testing a seal on shinobi' and went over the documents that we'd provided to prove that the seal really was harmless.

"I see," he said afterwards. "I believe I have a full understanding of the situation now. Is there anything else you would like to add?"

I tucked my hands flat beneath my thighs and waited. This was it.

"Despite the seriousness of the initial accusation," he said, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "I believe this was not an incidence caused by malice or wilful disregard of our laws. However, negligence is still dangerous, especially when we consider the ways in which this situation _could_ have gone. In that light, I am reducing this reprimand to a warning, though it will still be noted on your permanent record. In the next six months, I expect to see evidence that you acknowledge and understand the rules and regulations involving seal use and research testing in Konoha, and the reasons behind them. I charge the Nara clan with seeing this is carried out."

I nodded solemnly, though it didn't seem so bad. Actually, that sounded like I was getting off really lightly. I'd have to, what, fill out a questionnaire? Write an essay, maybe. I'd already looked up the damn rules.

"I'm also going to levy a fine, to be paid to the village in the next quarter," he finished, stamping the scroll and signing it. He handed it to mum, and the three of us stood and bowed.

Kofuku-oba sighed as we left the tower. "I thought we'd get away without the fine," she said regretfully. "But it wasn't too bad, overall."

I peeked at the scroll mum was holding. It was… well. It wasn't a small amount. It would probably have taken a Genin a good few months to try and pay that off, especially if they'd had other things to drain mission pay away. But… it was less than I'd been paid from my last big mission.

My last 'big mission' had been an S-rank; if it came out of my pay, I wasn't really going to suffer much.

Mum rested her hand on my shoulder, and tucked the scroll away. "You let me worry about that," she said. "Why don't we get something to eat?"

She nodded goodbye to Kofuku-oba, and we found a nice little café to sit and drink tea at. She even ordered me a plate of sweets without admonishing that they'd ruin my teeth, weren't healthy, or that it was nearly lunch time.

That definitely indicated she was worried, but since the hearing was over, I wasn't sure about what.

I drank my tea quietly.

"Hey, hey! It's Shikako's mum!" Naruto's voice broke the silence, yelling cheerfully across the street. "Hi!"

He dragged Sasuke along behind him, weaving through the people on the road like they were an obstacle course and he was being timed.

"Hey, have you seen- No, way! Shikako, you look different."

I propped my elbow on the table and rested my chin in my palm. "Really?" I asked dryly.

Naruto squinched his eyes at me; I couldn't tell if he was trying to glare or smile. Maybe both.

"We were totally looking for you," he said accusingly. "It's team training, how could you miss it?"

I considered. Then affected a very familiar drawl. "Mah, well, I had a very important meeting, and when that was over, I had to recover my spirit through the quick application of wagashi-"

"No!" Naruto hollered, sounding absolutely horrified. "You can't become sensei!"

He was so melodramatic. I let my lips curl into a smirk.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "We didn't have training planned, idiot," he said, and elbowed Naruto in the side. "She didn't know."

"But you know now!" Naruto said, apparently recovering quickly from his shock. "So let's go!"

I smiled at mum. "It sounds like I have no choice," I said, slipping from my seat. "Can I go?"

She smiled back, lifting her cup. "Have fun."

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><p>.<p>

"So what's with the…" Sasuke said, after we'd finished fighting, waving a vague hand in my direction.

I pulled a kunai out of a tree trunk, and examined it to try and decide which one of the boys it belonged to. I'd had to liberate a few from them at the start of the fight, on account of not having my own with me, but there were enough items in the training field that could be impromptu weapons in a pinch.

Being creative had been… fun.

I shrugged. "I had a meeting," I said, touching the pigtails a little self-consciously. I threw the kunai into the dirt near Naruto and started to re-braid them properly.

"Yeah?" Sasuke prompted, frowning at his new Fuuma Shuriken. His last one had been destroyed with Genno's traps, but this one's opening mechanism seemed to stick. It was possible there was some grit in it, or that the plates weren't quite formed properly. He'd have to sort it out before he took it into the field, or that could cause problems at the worst moment.

I thought about putting them off – calling it 'clan stuff' or just out right deflecting – but that wasn't fair. They'd asked. They were my team.

I gave them a short summary of what had happened.

"What?!" Naruto exclaimed, outraged. He bounced to his feet. "That's not fair! I'll tell 'em that you didn't mean to hurt anyone!"

I waved him off. "It's fine," I said. "Everything is sorted now. It doesn't matter."

"You didn't say anything before," Sasuke said, still frowning at his weapon.

"To be honest," I said. "I didn't want to talk about it. There was nothing that either of us could do to fix it. And… it just made me upset to think about it."

It still did, a little. I didn't like admitting that I'd made mistakes. I'd rather the whole thing was dropped in a deep hole and forgotten about, actually.

"Don't be upset!" Naruto said, switching from indignant to concerned. He patted me awkwardly on the shoulder and threw a slightly desperate look at Sasuke.

I sighed and threw an arm around his shoulder to pull him into a hug. "Thank you, but you don't have to worry. Just forget about it, okay?"

Sasuke was watching out of the corner of his eye, even if he pretended his attention was focused on the shuriken. He snapped it shut. "In that case; round two?"

I grinned. "Prepare to go down."

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><p>.<p>

"I'm assigning you a B-rank mission," Tsunade said, after summoning Naruto and I to her office. "You'll be apprehending this man – Gosunkugi, also known as The Nail. He recently stole an artefact of some value from the Land of Tea's court; they're eager to get it back."

"No problem," Naruto said confidently. "It'll be just like the time with that weird teddy bear statue."

Tsunade looked like she was trying to cover a smile. "Quite," she agreed. "It's unlikely that the item is still in his possession at this point. Mostly likely it's been sold on the black market. If that _is_ the case, we'll have to question him until we can begin to track it down again." She picked up the mission scroll on her desk and threw it to Naruto. "He's been keeping his head low, but we got word that he's been spotted in the Land of Stone. I want you to head there and track him down."

I hesitated. "Just the two of us, Tsunade-sama?"

"No, your third teammate will be here soon," she said.

I wondered who it would be. Apart from the team that returned with Naruto, Hinata was the only other rookie still in Konoha. She would have been a good choice for a mission like this too; it was more to her skill than ours. But either Shino or Ino would have been a handy addition, in different ways.

Turned out, even I could be completely blindsided.

"Hello," said the boy who stepped into the office. "It's nice to meet you." He smiled.

I turned to look at Tsunade.

"Eh?" Naruto asked, puzzled. "Who are you?"

"He's an experienced Chunin who's been assigned to your team for this mission," Tsunade introduced. "This is Sai."

She had to know.

She had to. There was no way she _didn't_ know who he was – who he worked for. Not if she was assigning him to Naruto's team. Sure, it was Sasuke that had so far been targeted, but thinking that Tsunade wouldn't be equally careful with Naruto was missing the point.

Which begged the question of _why?_ Why put him here? What was she hoping to accomplish?

And what was _Danzo_ hoping to accomplish? Sai, in the story, had always been a double agent. He'd… what, been supposed to go after Sasuke? Or deal with Orochimaru? But that wasn't the case here and now. It couldn't be. So what _was_ his goal?

Dammit.

There was not a single expression that gave away anything on the Hokage's face. I might as well have been staring at the carved mountainside, for all the good it was doing.

"Shikako Nara. Pleased to meet you," I echoed, bowing to Sai, and pasting on an equally bland smile. "I hope we can work well together."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said, and jabbed his thumb towards himself. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, Konoha's Number One Most Unpredictable Ninja." He grinned. "I hope you're good. You're gunna need to be, to keep up with us."

"I am," Sai said, completely without any bravado.

Naruto faltered at that, just a little. He was used to people self-promoting, or being intimidating, but _actual_ confidence was something different. But his smile came back full force in under a second. "Great. Let's go then."

"Tsunade-sama," I said lowly. "Since Sai has yet to be briefed… I assume that Naruto is the Team Leader for this mission?"

She'd introduced Sai as 'more experienced' after all, which tended to indicate that he would be the one. I just… well. I didn't trust him as far as I could throw him, as the saying went.

I didn't want him in charge. I didn't want him arguing that he should be in charge. And I really didn't want Naruto to fall into the habit of listening to him like he was in charge.

"That's right," Tsunade agreed. "Naruto could use a little more experience as a Team Leader. Though I'm sure Sai will be willing to offer advice and guidance should the need arise."

I bowed to her, thankful that that was one hurdle down. Now I just had to find the rest of the hurdles, before I could clear them.

_Why are you here, Sai?_

He wasn't supposed to show up for _years._ That meant that something was different, somewhere along the lines. I didn't expect that nothing would have changed after all this time, but… well.

He could still have been after Sasuke, in an oblique fashion, trying to get at him through us. But that felt like it was reaching a little. There were easier ways.

"How long have you been a Chunin, Sai?" I asked politely as we headed towards the gates. "You didn't take part in the last Chunin Exams." It was both an attempt to break the ice with small talk, and to fish for information. I wasn't sure if anything that Sai would tell me was _true_ but… well. There had to be something.

"Two years," Sai responded and didn't elaborate further.

To be fair, it answered the question directly – it just didn't respond to the social cue to _talk._

I couldn't tell if that was deliberate or not. My knowledge of Sai had him being generally offensive and insulting, with an added smile. It could have been pure social incompetence, but there had to be a factor of deliberateness to how often he had hit the mark.

"Oh yeah?" Naruto said, falling into step on Sai's other side. "Where did you take the exam then? It wouldn't have been Konoha, right? Since that only happens every three years." Naruto looked pleased with himself for remembering that – which he probably only knew because Idate had made a big deal out of it. But whatever worked.

"It was not," Sai said placidly.

This was going to be so fun. I could tell.

"So where was it?" Naruto persisted.

We spent much of the trip that way, pressing Sai for information and occasionally throwing out small, unimportant tidbits about ourselves so that it didn't seem like a total interrogation – or at least I did. I was pretty sure Naruto considered the whole thing a successful conversation.

It wasn't that I didn't like Sai, or that I didn't want to help him, or didn't think he deserved helping. That wasn't the case. If I could, I would have gladly welcomed him into Team Seven and had him at our backs.

But I knew that he worked for Danzo. And that made him dangerous to us. Until I could work out what he wanted and why he was here… I couldn't trust him.

"Do we want to set up camp here?" I asked, as the sun was starting to sink towards the horizon. "I don't think there are any inns along this way."

Land of Stone was an offshoot of the Land of Earth, wedged in the bordering countries between it and Land of Wind. It had been part of Earth Country up until the last war, when Konoha's offensive –read, the Yellow Flash – had devastated the border line so fully that the troops had had to pull back and abandon miles of ground including all the war bases and outposts. The outposts had been reclaimed by locals made homeless by the war, and they'd managed to cobble together a series of functioning villages and governance before Hidden Rock had thought to do anything about the place after the war ended.

Whether it was its own country, or a vassal state of Land of Earth, depended entirely on who you talked to – the Daimyo of Earth Country claimed it as theirs, but everyone else tended to accept it as a tiny, unimportant country of its own.

The fastest way to get there, by rights, would have been to head north-west from Konoha and cut through Land of Rivers and Land of Wind. Of course, that ignored terrain issues – the fact that River Country was basically one giant mountain range, and the fact that the desert of the Land of Wind was dangerous at the best of times. So instead, we were going to head to the north-west corner of the Land of Fire, cut through River Country there, and then head west.

It was a trip that would take us three and a half, maybe four days depending on how hard we pushed.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "Let's find a place to camp out. Man, I feel like I haven't seen a real bed in weeks."

He probably hadn't, depending on how they'd slept on the last mission.

We found a flat clearing with cover that we agreed upon, even if it took a bit of poking to get Sai to deem it 'acceptable'. It wasn't so much that he didn't like the place, it was just that didn't seem to recognise he needed to contribute an opinion after the Team Leader had made a decision.

"What, you don't like it, or something?" Naruto asked, piling wood together to make a fire. "We got cover, exits, and there's a little river down that way a bit."

Sai blinked. "I don't feel anything about it, one way or the other. Emotions are a hindrance to a ninja."

Naruto scoffed and crossed his arms. "That's a load of crap. How can you act if you don't feel anything at all?"

"I follow orders." Sai smiled.

I looked carefully at him. This was… okay, this was a lot deeper than I thought we were going to get so fast. Maybe not into _why_ he was here, but the issues of Sai himself?

I sat down next to him, carefully casual. "You don't feel anything at all, Sai?"

"No," he said. "Why would I?"

I hummed and tipped my head back to look at the sky through the trees. Now how did I handle this? "Sometimes," I started. "It's easier to be like that. Emotions _can_ be a hindrance to a ninja, but they can also be really beneficial. They might stop you from completing a mission, but they might also give you an extra reason why you _should_ complete a mission even if it seemed like it was beyond your capabilities."

"What she said," Naruto agreed. "There've been a lot of times when I've been scared, but _so what?_ My friends needed me, so it didn't matter that I was scared. The bonds I have with them, the need to defend my precious people, that was what made me _really_ strong."

"Are you implying that I'm scared? I'm not," Sai objected quietly, calmly. "I just don't feel anything at all."

Not the right track to take, then. I reconsidered. There was something almost _fragile_ about him, which I hadn't expected to see. Not when I thought of him as being so dangerous to me. But to bring this up so quickly, to reach out so fast to people he didn't know or trust himself…

Either Sai was playing us so well, or this was something that was so often at the top of his thoughts.

"Have you ever been hit with a flashbang?" I asked, keeping my tone a little detached so it didn't sound like a threat. "You know, afterwards? After all the light and sound has faded, you still can't see or hear, because you were so overwhelmed with it. It can take a little while for it to come back. Emotions can be like that too."

Sai tilted his head. "That would assume I once suffered enough emotion to render me 'blind'," he said.

"Did you?" I asked, still calm, still detached. It was an offer, not a push.

His eyes drifted towards his bag, but he said nothing more.

Naruto was watching us, arms still crossed, still scowling. But his eyes were trained on my face, and when I flicked my eyes towards the direction of the river, he nodded. "I'm going to go catch some fish to eat, okay? You guys get the campsite ready." He disappeared into the trees, before pausing to holler, "and make the fire!"

Maybe I should have left Sai to him, he was _better_ at getting through to people, even if it normally involved shouting and punching. But I didn't really want to leave the two of them alone together.

Sai stood briskly and started getting things ready. I knelt down to fix the fire that Naruto had half way readied, and used a lighter to catch the kindling alight.

"It's okay, you know," I said quietly. "Whatever you feel or don't feel. It's even okay if you don't know."

"How could one not know?" Sai asked blandly. "That doesn't make any sense."

I gave him a small smile. "Feelings aren't always simple," I said. "Especially the big ones. See… for the two of us, right now… I could show you a stick just fine," I held one up, for demonstration. "Or even a tree. But how could I show you the forest? Or the Land of Fire? We're inside them. Maybe if we got distance, we would be able to, but right now, it's impossible."

Sai gave a bright, fake smile. "You really like to use metaphors, don't you?"

I laughed, and dropped the stick into the fire. "I guess I do," I said.


	81. Chapter 80

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN:

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Chapter 80

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_It's more humane to cure your enemies than to kill them. ~Hugh Mann_

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"So this is it, huh?" Naruto said, as we curved around the pass that lead to Station One, the first town into the Land of Stone. The path in front of us curved and wiggled down the steep mountain side, but the village was cradled in a flat valley spread out before us. "It looks pretty rough."

I hummed. "We should probably check and see if Gosunkugi has been spotted in the area. Start with the hotels, maybe check out the bars and food markets? And maybe ask the local police if there have been any recent incidents – if he's not worried about keeping his head down, then he might have stolen something here too."

I wasn't entirely sure what kind of lead Tsunade had had that pointed here; it didn't say in the scroll, only that it was 'likely'.

"Okay." Naruto nodded, determinedly. Then he stopped and turned to his other side. "What do you think, Sai?"

Sai blinked. "I concur with this plan of action."

"Great!" Naruto clapped him on the shoulder with great enthusiasm. It was maybe a little over done, but not exactly _false_ cheerfulness. Bull headed, stubborn cheerfulness, like the rest of his smiles, but not false.

Naruto it seemed, had not just accepted Sai as a pale, slightly weird, fellow ninja, but distinctly decided that he was a _friend._ A friend in need of a perpetual cheering squad, constant prodding and persistence, but a friend none the less.

_He's going to feel so betrayed._

I looked down at the town below us, pretending to examine it.

If I said anything, Naruto would never let it lie. He would confront it – confront Sai – immediately.

"Hey," I said, throwing a teasing smirk at the boys. "First one to the village gets to pick where we stay tonight."

I stepped off the edge of the path and fell.

_Oh, shit. Why did I think this was a good idea?_

No, I wasn't falling. I anchored myself to the rock with _just_ enough chakra to skim over the rock, like snowboarding without the board. Or snow.

Naruto shouted behind me, and a glance over my shoulder told me that he was imitating me, chakra glowing blue around his ankles and throwing up a mess of dust.

I grinned, adrenaline burst fading from 'mind numbing terror' to 'pleasant thrill', and slid my stance out so that it really was like I was snowboarding. I picked up speed, wind whipping through my hair as I careened down a nearly seventy degree slope.

Then Sai plunged past me, not slipping down the mountain, just falling. I nearly leapt out to catch him, but noticed, last second that he had a scroll out and was drawing on it in freefall. A huge bird burst out of the page, swept underneath him and delivered him lightly to the ground.

I increased the chakra in my feet as we neared the ground, bracing my legs against the increased stress and slowing my speed. At the last minute I jumped off, flipping and hitting the ground rolling to bleed off the rest of it, before popping to my feet.

I laughed, exhilarated, and threw my arm around Sai's shoulder. "Hurry up, slowpoke!" I shouted at Naruto. "Do we have to wait for you all day?"

He crashed into the ground moments later, landing a little gracelessly on hands and knees, but unharmed. "Hey! You're both cheaters!"

I poked my tongue at him. "I can't hear you over the sound of how long you took~!"

Naruto puffed out his cheeks. "You lost too! Serves you right for cheating first."

Sai shifted a little awkwardly beside me. Clearly too much contact. I dropped my arm and stepped away, turning to head for the village.

We headed to the main hotel first, mostly because it was the most obvious building in the main street. It looked like the ground floor was a bar instead of a reception anyway, so it was probably an important locale to check out.

"What's that?" Naruto asked, puzzled, as we stopped at the huge notice board right next to the front doors. "There's a picture of Gosunkugi."

"A bounty posting," Sai said.

"Land of Stone doesn't have a ninja village," I explained to Naruto as he continued to look confused. "So, when there is a criminal who has evaded the local police, they can't easily hire a ninja to bring him in. Instead, they just put up a bounty, and whoever finds him and turns him in can claim the reward. Kinda like a bingo book."

It wasn't exactly so straight forward – for one, plenty of other countries did bounties as well, and not always only on criminals. There were plenty of ninja that had money on their heads; Asuma-sensei for one had a bounty of 35 million ryo, or something. And bingo books were more like warnings than bounty postings.

"Oh," Naruto said. "So there might already be a lot of people looking for him, right? So they'd be able to tell us where to find him?"

"They wouldn't tell us," Sai countered. "Because they wish to claim his bounty themselves. They might even hinder us in our mission." He smiled.

I ignored the out of place expression. "It's a possibility," I allowed. "But not particularly worrying. Gosunkugi might be trying harder to hide if he knows so many people are looking for him, though."

"We'll find him," Naruto said, completely unworried. He turned away from the bounty board and pushed his way inside.

I shrugged and followed him. The inside was … okay, not just a _bar,_ I was going to call it a saloon. I had noted that the architecture of the town seemed to be not just 'western' but 'old west', but this was really getting ridiculous.

Naruto made a bee-line for the counter and bartender, but Sai and I – with surprising synchrony – flared out behind him and scanned the room. For being mid-afternoon, there were a surprising number of people in here. A group of men playing cards at a round table, a couple drinking quietly, two separate men with cloaks and hats pulled low over their faces in the corners.

_Not suspicious at all. Right._

"Hey, old man," Naruto said, amicably enough to the bartender. "We were hoping you could answer some questions."

It was a tossup whether it was the greeting, or if the guy just had a naturally surly disposition. He glared. "If you ain't buying anything, then beat it."

Naruto slid onto a barstool. "We're looking for this guy," he said, putting the picture of Gosunkugi down on the bar. "Has he been here?"

"Hah," the barkeep said, leaning back and crossing his arms. He didn't even look at the picture. "You think you're a bounty hunter, kid? You've got no idea. Get the hell out of here and you might even survive."

Since Naruto was facing the bar, I turned around, leaning casually against it and facing the rest of the room.

Naruto scoffed. "You're the one who has no idea," he said, slapping his hand down on the bar. "Have you seen him or not?"

"I wouldn't tell you, even if I had," the bartender said.

One of the guys playing cards put down his hand. "What's this? A buncha kids think that they can be bounty hunters? What a joke. But you know, I'm a nice guy. I'll give you some advice. If you pay me."

I eyed him. Somehow, I didn't believe that the 'advice' would be worth the money. "Information first, money after," I said. "We'll pay what its worth."

"Oh yeah?" Naruto said eagerly. He turned around. "What is it?"

"Don't get messed up," the guy lunged forward, huge steps clearing the ground between the table and the bar, "in things that don't involve," he swung, one meaty fist heading on a collision course for Naruto's head, "YOU!"

Naruto caught it, barely shifting in his seat. "That's pretty crappy advice, yaknow," he said, frowning.

The rest of the guys at the table stood, dropping their cards. A couple of the chairs clattered to the ground in the rush. The man at the right back corner of the room twitched, arms shifting underneath the poncho cloak that covered him. Reaching for a weapon, no doubt.

"Manaka Michizou," Sai said suddenly. He smiled. "Your picture was on the bounty board outside. Fifty thousand ryo, was it?"

About the same as a D-rank mission. Or a low C-rank, if you wanted to be generous. He might have been dangerous – all the people in the room were carrying knives or machete or even rough swords – but he wasn't anywhere near the league of a ninja. Even a Genin.

It was clear that no one in the room was, because not a single person had looked down to notice that the shadows on the floor were darker than they should be.

I was confident but I wasn't stupid.

"Only small time," Sai concluded.

"What'd you say?" Manaka roared, pulling back to turn on Sai. He stalled as his fist failed to budge in Naruto's grip.

"So you're a crook, too, huh?" Naruto said, contemplatively. "What'd you do?"

Manaka didn't answer, arm muscles bulging as he tried to wrench his fist out of the lazy grip Naruto had on it.

"Cattle rustling," said the man in the corner, tilting his wide brimmed hat back a fraction, to reveal a face cut with scars. So far he'd seemed perfectly at ease with the brewing fight – not even moving for his weapon. "And some petty thievery. He also has a habit of getting into bar brawls, but that ain't even considered a crime round these here parts."

Of all the people in the room, I would have put him as the most dangerous.

Apart from us.

"Let Michi go, you little brat," one of Manaka's friends snarled, drawing a machete out of his belt. The blade was rough, and I suspected it was used a lot more for actually chopping wood and… things… than it was for fighting. A tool, not a weapon.

"No fighting in here!" The barkeep shouted, a little frantically. "Take it outside."

"There won't be any fighting, will there, pal?" Our informant said, directing it towards the man with the weapon.

"You bet there will, _pal,_" the man snarled back.

The man with the hat _moved._ He had some respectable speed, slipping around the table and using the hilt of his – oh yes, he had an actual _sword_ – to knock the man out. An equally quick blow to the sternum took out his neighbour, and the third man fell in quick succession.

Naruto twisted the hand he was holding, forcing Manaka down into a very simply arm lock in effort to avoid having it dislocated.

"There you are, sir," the man said, tilting his hat at the barkeep. "No fighting."

I laughed.

_Suspicious. But funny._

"How about we drop these guys off at the sheriff's?" he continued, turning to us. "I don't think you're going to get any answers here."

Naruto shrugged. "Sure thing, old guy. You're pretty quick on your feet."

I stepped behind him, like I was just pushing off the bar. When my hands were out of sight, I twisted them into the Rat Seal.

_Shadow Possession Complete._

"To the Sheriff's," I said, and took another step forward. The three unconscious men got to their feet. Naruto let Manaka go, turning to pick up the photo he'd slapped on the counter, and the crook followed my movements.

I walked out the door.

It took a little bit of quick stepping and spatial awareness to get all four of them outside without crashing anyone into a wall, but it wasn't exactly complicated.

Okay, so there wasn't _really_ any need for the drama, or to hide that we were ninja or anything. But the wide eyes of the rest of the bar had been pretty damn gratifying.

And it wasn't like I wanted to carry them or anything. This was just easier.

"That's… a neat trick you got there," the man with the hat said, a little weakly. "The sheriff's is this way."

"Who are you, anyway?" Naruto asked. "Why'd you step in like that?"

"The name is Sazanami," the man said. "I'm a bounty hunter. I remember what it was like when I was starting out, so I thought I should give you a hand. I guess you didn't need it, though." Even from beneath the hat, I could see the apprehensive glance he gave the four men walking under my power.

"Ehehe," Naruto laughed, folding his hands behind his head. "We're not really bounty hunters," he explained. "We're ninja from Konoha. But we are looking for this one guy – so I guess you could say we're temporary bounty hunters."

"Ninja, huh?" Sazanami said. "I've met a few before, but none who weren't old enough to shave." He ran a thumb over his own chin. "But I guess that makes sense. If you were bounty hunters, you'd know that that wasn't really the way to go about asking – crime makes for a pretty insular community, they don't really like to share things with strangers."

Surprisingly, Naruto's straightforward way of asking things seemed to work more often than it didn't, in situations where it probably shouldn't. It wasn't the way I would have gone about it, for sure, but it wasn't a bad tactic to take either. And it was a good gauge of the town and what we had to work with.

"So have _you_ seen this guy?" Naruto asked. "His name is Gosunkugi."

"Oh. There's the Sherriff's office," Sazanami said, in one of the worst deflections ever.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, and walked the posse inside.

"Manaka Michizou and companions," I announced, to the poor stunned sheriff, who probably wasn't used to criminals walking into his office. I let the shadow possession fade, and three of them collapsed to the ground. Manaka took a step back, as if to try escape, then toppled over with Naruto's foot planted firmly on his back.

Sazanami slipped inside, stepped around the pile of bodies, and handed the guy a flyer. "They here to collect the bounty."

"Right," the Sheriff agreed weakly. "I see."

The process was a little interesting, but took way too long. Konoha was much more efficient at handling prisoners.

"You should take it," Naruto said fairly. "You did most of the work." He held the envelope of cash out to Sazanami.

The bounty hunter shrugged. "It's fine. I wouldn't feel right taking money from kids, even if you are ninja. Besides, I've had a pretty good run lately."

"So, Gosunkugi," I prompted, to see Sazanami's eyes flicker to the side.

"That's a dangerous man," Sazanami said. "You might have been able to handle thugs like Manaka, but Gosunkugi is in a whole different league."

The warning was useless – a bounty hunter like Sazanami had no idea what kind of strength a ninja had, and unless Gosunkugi turned out to be a secret member of Akatsuki…

I was pretty sure he was not –

… or otherwise a missing ninja, or so on, then we could handle it.

"He's an unrepentant murderer," Sazanami continued. "He's killed dozens of people, just for the sake of robbing their corpses. He even killed an innocent family, just for the chance to steal some money."

I tilted my head to the side. Interesting.

"Did you know them?" Naruto asked, also homing in on that line. He had a sense of what was important to people.

Sazanami blinked. "What makes you say that?" he asked, caught off guard.

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know. It just seems like you did."

Because why mention the family? If there were dozens of people… what made the family stand out, above the rest? If he was doing it to scare us, then he would mention the most horrifying, or the one that involved people most similar to us. Mention kids, or the fates of the bounty hunters that had come after him before, or the way he always escaped.

Sazanami sighed. "Not well," he said, pulling his hat low, and shading his face. "Look, kids. I'm also looking for Gosunkugi, to bring him to justice. I don't want you getting in my way out there. You should just go home."

Naruto glared and crossed his arms. "Well, maybe we don't want you getting in our way," he shot back. "This is our mission and we're not going to quit!"

Sazanami smirked, slightly mockingly. "Well then," he said. "I guess that's it. May the best man win."

He turned and strode away. I narrowed my eyes at his retreating back. "Naruto. Spider."

Naruto nodded, a puff of smoke forming into a spider over his hand. He flicked it towards the bounty hunter, a small black spot sailing unnoticeably through the air. Sazanami never detected the bug clinging to his back.

That was one lead available to us.

"Shall we continue searching?" I asked.

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Sai decided – using the 'winner' prize from this morning at much prodding from the rest of us – that we were camping out tonight. Given that there was a town _right there_ it was a little bit of an odd choice, but then, I wasn't entirely confident the hotels would be bed-bug free either.

"Are you worried that we have not found a lead yet?" Sai asked as we set out camp.

"Nah," Naruto said, shrugging. "There's plenty more places to look. Besides, Sazanami seemed pretty certain that he was in the area."

He hadn't said as much, but he'd admitted to be looking for the guy. And if he was as good at what he did as he seemed to be, then that was a big hint in and of itself.

"Even if he's not in this town," I said. "There are a few more we can check out before we start to worry. Unless he heads north into Land of Rock…" I shrugged.

Whether or not we followed him then would depend on the circumstances. Unless we had a strong lead, it probably wouldn't be worth risking running into Rock shinobi on their own turf.

"I see." Sai looked pensive, then smiled. It was even more forced than his normal look. And that was saying something. "You would not be concerned if he headed south. The Land of Wind is familiar to you."

"Sure," Naruto said. "We were there a little while ago."

I leant back, hands flat on the ground, and watched. _What is it, Sai?_

"I have heard about that mission."

Naruto chuckled. "Ehe, well, I guess it was a big thing," he said awkwardly.

"An S-rank mission is very impressive," Sai prompted. "Can you tell me about it?"

_Is that what you're after?_

Sure, Danzo had been interested in the Gelel – had mistakenly called it a 'weapon'. But he didn't think that Naruto would spill classified information, did he? If that meeting in the Hokage's office had truly gone through then maybe but not here, not in the field, to someone who shouldn't know.

"Well, some of it is classified," Naruto demurred. "But when we were in Land of Rivers…" he started to spin the non-classified parts into a story, seeming gratified at the way Sai was drinking it in.

I kept a careful ear on just how much detail was being shared. But there was no point that I felt the need to step in and silence him.

_Or is the story a bonus? Are you after Naruto?_

Not wholly, or completely. Naruto couldn't vanish without a lot of questions being raised. But if he was wondering if Naruto could be _controlled_…

_Too much speculation._ I didn't know.

"And now there's a forest there, and stuff," Naruto finished, scratching his neck. "It's not a desert anymore."

That part didn't make any sense if you didn't know about the Gelel or the natural energy, but those parts of the tale _were_ classified.

"A forest?" Sai asked. "It was created? Like… Wood Release?"

"The First Hokage's ability?" Naruto frowned. "A little bit, I guess? I don't really know. They weren't Hashirama trees, though, if that's what you're asking."

That… was an _excellent_ assumption, even if it was completely and utterly wrong. "It would be interesting if there were people out there with the First Hokage's bloodlimit, wouldn't it?" I mused out loud.

If Sai really was reporting in to Danzo about this, then a little misdirect like this wouldn't hurt. The further from the truth he was, the better. And it wasn't like there were any mysterious Senju-like figures for him to find, even if he did start searching.

"Yeah!" Naruto grinned. "That would be pretty cool. I bet they'd be really strong."

"I see," Sai said, almost pensively. "That is very interesting."

We set a watch, but I slept lightly anyway. I didn't entirely trust Sai to take his without incident. Oh, I didn't think he would let us be attacked – but he could get up to a lot of things while the rest of us were unaware.

Therefore, I was awake when Naruto surged out of bed. "Sazanami found him!" Naruto blurted out, getting his legs tangled in his sleeping roll and nearly falling over. He hopped, impatiently, and shook them away.

I slid out of bed with a little more grace. "Where?"

"Not far," Naruto said, squinting into the night. "There's a valley to the west of the town…"

I rolled my sleeping roll up, quickly and efficiently, and sealed it away. Sai was moving too, packing up his gear, and we dismantled the campfire and buried the ashes.

"Here, take these," I said, pulling three square tags out of my pouch. "They LED's – lights. Channel chakra into them and they'll work."

They were stronger than the version that I'd used in my _other_ seal, but not much more than a good light bulb. The need to constantly channel chakra was both an upside and downside – you'd have to keep concentrating on it, but we could stop and start it easily at will, which could come in really handy in some situations. Like if we needed to sneak up on a fight in progress.

"A torch." Naruto nodded. He held it uncertainly for a minute before grinning and tucking it into the front of his headband. He had to concentrate, but after a second, the light blinked on.

I turned my eyes away. "Jeeze, ruin my night vision, why don't you?" But it wasn't a bad idea – it kept his hands free and provided good light – as long as he could keep it going. Maybe I could affix the seal to his actual headband, in future.

We followed his lead to the fight, but it was well over by the time we got there. The 'valley' was a narrow channel, maybe a dried out river bed, with high walls on either side. It was almost a perfect spot for an ambush. I wondered who had ambushed who, because it was clear there had been a fight. There were senbon – no, nails, so that was where the nickname came from – scattered over the ground, and Sazanami's sword lay forlornly discarded. Sai knelt to examine the footprints in the ground, but Naruto beckoned me to the side.

"Spider used a replacement jutsu to get him out of the way," he said. "But he still got pretty hurt."

"Show me," I ordered, taking mental stock of what was in my medical kit. I slapped my LED to my forehead and used chakra to both stick it there and light it up.

Naruto scaled the wall easily, taking me to an outcropping that had been hidden from view from below. Sazanami was flat on his back, breathing shakily and in obvious pain, but it wasn't as bad as it first looked. He'd obviously managed to block or deflect whatever was aimed at vital points, and I was confident that I could treat the rest.

I'd had practice. Nails weren't too different from senbon, even if Haku hadn't aimed his with intent to kill.

"I didn't give Spider a lot of chakra," Naruto said, sounding almost upset. "It sent the memories, but then it didn't have enough to fight."

"You got him out," I said, as calmly and confidently as I could. "He's fine. I can heal him, and then we'll go after Gosunkugi."

"That man…" Naruto clenched his fist. "He's a real nasty piece of work."

"We'll go after him," I repeated. I laid a glowing green hand on Sazanami's forehead, sending my chakra to measure the damage and numb the pain. "Go help Sai, okay? See if there are any clues down below."

I didn't exactly want Sai and Naruto off alone together, but Naruto was upset, and this wasn't exactly going to be pretty.

Grimly, I took hold of the first nail and pulled it out.

It squelched.

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"There is a group of five travelling west," Sai remarked, landing on the ledge behind me. It wasn't a big space, and with four of us there it was getting crowded. "They're undoubtedly heading to Station Two. We can catch them before they arrive." He looked unconcerned with everything that had happened tonight. I didn't really expect anything else from him.

Naruto nodded, almost absently. "Is Sazanami awake?" he asked me, peering over my shoulder. "Oh, hey! Are you okay?"

Sazanami stopped staring at my glowing hands – finally – and gave him a shaky nod. "I am. How… how did you get here?"

Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Well, uhm," he dragged out. "You see…"

"You were our best lead on Gosunkugi," I said softly, which was the truth but not the whole truth. 'How' was a little tidbit I wanted to keep under wraps.

"He kicked your ass pretty bad," Naruto said with utter bluntness. I nearly cringed. "Why's it so important for you to catch him?"

Sazanami took a deep breath. "Well, I guess I owe you an explanation," he said, reluctantly.

I finished healing the last of his injuries and sat back. Medical jutsu weren't _incredibly_ chakra intensive by nature, but there had been a lot of small injuries and it had taken me a long time, so it had used a fair portion. I could still fight, but I'd have to watch it.

"Years ago," Sazanami started. "I was a swordsmith." He touched the handled of the sword that Naruto had retrieved for him. "I lived in a small village, but people would travel fair distances so that I would forge a weapon for them. I think some of them were even ninja, but they rarely said anything about it. It was… a good life." He sighed. "It was the day of the festival. I was delivering a sword to a customer when I walked past a house that had its doors left wide open. I thought it was a little unusual, so I stopped to see what was happening. I fought him," he said. "But it was already too late. The family was dead. And I was no match for him. He escaped."

"Gosunkugi," Naruto confirmed.

Sazanami nodded. "I told everyone what had happened, but they didn't believe me. They said I was the only person not at the festival and… I was carrying a weapon. They wouldn't listen to reason. I ran," he admitted. "Became a fugitive. I swore that I would bring Gosunkugi to justice, so that they would know the truth."

Running might not have helped him much, I thought, in appearing innocent. But that would depend on which country he had been in, and what the justice process was like there. I couldn't make that judgement.

"So you became a bounty hunter to clear your name," Naruto concluded. "That's why it's so important to you."

"This is irrelevant to our mission," Sai interrupted. "We should begin our pursuit of the criminal. It will become more difficult if he reaches the next station."

Naruto nodded firmly. "Right. We should go." He raced through a set of hand seals. "Summoning Jutsu; Gamanori!"

"Naruto!" I protested, leaping up to stand on the wall. "Careful!"

Gamanori was only small when you compared him to the other summons of the toad contract. He was big enough to ride, and the toad that Naruto frequently summoned when he wanted to do so.

"Hey," the toad said, not seeming at all to mind that he was being summoned in an awkward locale. "You need a ride?"

"Not me, but Sazanami does," Naruto explained, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "He got kinda beat up, but we need to move fast, okay?"

The toad shrugged, which looked … odd on an amphibian. "You're the boss," he deferred.

Sazanami appeared to decide he had been shocked enough for one night, and gamely raised one hand to lift his hat. "Pleasure to meet you."

Sai was almost frowning. "Why did you do that?"

Naruto blinked. "Well, if we have to move fast, then he's not going to be able to keep up with us," he said logically. "But Gamanori can."

"We don't have to bring him with us. We know where Gosunkugi is," Sai pointed out. I wouldn't quite have called it 'arguing' but there was some definite tension there.

"We have to clear his name," Naruto said, as though it had already been decided. In his mind, it probably had. "So of course he has to be there with us."

"That wasn't our mission," Sai said. He glanced at me, frustrated. Clearly hoping I would intervene.

"The two are not entirely mutually exclusive," I said calmly. True, it would be much more difficult, but… not impossible.

Sazanami's reasoning was not a bad one. And, okay, I really wanted to see how Sai reacted to something off script like this.

"It's pointless," he said. "We should focus on our mission."

"This is our mission," Naruto argued, crossing his arms. "It's all the same in the end – we just have to catch Gosunkugi!"

"You can't… change the mission." Poor Sai. He sounded so bewildered. In a flat, monotone way.

"I'm not changing the mission," Naruto denied. "I'm, uh, I'm making a field command decision, based on new information to, uhm, to-"

"Update our objectives?" I supplied. "To ensure that all loose ends are appropriately dealt with and will cause no future issues?"

"That," Naruto agreed with a nod.

"The- The Hokage won't like it," Sai said, and now I knew his arguments were becoming desperate. I wondered what he'd been about to say first, before he'd changed it.

"Why not?" Naruto asked, honestly puzzled. To be fair, he had brought home at least two borderline enemy ninja to the village and had them folded in. This wouldn't even rate on the list of things he thought Tsunade would be upset about.

"I don't think she'll mind as much as you suspect," I said dryly. "And anyway, she's too far away to ask – that's why shinobi are authorised to make field decisions. You're a Chunin; surely you've had a mission where you had to make a judgement call?"

Sai withdrew. There was no other word for it.

Maybe the last question had been going too far. I doubted he ever had been able to make a judgement call in the field, not truly. Not without it being exactly what Danzo would have wanted anyway.

_Poor kid._

"Let's go," Naruto said impatiently, when Sai didn't argue anymore. "We need to catch this guy."

We headed out, running down the wall and following the curve of the pathway towards the next town. Gamanori kept pace with us easily, landing in surprisingly quiet thumps for such a large creature.

Honestly, some part of me expected Gosunkugi to lose us, or to reach the next town. It just seemed like a thing that would happen. But he was a man travelling on foot, who expected to have a whole night to get where he was going.

And we were ninja on a mission.

"I sense him," I breathed.

We slid to a halt.

"There's five men," I said, concentrating. "One of them has moderate chakra levels, the others are no higher than civilians." I'd pick that the one _with_ chakra was Gosunkugi, and that his rapid firing nails were some kind of jutsu. We'd have to watch out for that.

"Okay, Shikako, you go right. Sai, you go left. I'll jump down and get him."

It was a very simple plan. Basic pincer movement, with Naruto providing a head on attack and distraction. But simple wasn't bad.

Sazanami slid down off the toad. "Wait. I can help."

Naruto grinned, a little feral. "Nah, don't worry. We got this."

I nodded to him, then split off to circle around, sensing Sai do the same in the other direction. The sun wasn't up yet, but if I could get into position and get some light going, then they still wouldn't be able to evade my shadows.

"Hey, Gosunkugi!" Naruto shouted, voice breaking the dark stillness of the air like a glass shattering on the ground. "I've got something to say to you!"

I rolled my eyes. He couldn't have waited another minute, could he?

I cut my wide circle short, instead aiming for a rocky outcropping closer to the group.

I was close enough to hear the low mutter of 'so who is this brat' and I crouched down, pressing my hand to the rock and setting a seal, just in case.

"You're under arrest!" Naruto shouted down at the group. "For being a thief! And for hurting my friend!" He was standing out in full view, silhouetted against the moon. He couldn't have made himself a better target if he tried.

Ah. Of course.

"I don't have time to waste on the likes of you," Gosunkugi said, utterly dismissive. He took a single nail out of his pocket, and flicked it to the ground. "Torpedo Nails!"

It seemed to be a derivative of the Shadow Clone Kunai jutsu, multiplying one into a storm of many.

I wondered if Gosunkugi had had ninja training, but that wasn't the sort of thing that would be left out of our mission briefing. If he had, then it was well buried. He wasn't a missing nin. Chakra and related skills weren't entirely the province of ninja, no matter what we might have liked to think – Jako hadn't been a ninja either, and he'd still got us into trouble with that sticky chakra of his.

The nails soared towards Naruto, a lethal net of spikes.

He burst into smoke.

The real Naruto dropped down from above – just like he said he would – and landed feet first on Gosunkugi's face.

"Lighting Release: Radiating Shockwave," I called, because it was a good area of effect jutsu. It struck the four accomplices, arching along the metal swords they carried, and making them drop. Then Sai's ink beasts were on them, and they were out of the fight.

All in all… it had taken about a second. It was probably the easiest fight I'd ever been in.

I waited for another beat, just to make sure that there was no last minute save and retaliation, and they weren't faking us out, and then scuffed a foot over my seal and cancelled it.

Naruto was frowning down at the criminals. He looked up at me and scratched his neck. "Was that it?" he asked, sounding honestly a little puzzled. He nudged the unconscious body with his foot.

I shrugged. "I guess so."

Sai faded into sight. "Targets nullified, taicho," he said stiffly.

Naruto looked around once more, still seeming disappointed. "Right, well okay. Let's get these guys to the sheriff."


	82. Chapter 81

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: So, chapter 700 and the manga is officially over. How about that. Luckily DOS is neither 700 chapters long nor over.

And in even better news - jacksgreys0n has started a podfic for this fic! She's also running a tumblr 'dosbysilverqueen' which is where you'll be able to find it. I've put the link up in my profile, so please, check it out!

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Chapter 81

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_An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered._ _~ G. K. Chesterton_

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The stranger blocked our path.

He was tall and heavy set, with a thick and wild looking beard. He was dressed in a red poncho, and carrying an axe. The gates of Station Two loomed large behind him. We couldn't get to them without going through him.

He looked distantly familiar and it took a moment to place him as the _other_ mysterious figure from the saloon in Station One.

_He must have come straight here to make it ahead of us._

We drew to a halt.

"What's the big deal?" Naruto demanded. He threw out a hand to halt Gamanori, who was placidly hopping along with our prisoners piled onto his back.

Sazanami dropped his hand to the hilt of his sword.

A gust of wind blew past, flapping our clothes. A lone tumbleweed blew past.

"Tokichi," the stranger rasped. "You're under arrest."

Naruto squinted at him. "Who's Tokichi?"

The tension shattered. Sazanami coughed awkwardly. "That's me," he said. "He's after my bounty."

"Oh," Naruto realised. "That's okay, the whole thing is just a big mistake! Sazanami didn't really do it, and we caught the guy that did, so everything is sorted now." He folded his hands behind his head and grinned. "Wait until you hear the whole story, it's kind of a doozy."

The bounty hunter looked at him, seeming just a _little_ put out by the change in script.

I smothered a smile.

"We're going to the sheriff's office now," I offered politely. "If you'd like to join us."

It wasn't that I thought we couldn't fight him… but if there was no need, then there was no need.

"What's your name, anyway?" Naruto asked. "Are you a bounty hunter? Were you after Gosunkugi too?"

He started walking, expecting the man to fall into step with us on the way to deliver the prisoners.

There was a moment of hesitation, where I thought that the bounty hunter would still try _something,_ then he shook his head and turned.

"Gatsu," he said. "Yes. Yes." He paused. "That's an … interesting looking horse you have there."

Naruto gave him a weird look. "It's not a horse. He's a toad."

Gatsu gave him a look that was so bland it spoke volumes.

We made an odd procession, walking down the streets of Station Two. This town seemed a lot more lively than the last one, brighter and more well off, with a nice collection of temples and shrines.

"Ah, it's the ceremony of the Golden Bell," Sazanami said, after a loud tolling noise had cut through the air. "It's a shame to miss it."

"The what?" Naruto said, settling back down after it turned out not to be an attack.

I admit that I had jumped too.

"The main temple has a giant bell made of gold," Sazanami explained. "It's the center piece to the festival. They move it from the temple out to the belfry for a day, so that people can see it and admire it." He squinted upwards, tilting his hat back. "I've heard a legend that it was a key item in the last war, used to defend the border. But I think that's just a story."

I looked at Naruto and shrugged. "There are weirder things," I said, though maybe we could check it out after.

"Do you think that's what that guy was after?" Naruto wondered, jerking a thumb at the criminals. "A giant bell made of gold has to be worth a lot?"

"An item so famous and unique would be difficult to sell without notice," Sai criticised. "Regardless of how much money it was worth."

It was a valid point. Assuming that Gosunkugi wasn't vain enough to want to do it anyway, simply because the thing existed. He _had_ stolen from the Tea Country court, so it wasn't like he was afraid of retaliation.

Which was a bit of a mistake on his part, frankly. He'd taken things from people who had the ability to hire ninja to get them back, and so here we were.

"Well whatever," Naruto said. "There's no chance of it happening now."

The next step of the mission – depositing the prisoners at the police station and acquiring a confession to both Sazanami's story and the theft – went slightly less smoothly. For one, although he was there willingly, Sazanami was also taken in to custody.

"I expected it," he said, and relinquished his sword to us rather than the police. "Please look after this for me."

Naruto took it, slightly awkwardly. "You bet! I'll keep it safe for you."

Gatsu watched, hawkeyed, as Sazanami was led through the hallway where the prisoners were kept.

"I didn't expect him to go," he admitted. "It has been a long chase to catch him."

I didn't point out that Sazanami had hardly been _caught_ at all. He looked thoughtful, and I wondered if he was considering the likelihood we were telling the truth about the true criminal. At this stage, his opinion didn't really matter.

"Yes," I repeated, to the police officer who had taken the other prisoners, for about the tenth time. "We require information from Gosunkugi about a crime committed in the Land of Tea. We will need to question him."

"I can't allow that," the sheriff said. "There is no access to prisoners without authorisation."

"I have the authorisation of the Village Hidden in the Leaves," I corrected. "As a representative of the Land of Fire as granted by the Daimyo."

I wasn't one hundred percent sure that Land of Fire had a treaty with this place as to that effect but … 'I'm a ninja' was generally a pretty strong statement. Officially, ninja _were_ representatives of their country of origin in a whole lot of ways. We were military, and we interacted with legislative branches in actual, legally obligated ways. Granted, ninja tended to bend 'legal' as far as it could go without breaking, if they didn't circumvent it altogether, but there was _some_ official power behind it. We weren't (always) just renegades that ran around doing whatever we felt like.

He still seemed doubtful. I showed him my headband and ninja registration card.

"I'll have to inform the chief," he said at last, which was at least progress.

Even my patience was starting to wear a little thin. Naruto was starting to fidget.

"Maybe you can take Sai to scout the town?" I suggested. "See if there is anything going on, maybe pick up some breakfast?" We'd travelled all night, and it didn't look like we were going to be done here anytime soon. We'd done worse than skip a meal in the past, but there wasn't any need to push ourselves.

Naruto nodded thoughtfully. "Okay, you stay here with Gatsu and sort this out. We'll make sure that nothing else is happening."

I still wasn't confident in sending them away together, because time was ticking down if Sai was going to try something. I still had no idea _what_ that might be.

"Keep an eye on each other," I suggested, trying to smile like it was a light-hearted admonishment. Naruto could take Sai if it came to an out-and-out fight, but Sai would be a fool to make it one.

I sank back into the visitor chairs to wait. Gatsu was leaning against the wall like an intimidating block of muscle and seemed disinclined to talk.

Maybe we'd made a mistake, handing Gosunkugi in before we'd questioned him. It wouldn't have been that much harder to wait until he woke up and then give him to the police.

But… I was a little leery about doing it that way.

All on our own, there were a lot of paths that we could have taken to get a man to talk. I didn't think Naruto would have allowed it, but how hard would it have been to send him away for half an hour, until we had the information we needed?

_No. Definitely not. _This would be done properly, legally, and ethically.

"So, you're the ninja from Iwa?" The police chief said briskly, stopping to a halt in front of me. He was a tall man, wide shouldered, and wore his uniform with crisp practicality. There were streaks of grey in his hair, and wrinkles in the corners of his eyes, but he was not frail.

I straightened. There was a spark of intelligence in his eye that made me think the question itself was a trap. He wasn't a ninja, not unless he was good enough to completely present his chakra as civilian, but he clearly wasn't as unknowledgeable as the rest of the station.

"Konoha," I corrected with a smile. I pulled the coat of my sleeve until he could see the village symbol on the headband there. "Gosunkugi has also committed crimes to the south of here, so we were dispatched to arrest him."

"And you want to interrogate him," he said bluntly.

I tilted my head slightly. "Yes," I agreed, because we had to call a spade a spade. "We need to know where the item he stole is located. Also, there is another crime that is of interest to us. Several years ago, Gosunkugi murdered a family of three and framed our friend Tokichi for it. I'd rather like that matter to be settled."

His lips pulled down in a tight frown. "If that is the truth," he prevaricated.

"Yes," I agreed, since he seemed at least willing to consider the whole matter. Good that this wasn't the type of police that would consider any conviction better than none. Sazanami would have been in trouble if that were the case. But, he probably knew attitudes of the law here reasonably well, and would hardly have surrendered if justice was completely off the table.

I hoped.

"I will allow you to ask your questions," the chief began. "Under certain conditions. At no point will you be alone with the prisoner. At no point will the prisoner be harmed. You have no authority to make plea bargains. You have no authority to sentence the prisoner. At any point, the interrogation may be cancelled."

I considered it. That cut out several options – some of them, I was glad to see go – but still left some fairly wide margins around the edge. "I accept," I said, and hoped I knew what the hell I was doing.

Surely they had someone here whose job it was to ask prisoners questions? They _had_ to investigate all these crimes.

Except that might take _weeks_ and Tsunade would not be impressed with us in that case.

_Nothing for it but to try._

Maybe I should have kept Naruto here to shout at him. That generally seemed to get people to spill.

"Very well," the police chief nodded. "I hope you are prepared. Gosunkugi has already been questioned and has been uncooperative. Follow me."

I fell into step, feeling a flash of wry amusement at the new information. Not only was Gosunkugi awake already, but they'd already started questioning him and they hadn't said.

Well played.

I felt Gatsu push off the wall and follow us as well. Well, whatever. If he wanted to loom menacingly, I wasn't going to complain.

The room that the chief led us to was plain. There was a single table, with Gosunkugi seated on one side. His hands were shackled and resting on the table, but didn't appear tied down.

There were two chairs opposite him. I paused in the doorway for a moment, observing, before choosing to sit down directly opposite him.

_I need to make him want to talk._

I braced my elbows on the table and laced my fingers together. Gosunkugi had been stripped of the rich, almost formal clothes he had been wearing before, and was dressed in a simple prison overall. His hair was mussed, there were still smudges of dirty across his face, and he looked deeply disgruntled.

But not afraid. He looked like a man that was confident that he was going to get out of this.

His eyes flickered to the police chief, who sat down beside me, and to Gatsu, looming behind us.

This was a case where our quick combat worked against us. Gosunkugi didn't understand enough to be afraid of the real threat. It had happened too fast – he might not even know how he had gone from yelling at Naruto to the police station.

Despite the fact that there was no possibility of combat – and if there was, I would hardly be threatened – my mind was combat clear. I was aware of everyone in the room. I was aware of every potential weapon in the room, however bare it was.

I was aware of every shadow.

We were all sitting around the same table. The light was coming down from above.

I couldn't have created a better trap if I had planned it.

I could certainly use this.

_Okay, let's do this._

Firstly, I tried something that I had never consciously done before. I gathered my chakra, and spread it through the air with a shiver of killing intent.

Sweat broke out on Gosunkugi's forehead.

_I'll kill you,_ I thought experimentally. It felt … flat. Empty. But how could I work up the passion of a fight over this? I wasn't afraid. I wasn't desperate. I didn't need to.

Yet-

Yet the most terrifying killing intent I had ever felt had not been at Zabuza's feet. It had not even been the wild, uncontrolled bloodlust of Gaara.

No. Terror had been Itachi and his sense of duty, willing to go so far for so little. Terror had been Orochimaru's dispassionate, cool gaze. The blinding, rising tide of it, swallowing everything. It had been his cold reptilian gaze that could kill you and simply… not notice.

_I could kill you_, I thought, and layered it into my chakra._ If I needed to. And it would not be because I enjoyed it, or because I wanted to, it would simply be because you were in my way._

I felt distanced from myself, almost as if I had gone to shadow.

"Gosunkugi," I said coolly. "You're going to answer my questions."

He swallowed, nervously. His eyes were wide, pupils blown out with fear. There was a slight tremor to him, shaking the chains on his handcuffs with a metallic clacking noise.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he bluffed. "I'm an innocent man. Officer, I was attacked by… by a young ruffian while I was on my way to visit this lovely town, you should invest more heavily into controlling the rabble-"

My brow creased slightly. That wasn't good.

Stage two, then.

I channelled some chakra into my shadow. It swelled beneath the table, spreading out to envelop all within it. I latched on to Gosunkugi's shadow.

He shuddered. The shaking stopped as he was immobilized, but his eyes started to roll. He was almost panting with fear.

I paused. That was a reaction greater than what I was going for. I'd been going to use the 'you can't even control your own body' as an intimidation tactic, certainly, but this was…

_Oh._

Shadow Possession was a spiritual connection. We used that to control the body, but right now I was emitting killing intent and it was going straight from my chakra to his. It no longer relied on him sensing it from the air around him.

Well. I could work with this.

I pulled on my shadow, like I was meditating, laying in on thicker and darker. "Gosunkugi," I repeated. "**You're going to answer my questions.**"

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"Can I speak with Sazanami as well?" I asked, as we exited the interrogation room.

Gosunkugi had been mostly cooperative, shrill and terrified though he was. I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about that, but I had the information I was after and he had confessed to more than just framing Tokichi. I didn't think he would be seeing daylight for a very long time.

The police chief gave me a wary look. "Do you have questions for him as well?" he asked, a little dryly.

He and Gatsu hadn't felt the extra boost of the Shadow Possession, but I wasn't exactly expert enough at killing intent to direct it solely at one person. They'd probably caught a bit of that, though neither of them _looked_ like they were badly off.

Actually out of the two, Gatsu looked worse off.

I was absolutely certain that the police chief had had dealings with ninja before.

"No," I said. "He's a friend. I just wanted to let him know that Gosunkugi had confessed." I gave him a friendly smile. I felt cold and distant inside, so it was a little difficult, but I put effort into it until it felt natural.

It didn't seem like he brought it, not truly, but he called one of the other officers over to escort me.

_Even better_, I thought. It would have been tricky to have this conversation under his watchful eye. Easy to dismiss him as a 'civilian' simply because he wasn't a ninja – but that didn't mean he was _lesser._

"Shikako," Sazanami greeted politely. Like Gosunkugi, he was cuffed and wearing uniform, but his confidence was of a different sort. A little more nervous. A little more hopeful.

I smiled at him, sliding into the seat. "Good news," I said. "The police have his confession, and the police chief is going to take care of all the paperwork. They might keep you for a few days to clean up the loose ends and do a bit more investigating, but it looks like you'll be a free man soon."

Hopefully not much more than a few days, anyway. That was very fast for a legal process, so I thought it was a _little_ optimistic, personally. Then again, maybe the chief just really, really wanted to get rid of us ninja.

Sazanami slumped in his chair. "Oh," he said, sounding dazed. "That's funny. I thought it would feel different."

I regarded him carefully. "You thought it would feel like before," I guessed.

He chuckled. "I guess it sounds silly when you put it like that. It's not like the truth would make the last few years just vanish."

"It doesn't change what's already happened," I agreed.

"No, it doesn't," Sazanami said. "But it's over. Finally, it's over."

"What are you going to do now?" I asked, curiously. "Stay a bounty hunter?"

"I don't know. I always thought that I would go back and start up as a sword smith again…" he looked pensive. "But I don't hate this life. And I don't know if I could live in a town that once believed the worst of me with no cause or reason."

Carefully, I dropped my hands beneath the table into my lap, and folded them through a set of handseals.

The genjutsu dropped lightly over the police officer beside me. To him, we merely kept talking in the same vein – light-hearted words between friends.

"You know, when we met in Station One, you said that there were special ways to get information on bounties," I said leadingly.

"I don't know if I would say 'special' ways," Sazanami said. "But you have to know what you're doing. Newcomers are easy to spot in a lot of ways. What you guys did was a pretty classic mistake." He looked thoughtful. "There is someone you're looking for, isn't there?"

I leant back in the chair, picking my words carefully. I had to be so, so careful here. This was important, but it couldn't sound it. Couldn't sound more meaningful than 'we met yesterday and maybe you can help me'.

Damn. This was a _terrible_ idea.

"Yes and no," I said. "There is someone I'm looking for information on."

Sazanami glanced at the police officer, who was looking a little bored and not reacting to our conversation.

"He can't hear us," I clarified. "The conversation he can hear is filled with technical weapon terminology. More about the uses than the smithing, sorry." Okay, so 'light-hearted' in only a certain sense. But it was something we both could be expected to know, and probably a few levels of jargon higher than the poor officer could easily understand and remember. "Try to not make any huge exaggerated movements or anything, though."

It did cover sight as well – simple layering of what was already here with no differences – but the less I needed to change, the easier it was to keep going.

"Right, of course he can't." Sazanami ran a hand through his hair. "So you wanted me to keep an eye out at the bounty offices? You found Gosunkugi pretty quickly without them."

I hesitated. "The man I'm talking about," I said carefully, "is a very dangerous ninja who just also happens to be a bounty hunter. If you think about how easily we dealt with Gosunkugi… that's how easily this man would deal with us. The opponents he deals with have ten million ryo bounties."

"That's a little out of my league," Sazanami said.

"I know," I admitted. "I'm not asking you to do anything about him. Just… if you happened to notice that he had been around…"

It was also why I had waited until Gosunkugi _had_ confessed to have this conversation. Sazanami was free. I didn't have anything to hold over him. Because it would have been so, so easy to say 'do this, or he might have an accident on the way to jail' or 'or we'll take him to Konoha and the truth will never come out'. And that was stupid and short term and _awful._

Cruel. It would have been cruel to blackmail someone into doing something so dangerous, would have built resentment and turn Sazanami against me totally, even if he did what I needed him to.

It sounded like something Danzo would do. And I didn't want to be that person.

"Someone like that must have done something pretty terrible," Sazanami said cautiously. He leant his elbows on the table. He looked… intrigued.

I supposed that was good.

"Yes," I said. "He's a criminal that even other ninja are scared of. And he works with a group made up of men that are the same or worse."

Sazanami blinked. "You know, I've never really considered the idea that ninja form gangs too. I don't think I should be as surprised as I am."

I smirked. "Yeah. It's not something that the villages like to let happen. So when it does happen, it can be pretty bad." I put my hands on the table, palms flat. "Look, I'm not asking you to doanything about them. I'm really, _really_ not. I just wanted to know if there was a way to get information from bounty offices about them."

Sazanami nodded slowly. "I can keep an eye out. But I can't promise anything."

"Good," I said. "That's really the best…" I swallowed, aware that my palms were sweaty. I resisted the urge to rub them dry on my pants. "The bounty hunter is called Kakuzu. The group is called Akatsuki. And neither of those are things you should name drop. Ever. You should probably pretend I never told you them."

I gave him a quick rundown on them. It wasn't like I had much to share. And even giving him the name was… iffy. I didn't doubt that Jiraiya probably knew it but he hadn't told me. By rights, I shouldn't have even known it. If this worked out, then I could say I learnt it from Sazanami…

_This is a terrible, terrible idea._

"Even the littlest piece of information would be helpful at this stage," I said. "Where he was, the bounty he turned in, who he was with… anything. I'm not asking for deep secrets."

"If I do find something," Sazanami said cautiously. "How do I tell you?"

I bit my lip, mind racing. "I'll give you something before we go," I said vaguely, settling on an idea. "But if you can't contact me, send it to Konoha care of the Nara Clan."

I gave us a few more minutes, and cancelled the genjutsu. "We'll come back and visit later!" I said cheerily. "Hopefully everything will be sorted by then."

Even though the conversation was over – and had gone well – my stomach was roiling with nerves. Now was the time for second guessing myself while it was too late to do anything about it.

We'd only known Sazanami for two days. We barely knew him at all. This was a lot of trust to put into someone. This was a dangerous situation to get someone involved in. This could go wrong in so, so many ways.

_So. So. Terrible. What are you doing._

I paused just outside the police station, sensing Naruto and Sai on their way back. Gatsu had been waiting inside and had declined to come with us. I didn't quite know what he wanted – maybe he was concerned about knowing the truth about Sazanami. Maybe he just liked police stations.

"Hey, Shikako! We got you some mochi!" Naruto said cheerfully, passing me a tray. There were a few pieces missing. "Well, I got it for Sai but he doesn't like it."

"Thanks," I said dryly, but took it anyway. "Not a fan of sweets, Sai?"

"No," Sai said. He looked a little uncomfortable, but it was hard to tell.

"Fair enough". I shrugged. "What do you like to eat then?" I popped a piece of mochi into my mouth. It was good.

Sai considered the question with more weight than it probably deserved. But then again, I was asking him to declare a _preference_ for something, so it might have been a big deal, after all.

"Tofu," he said, after a long pause. "Momen tofu."

"Bleh, tofu," Naruto said immediately, then backpedalled. "Well, it's okay in ramen. And if you like it, then that's okay too."

I passed him some mochi. "Did you see anything interesting while you were out?"

Naruto laughed awkwardly, holding Sazanami's sword closer to his side. "What makes you say that?"

I chewed, and raised an eyebrow at him. I _hadn't_ meant anything by it, but that absolutely sounded like there was a story.

"I only put it down for a second," he protested. "And we got it back. So it's fine."

I looked at Sai. He said nothing.

Well. The village didn't look like it was on fire. No one was screaming and running around in chaos. He was in possession of Sazanami's sword.

"Okay," I said. "Why don't we go get some lunch then? Mochi is nice, but it's not real food."

It was a festival, so there were lots of vendors out in full force. Despite deciding on 'real food'… we kind of just snacked on things as we went.

"The bell is up here," Naruto said, winding us through the streets. "It's really big. Do you think it was actually used in the war?"

I eyed it. It was big. And gold. And loud. "Maybe," I said, because maybe someone used it for auditory genjutsu. Though all I really had was the vision of dropping it on someone's head, acme style. Maybe Minato's.

"You haven't heard about it?" Naruto asked, sounding disappointed.

_So much faith in me_, I thought wryly. "Unfortunately, Konoha's war records tend to go 'and then the Yellow Flash showed up and the fighting was over'. Giant bells not included."

"Why is it important?" Sai asked. "Do you believe it is a weapon?" He was staring at the bell, as though assessing its viability as a weapon of mass destruction. He didn't look particularly impressed.

_Says the man that fights with art._

"No, it just sounds awesome," Naruto said.

Well, it wasn't like we had anything else to do all day. It could be fun to do a little bit of sightseeing. "Maybe the shrines will have a history plaque?" I suggested. "We could check them out."

"Great idea!" Naruto enthused. "Let's go!"

There was some interesting things to be learnt from the shrines and temples, and the festive atmosphere kept the whole thing fun, even for Naruto who normally wasn't one for academic outings.

"Eh? What's this?" Naruto asked, staring up at a huge monolith in an isolated temple courtyard. The temple itself was on the outskirts of the village and quiet, even now. I half suspected it was closed, because it appeared fairly derelict, except that there was a monk sitting quietly on the cobblestones.

The monk coughed. "That is a memorial stone for all the shinobi that died defending the border."

"They're all names," I said, eyeing the hundreds of tiny kanji etched into the surface. There were so many.

The grin dropped off Naruto's face, to a look of solemnity. "This place really was a battlefield, wasn't it? Hey, old man. Can we buy some incense?"

We exchanged coins and lit the sticks at the altar. I went through the motions, noticing that Sai was even stiffer and more awkward here. No, I didn't imagine he got much of a chance to visit temples.

It wasn't that I really believed the incense would help the spirits of the dead, but it was a culturally significant action that conveyed respect, so it wasn't something I minded doing.

"I recognise that symbol," the old monk said to us. "You're from the Land of Fire, aren't you? Why light incense for people that your country killed?"

"What land do the dead belong to?" I asked rhetorically. "All people are the same in the end."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "I don't know what people were fighting over, back then, or why so many people died but… we're not enemies now. A person that gives his life defending others is someone that should be respected."

"Wisely spoken," the monk said, and bowed. "Welcome to the Saikon temple. This place was a bustling temple many years ago, but it was damaged in the fighting and is now kept as a memorial."

So 'derelict' wasn't too far off. I looked at the damage in a new light. Some of it was caused by time and nature, certainly, but… yes, I could see things that could have come from ninjutsu. There; charring. There; the ground split apart and cracked. There, in the wall…

"It almost looks like Rasengan," Naruto said, running his hand over the damage. The hole in the stone wall went all the way through, growing wider and wider, the edges of it carved like a drill. "Hey! There's like an earth wall outside!" He peered through the opening. "It goes on for _ages._"

"It's impressive," I agreed. Naruto seemed more excited by the clear signs of battle here, but I found them almost eerie. A decade later, this was still here, even though there was no more fighting. Even though it was likely that all the people who had stood here, who had fought here, were already dead.

We wandered out of the temple to the field, and I couldn't help but run my hand over the wall. It was pock-marked with damage, and there were the handles of rusted knives sticking out of it. It might have been raised to block those, years and years ago. I could almost feel a ghost of chakra, trapped within the metal of one, as though it had been imbued with an attack that had never truly dissipated.

On a whim, I softened the rock, and pulled the handle free.

And blinked.

_That's a Hiraishin kunai._

It was one thing, to suspect that he'd been here. Another to see proof that it couldn't have been anyone else. The kunai were distinctive, three bladed, and even now… the wrapping on the handle was aged and dirty, but the seal was still plain to see.

The Flying Thunder God Seal. What was it that Jiraiya had said? _He created his own branch of sealing to make it work._ This was… the utter pinnacle of sealing ability.

I swallowed, and looked around. Neither of the boys was nearby. I dropped the kunai into my leg pouch, feeling as though it were a hundred times heavier than a normal knife, as if I could feel the weight of its history and importance attached to the metal.

_I didn't expect that._

Surely over the years, people would have come here, would have looked? But then, who cared for knives stuck in a wall of rock? Kunai weren't that expensive, and these were probably damaged beyond use anyway. Anyone who could easily remove them probably didn't care enough to try. If there had been loose Hiraishin kunai on the field, they'd probably been taken shortly after the battle – by either side.

_Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. What even is this? What are the chances that I would find that here?_

"This is pretty cool, right?" Naruto said, beaming down at me from on top of the wall.

I swallowed. "Amazing," I agreed.

"What do you think, Sai?" Naruto called out, turning to look down the other side of the wall. With a shrug, I jumped up to stand beside him.

"There are a minimum of twelve different patterns of ninjutsu damage," Sai said. "That excludes those ninja who fought with genjutsu or taijutsu, or did not leave lasting damage to the environment as a result of their battle. More than one ninja may have used the same jutsu, and a single ninja may have used more than one type of jutsu. After so long, it is impossible to gain more accurate information regarding the battle here."

Naruto blinked. Then grinned "That's so cool, Sai! You can tell all that just by looking at this place?" He jumped down, landing lightly on the grass.

"If you would inform me of what you were looking for, I could be of more use," Sai said blandly, in a way that was completely unsubtle and yet flew miles over Naruto's head because he wasn't looking for anything at all.

"Fun," Naruto said. "We're looking for fun." He laughed.

I dropped to sit, legs dangling over the edge, and watched them with a smile.

Then, glad they were occupied, I pulled out my notebook and started to work. I had something to make, and not a lot of time to do it.

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"Hey, Sazanami!" Naruto shouted. "You're outside. Do you want your sword back?"

Sazanami took it back solemnly. "Thank you," he said. "For your help. All of it."

Naruto chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, it was our mission to catch that guy, and it was no problem to help you at the same time. Besides, you're a cool guy, and you helped us out first!"

"I don't think that really compares," Sazanami said, tipping his hat. "But I thank you kindly all the same."

"Are they really letting you go already?" I asked, mildly surprised. "That was quick."

"I'm on bail," he said. "Gatsu has agreed to ensure that I don't try and run." His lips quirked in a way that said he didn't intend to, but if he _had_, then that might not have been enough to stop him.

Gatsu crossed his arms. "Hmph. It's appalling to think that so much time and effort has been wasted on false accusations. These things should be properly investigated before a bounty is ever issued."

"I'm glad you feel that way, friend," Sazanami said. "It makes my life easier."

"Then we should return to Konoha," Sai said. "Our mission is complete, correct?"

"Yeah," I answered. "I have the information we needed. And the police know that Fire Country or Tea Country might want to extradite him, just in case." I shrugged. "There isn't much else we need to do."

Naruto nodded. "It was nice to meet you guys! I hope we'll see each other again sometime."

We turned to go, and I paused, as though I had just remembered something.

"Oh, Sazanami!" I scrambled in my pocket, withdrawing a small packet with a decorative coin and a slip of paper that was usually a fortune reading. "I brought you a good luck charm from the shrine. Stay out of trouble!"

The coin had been what sealed the idea, in the end. Once upon a time, I'd been a huge fan of the Harry Potter series. And when they had needed to communicate a location to each other in secret, they had used a set of charmed coins to transmit that information unnoticeably. The sort of item you could be expected to carry, and that no one would look too closely at.

This wasn't the first time I had tried to make that seal work. Linking two objects together wasn't so difficult in the end, but it was detectable, which was a problem for ninja. The burst of chakra that activating it made counteracted the benefits of having a secret transmission method in the first place. And the more information you tried to transmit, the more the connection degraded, the more chakra it took, and the more likely it would collapse and fail. Hence, having a letter that would instantly transcribe itself on a duplicate sheet of paper was impossible.

All this was currently completely irrelevant anyway, because Sazanami didn't use chakra. Having something that required him to activate with chakra just wouldn't have worked.

Instead, I'd made the connection 'open', and instructed him to inscribe the coordinates onto the side of the coin with blood, which would complete the seal and make it close. Hopefully. The open connection was more of a background hum than the spike of chakra that anyone would think to look for. Hopefully.

And if anyone with skill was paying him that much attention, he was probably in trouble anyway.

I liked to think it was a good solution to the 'how do I contact you' problem, even if it still had minor flaws. We didn't have to arrange a meeting time or location now, we could do it when he had some information.

"That was a good mission," Naruto said, tucking his hands behind his head. "But I can't wait to go home and visit Ichiraku."

I laughed. "Well, let's get moving then."

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"Are you the team from Konoha?" the woman behind the counter of the diner asked in relief. "Thank goodness you're here!"

Naruto and I traded looks. We'd stopped at the little crossroads inn for an early lunch before making our way through the Kubisaki pass, and hadn't expect that sort of greeting at all.

"Uhm," I said awkwardly. "We are _a_ team from Konoha. But we weren't sent here. Did you hire a team?" Something was niggling at me. Something was … off.

"Yes," the woman replied. "Lady Kayo from the Land of Honey was supposed to be travelling through here with her retinue. But she never arrived, and we had no word that the trip had been cancelled. Something must have happened to her."

The woman in front of us was middle-aged, dressed appropriately for an owner of a small, family run alongside a pass that was infrequently used but not totally abandoned. It wasn't a major shipping route, but it _was_ direct and not overtly difficult to cross. There was the chakra of a handful of civilians scattered upstairs – guests, presumably – and another two in the kitchen behind the counter.

No. One was a civilian. The other had ninja training.

"This is not our mission," Sai said to Naruto.

"That's awful," Naruto said, ignoring him completely. "And no one has come looking for her yet?"

"No," the woman said, a little fretfully. "We sent the message bird days ago. Someone should have been sent by now."

"You keep a message bird here?" I asked, curiously. That was actually starting to make more sense. The lady had recognised us as ninja, no question, which didn't seem strange until you contrasted it to the attitudes we had just had to deal with in Land of Stone. She'd known how to hire ninja right away.

"Oh yes," she said. "Well. Maybe you should talk to-" She turned to call out into the kitchen. "Ami, dear! The ninja are here!"

The chakra in the kitchen moved. The face that came out was familiar. It was surprising, yet not.

Ami. The girl who had clashed so frequently with Ino, Sakura and I at Konoha Academy. She had passed the graduation exam, but if only our three teams had made it into the General Forces… well. It had never occurred to me to wonder what she was doing now.

"Oh," she said, lukewarm. "Shikako. Naruto." Her eyes flickered over Naruto's Chunin vest.

"Ami," I said, politely. "So you're working here now?"

"Yes," she said, without elaboration. It was probably for the best – I could fill in myself why a Genin was posted somewhere like this with a message bird. Lost princesses notwithstanding. It probably wasn't a bad assignment for a first year Genin Corps, it did imply a certain degree of skill, trust and autonomy, even if it wasn't terribly exciting, but it likely didn't make her too happy to see us.

We left our orders for food, and Ami slipped out to sit at the table with us and fill us in on what had happened. Her report was pretty good, clear and concise, even if there weren't that many more details in general.

"The team is probably checking the route to see where she was last seen and following it from there," I said, studying the map. I could see a couple of hazards that could cause problems to a travelling group. "It makes more sense than coming out here and working backwards."

"There have been a couple of rumours about strange things happening at the old Kubisaki Castle," Ami confessed. "Nothing concrete. Just 'my brother had a friend who once saw' kind of stuff."

"What kind of things?" Naruto asked.

Ami shrugged. "Strange noises. Lights on inside the castle. People getting lost."

"People vanishing?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Nothing concrete," Ami repeated. "But a lot of people travel through without anyone knowing they're coming, so how can you tell if they never arrive?"

Naruto shivered. "Creepy. I hope it's not ghosts."

"Well," I said, meaningfully. "We're going that way anyway."

"We're going to help them, aren't we?" Sai said, sounding resigned.

He learnt so quickly.

Naruto nodded firmly. "Great idea, Sai. That's exactly what we're going to do."

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><p>.<p>

AN: Parts of this chapter were super fun to write. Parts weren't and I'm not so happy with them. Also, so tempting to write The Adventures of Sazanami and Gatsu; Bounty Hunters. You know it would be great.

Oh, and, I don't usually like to confirm/deny plot things before they happen, but I can foresee this one filling up my inbox – no, Shikako is never going to learn the Hiraishin.


	83. Chapter 82

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: Erimies has posted The Corona, featuring the DOS universe! So if 82 chapters plus change aren't enough for you… XD

Check out the 'dosbysilverqueen' tumblr page for audio posts and art, it's really kicking off now.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 82

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><p>.<p>

_I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. ~ Douglas Adams_

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><p>.<p>

We'd passed through Kubisaki pass on our way to the Land of Stone and it honestly hadn't struck me as anything very unusual.

This time, we were keeping our eyes open.

"It's creepy and I don't like it," Naruto determined as we circled the castle for the third time.

The castle was perched atop the cliff, watching over the pass like a guardian, but there was an easy path splitting off to the front gates. For being abandoned, it didn't look too shabby. It was a little battered maybe, but the walls and roof were still intact and it looked structurally sound and defensible.

And possibly a little creepy. I was _almost_ certain I could see a light flickering in an upper window.

I made a noise of agreement. "I can't sense anyone inside," I said. "But-"

But it didn't feel normal, either. The castle was _Something._

What that something was, I didn't know and couldn't explain.

Naruto didn't look enthused. "I bet it's haunted."

"It's unnecessary for us to enter the castle," Sai offered. "It is not part of our mission and we are not required to undertake exploration."

"Yeah, but we promised we would," Naruto said. He squinted at the castle once more then squared his shoulders.

He stepped forward to knock-

- And the doors swung open.

He screamed and leapt back, landing in a crouch and drawing kunai in either hand. I fell into a fighting stance automatically at the sound, and Sai did the same.

After a second, I felt incredibly silly.

"It just surprised me, is all," Naruto muttered defensively.

"The only one who keeps insisting this place is haunted is you," I said, sighing, because we weren't going to get anywhere like this. There was 'careful' and then there was 'paranoid'. "I'm sure there's an explanation that _isn't_ ghosts."

It wasn't exactly a glowing reassurance, but he did look a bit more confident.

"Right," Naruto agreed. "That would just be silly. Ghosts. Hah. Who believes in those?"

He crept forward gingerly though, cautiously edging into the entrance hall. Nothing happened.

Sai followed, on high alert. I gave once last look behind us and went in.

If the outside had been in good condition for an abandoned castle, then the inside was impossible. It was well lit, the furniture was as new, and there wasn't even any dust.

This place wasn't abandoned.

The doors creaked ominously, and slammed closed, shutting out the outside world.

Not just shutting out the sight of it.

They _shut it out_. I couldn't even sense it anymore. Like it wasn't there anymore.

I whirled around to try and yank them back open. The door handle turned to sticky slime under my fingers, melting away and _oozing_ back into the wall.

I leapt backwards, tearing my hand away.

Not slime. Sticky, flesh like _something._ The wall pulsed, the wood-and-stone imagery giving way for a second to reveal something that was almost muscular.

"Naruto," I said urgently. "Can you summon a toad?"

Naruto blinked at me, but tried. His hand pressed flat against the floor, chakra heaving and falling. "No? Hey! Why not? Oi! Gamakichi!" He ran through the handseals again.

I backed away from the walls, stepping carefully, even though they were once more disguised. "I think the castle is a summons. We're inside it now. Once the doors shut, it trapped us."

"Like the Pervy Sage's Toad Stomach technique," Naruto said, thankfully catching on. I forgot he'd probably seen it in action against Itachi.

"What does that mean?" Sai asked. He'd backed up too, turning and standing shoulder to shoulder with me. If Naruto joined in, we'd be in a perfect defensive Manji formation. There was something reassuring about it, knowing that he'd responded like that, instinctively defensive, even though he had protested this exploration all along. "Can we create an escape route?"

I shifted uneasily. The floor beneath my feet still felt like wood. But I wouldn't bet on it. I doubted anything around us was part of the _original_ castle.

"Summoning jutsu like this make a self-contained chakra-space…" I said. "It's not something you can just _cross._ You have to break the technique." Like when Ibiki had tried to capture the Sound Four; like when Kajika's group had trapped sensei in a seal. "We might be able to damage it enough that we can cancel it, or we might have to disrupt it some other way."

And I wasn't sure what that would mean for us trapped inside. I really didn't want to dispel a summons only to find that it took us back to its homeland with it.

Still, that was probably the best option. If we attacked this outer wall… maybe a Rasengan, or if I used explosives…

"Hey," Naruto asked sounding troubled. He'd moved deeper into the castle, apparently unafraid now that it definitely wasn't ghosts. "Are these…"

A little reluctantly, I turned to see what he was looking at. Set against the back wall of the entrance hall were three packs. Almost identical to the ones we were carrying.

I crouched next to them, and carefully flipped the top open. It didn't take more than a quick look to pick out signs that these belonged to ninja. Actually…

"I'm pretty sure this is Ino's," I said. It was a surprise – even if there was a Konoha team running around, that didn't mean it had to be one we knew. Let alone one we knew well.

But it also made me uneasy. If she had been here, had taken her pack off, had been trapped like we were trapped…

Where was she now?

"Let's go find them," Naruto said.

I didn't voice the possibility that we wouldn't. I didn't even want to think it.

"I can't sense them," I said softly. It could have just been that the castle-summons was blocking my ability. We were, after all, inside it. The walls, the floor, the air, they were all saturated with its chakra. Maybe I just couldn't pick anything out, through all that noise.

I sealed the packs away into one of my storage scrolls. Who knew if we could come back this way, again. Maybe there was an exit somewhere else and the team had just decided to leave them behind.

I pressed my hands to the floor, letting ink spill out into an explosive seal. A last resort. If we couldn't find Ino… if they weren't in here… I could set it off and make the summons dispel. I hoped.

The next room was a dining room, with a long table set with seven plates. They were still warm, like the occupants had just got up and stepped out for a moment.

It was more than a little creepy.

We skirted around it, peering cautiously into the hallway. It was long and narrow, with many varied doors scattered along it. I would have called it a perfect ambush spot, except that we were _already in the trap._ There were several armour forms – statues? Displays? – along the length, that reminded me of nothing more than golems. Not that they had their own chakra reserves, but I wouldn't count them out.

"That picture is the same as the one in the entrance hall," Sai said, abruptly. "It is identical."

"Repeating design elements?" I suggested. "We know the whole thing is a fake." Or it could have been purposeful. For some reason. The man in the picture looked important, dressed like a lord, and people generally didn't display huge portraits everywhere for no reason.

"Man, I don't know where to start looking," Naruto complained. "I'll send out clones and then we can just follow them."

I nodded in acceptance. Naruto's Shadow Clones were useful for searching large areas in short amounts of time. I didn't know how much time we'd have to search.

Except the second he clapped his hands together in the seal was the second things started to go wrong.

_It knows it's an attack!_

The illusion of the building cut out, leaving pulsing walls of muscle, heaving and contorting. The floor was no longer stone, and pulsed under foot, rising and twisting like a wave. It bubbled up around my ankles and I leapt up, looking frantically for somewhere to land that _wasn't_ dangerous.

I felt the catch and release of a replacement jutsu, one of Naruto's clones trying to pull me out, but _there was nowhere to go._ My new location was no better than the last, even as I tried to retreat for where the doors had been.

I pressed chakra to my feet, trying to skate on top of the summons and not let it catch and drag me down. Naruto's chakra was whirling as he formed a Rasengan to fight it off, and Sai was floating on the back of an ink bird, desperately twisting and turning into the air to avoid what looked like a lashing tongue.

"Split up!" Naruto shouted. "We still have to find them!" Some of his clones darted off, Sai flew higher both in an attempt to dodge and follow that order. I went backwards, putting distance between us, aiming for the entrance.

"… devour…" the walls hissed. "All who enter will be devoured…"

That was just. Lovely.

I stamped down, pressing a Touch Blast into the floor with my foot, and leapt away even as it surged up and dragged at my ankles. I wouldn't be able to keep this up. Already my legs were starting to burn with the effort, and if I didn't find somewhere safe to land…

The explosion was satisfying. The way the entire floor then retracted and I _fell_ was less so.

I twisted in the air like a cat and prepared myself for what was below me. To my surprise, it was hard stone. I landed in a crouch, absorbing the fall with my knees, poised to jump away again if the ground turned out to be a trap. But it appeared as though it were actual stone, not genjutsu or transformation jutsu. There was no chakra running through it. Maybe this had been part of the original castle and I had been disgorged out of it… or maybe it had also been swallowed and simply remained intact inside the stomach…

I looked up, but the ceiling had surged together again, closing over and blocking any glimpse of my teammates. That wasn't good. We were separated now. And I'd seen enough horror movies to know that that wasn't a good plan.

_It's a summon. Not a haunted castle. Naruto really got to you with that._

But I could sense something interesting.

Something that made being separated worthwhile.

Without the chakra of the summons interfering and blocking me… I could sense people.

I raced down the corridor, taking turns at speed and hurdling over piles and rubble. There were bodies littering the way, but they were old ones. Almost skeletons. Wearing armour. Not important.

I rounded the last bend and ducked. A kunai flew perilously close to my head and ruffled my hair.

_Maybe shouldn't have surprised them_,I thought a tad sheepishly.

"Shikako?" Ino said, looking absolutely flabbergasted. "What are you doing here?"

I was so glad to see her. And Shino and Hinata. The three of them were tending to a set of civilians, probably the missing lady and her party. They all looked uninjured, if a bit scuffed and upset.

I guessed I was the last person she expected to see. "Oh, you know," I said. "We were in the neighbourhood. Need a hand?"

"Like getting yourself stuck in here as well is so helpful," she retorted after a seconds pause. "Do you even know what's going on? How'd you get here so fast?"

"Yes," Shino agreed. "I would also like the answers to those questions. Why? Because we did not send any request for backup."

"My team was in the Land of Stone," I explained. "We were heading towards Kubisaki Pass when your contact told us that you hadn't arrived. So we diverted here to see if you needed help."

"Right," Ino said, not sounding very impressed. "But do you know what's going on?"

"It's a summons," I said. "Disguised to take the form of the castle and deal with intruders."

"Yes," Hinata agreed softly. "It was summoned by Gosa Kubisaki fifty years ago at the conclusion of a battle when his forces were overrun. They retreated here, but the enemy followed them. So he used the castle as a trap to get rid of them, and it's been here ever since." She was holding onto some old, yellowed scroll, so presumably there had been a written record of it somewhere in here. "Once they were inside they couldn't leave… and they either killed each other or starved to death." She gestured at the bodies.

"A summons staying around for that long… after the summoner is dead even…" I mused. "There's got to be an anchoring seal somewhere. No way there isn't." It was kind of impressive. In a horrible sort of way.

Did it even count as a pyrrhic victory? It wasn't so much a victory as posthumous revenge.

"Yes, we assumed as much, and attempted to discover and destroy them," Shino said. He adjusted his glasses. "However, we have been unable to leave this section of the castle, once we were taken here."

"Are there traps?" I asked. I hadn't seen anything on my way – hadn't even occurred to me. I should have been more careful.

Shino shook his head. "No more than it used against us before. It is simply that Hinata is the only one of us who has successfully managed to damage the castle. My Kikaichu are at a supreme disadvantage against this summon. Why? Because it appears to be insectivorous."

"And I don't really want to try and see if my jutsu works on it," Ino admitted, hands curling into fists.

"Yeah, no," I agreed. After what had happened _last time_, I didn't want her to try and see either. "We're not trying that."

I took a second to consider the situation. It wasn't _dire_, exactly, but it was serious. In this section of basement, we at least weren't at risk of being 'devoured'. But it didn't bode well for our long term prospects, either, given the bodies around us.

"Hinata," I asked. "Can you see any seals? Or scrolls? It would probably have to be in a section of the castle like this, or in a … separate chakra space." I wasn't exactly sure that you would be able to write a seal to summon something on the summons itself. That was a bit… circular. Wasn't it?

It was probably separate.

_Crap. What if it's outside?_ No. If Kubisaki had retreated to the castle, that meant he'd summoned it from inside the castle. Therefore, the seal should also be inside the castle.

If it wasn't…

We'd try something else.

My planning was cut off by a deep rumbling, and the ground we were on shook, as though the whole section had been dislodged and was moving. Lady Kayo gave a short scream, and Ino reached out reassuringly to steady her.

_Should probably hurry up,_ I thought grimly. Just because the danger wasn't immediate, didn't mean it wasn't there.

"Shino… what were your plans?" I asked. It might have been a bit belated, given the way I had just charged in and started asking questions… but he was the Chunin in charge.

But Shino looked at me seriously. It was hard to tell with his dark glasses, but his gaze seemed assessing. "Do you have suggestions?" he asked.

"The hardest part is going to be keeping them safe," I admitted, gesturing at the civilians. I kept my voice quiet, so they wouldn't overhear. "They can't travel out of this section, and four of us can hardly carry seven of them…" Maybe if Naruto were down here with his shadow clones; that could easily provide enough spare bodies…

Thoughts turned over in my head. "If Hinata can find Naruto and bring him back," I said slowly, a plan coming together. Hinata could break through the walls, but the others would probably be better off staying and protecting the civilians. "Then that shouldn't be a problem… I could go and find the seal…"

"By yourself?" Ino interjected as she came closer, voice a little doubtful. "It'll probably have defences if it's so important."

I shrugged. "Then that'll give you more time to get ready. I think we'll need pretty good timing if we want to escape safely." I was being purposefully vague on the details of the plan here, because I didn't really have details of the plan. It was basically the same plan we'd had before, only with more people involved.

"That's not even related to _the_ _point,_" Ino said. "I'm coming with you."

I thought about all the things I could say to stop her. And some of them? Some of them were cruel. '_You'll only be dead weight'._

I shrugged again. "Okay." That would leave Shino alone down here… but he nodded, so apparently he agreed with Ino.

Okay, then.

We re-grouped and explained the plan to Hinata, who was a pretty crucial part. With her Byakugan, she'd be able to keep an eye on everyone's progress, and thus make sure we were all operating in sync. Without communicators, it was about the best we could do.

The ground shook again.

We exchanged grim looks.

"Okay," I said. "Now." I drew the Sword of the Thunder God, flicked it on with a thrum of chakra, and focused. I slashed it through the air, patterning my chakra so that the blade extended like a wave or a whip, lightning lashing up into the ceiling. It carved through, leaving only the smell of burning flesh behind.

We leapt up, Ino and I splitting one way, Hinata going the other.

I bounced off a wall, foot planted on the head of an armoured form that was slowly moving, and slashed at the ceiling again.

There was a hissing, gurgling sound, and fluid started to gush from the walls, dripping down around us. I hissed as some of it splashed on exposed skin.

"Stomach acid," Ino said, wincing, either from disgust or pain. She had more exposed skin than I did.

"It really doesn't want us going this way," I confirmed. Which had to mean we were going in the right direction. Given that we only had a vague idea of where we were going, and that our surroundings could change at any given moment, that was actually a good sign. Well. 'Good'.

We went up another level and a tapestry turned into an extending, lashing tongue. I wheeled backwards, conscious of the fact that we couldn't stop moving or risk being sucked into the floor.

Ino looped ninja wire around her fingers and caught it in a twisted ring of wire, catching the ends in a kunai hoop and pinning it to the floor, effectively immobilising it.

"Thanks," I acknowledged.

She nodded, a quick distracted thing, as we kept racing on, leaping over grasping appendages and sliding through gaps where the walls closed together to catch us. I wielded the sword with brutal efficiency and carved us a path where we wanted to go.

We hit what would have been the upper landing, prepared for a final launch to the towers and…

Everything stopped.

The walls and floor reverted to the illusion. The acid vanished. The armour statues returned to places by the wall.

And a ghost walked out of the door.

"It did this before. The phantom," Ino said. "He's just another one of its tricks."

"Uhm, no," I said, staring at him. "I think he's really a ghost."

A ghost. A _ghost_. It crossed in front of us, didn't look at us, didn't react, and started up the stairs.

I hesitated a second, then followed.

If you'd asked me why I was so sure it wasn't a trap, I would have fumbled with an answer. The truth was, I could sense it, but hazily, as though it were smoke in the breeze. Not _quite_ chakra, but maybe spiritual energy. There was clearly nothing physical to it.

It was an imprint. Something left behind after the death of the physical.

Maybe some actions, some journeys, were repeated enough that they were engrained in the fabric of the world, that even when they were no longer undertaken, they could still be seen? How many times had he walked this path, if it lingered after his death?

Or…

I'd never argued that souls could exist. Not now. How could I? How else could I be here? And you could quantify them and bind them with jutsu – that was the premise of Edo Tensei, however awful it was.

So, after that, was it such a stretch to believe that ghosts could exist too? That after the body died, the soul could linger, could still have the determination and will to influence things? Especially if there was something to anchor it to, a summons… or a seal?

We followed Kubisaki, and who else could he be but the lord who had summoned this castle to deal with his enemies, to the top of the stairs, and along to a room that held a dais on which rested a scroll.

He stopped then.

"He… brought us to the seal?" Ino asked, behind me. "Why?"

And the ghost bowed his head. "It has been…" he said, as though it took so, so much effort. "so long…"

He was talking to us. Had heard, and could answer. This wasn't just an imprint, repeating actions mindlessly them. He was aware. Alive, without being alive.

If you could be alive after death, then what was death, really? Were all those people that sought immortality really so crazy as they seemed? The boundaries of life and death were really rather more… flexible than they should have been.

I swallowed. _Naruto is right. Ghosts are terrifying._

I pushed the considerations of the afterlife and all its related implications aside. It was too big to deal with now. Maybe too big to ever deal with.

"The seal," I said, instead, and stepped around the ghost to look at it. No way was I touching him.

The black ink on the table was basic, and at its most simple was merely a chakra funnel, gathering natural energy and providing it to the scroll in the middle. That was what anchored it, providing it the energy to stay.

"He is loyal," the ghost said. "I asked him to stay… to devour my enemies, and he did so. But it has been so long."

"And now he won't leave," I finished, only flicking a glimpse at him through my bangs. Gingerly, I unrolled the edge of the scroll, to see what it was.

Then I sucked in a sharp breath.

"This is the contract!"

Not just a summoning seal. But the actual contract as signed by every summoner. The edges of it were inked with designs of animals… chameleon. I guessed that made sense. Insectivorous, illusion users. Kubisaki's name was there, the very last on the list.

"What's that mean?" Ino asked. "In terms of us getting out of here."

"Return him home," the ghost breathed and started to fade away. "It is over…"

I cleared my throat. "I could disrupt the seal. Or destroy the scroll. I'm pretty sure that either of those things would disrupt the summon. But I'm not sure what would happen to everyone that was inside it. But we have another option…"

Ino seemed to click instantly. "Sign the scroll."

"It's not a perfect solution. Summons don't _have_ to listen and obey… they've still got free will." Given the way that Gamabunta or Manda behaved, obedience was not guaranteed in the slightest.

"But we'd be able to dismiss it, at the least," Ino said. "Okay. I'll sign it."

I paused. "Are you sure?" Because she'd decided so _fast._ It seemed almost rash.

"Yeah." She nodded quickly. "It fits me more than it fits you. Aren't you glad I decided to come with you?"

"Always," I said. "Alright, sign quickly. I don't know what the ghost did to make it calm down, but it probably won't last."

She cut her fingertip on the point of a kunai and wrote her name in blood on the scroll, pressing a palm print to the bottom of it. The scroll seemed to shiver, the ink blurring and reforming.

It was accepted, then.

She cleared her throat. "Hello. This is Ino Yamanaka. I just signed your summoning scroll. Please return all the people you have swallowed to the outside world. Then … you can dismiss yourself and return to the summon realm."

We waited with baited breath.

"Your words have been heard," the castle sighed.

And then everything shivered. My feet were swept out from underneath me and the two of us tumbled together. I reacted like it was an attack, rolling Ino beneath me so I could stand, hands flying to my kunai-

- And we tumbled onto the grass. There was a tangle of limbs as approximately thirteen people, give or take a few clones, landed in the same spot.

Ino 'oofed', air wheezing out of her lungs. "Couldn't have said 'gently return', couldn't I?" she muttered.

I made a grunting sound, because someone's knee was making acquaintance with my kidneys.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "What's the big idea?!" He leapt to his feet, looking like he wanted to charge back at the castle.

But the castle was no longer there.

It was dark outside, late at night, but it was still clear to see that there was nothing but rubble remaining of the Kubisaki castle.

"But where did it go?" Naruto asked, baffled, and looked around as though it could be hiding.

Shino managed to extract himself from the pile, and adjusted his sunglasses. "Obviously the plan to disrupt the seal and dismiss the summons was a success. We simply were not required to create an escape route after all."

"Yep," I said, getting to my feet, and starting to help the others up. I took a quick headcount to make sure we were all there. Sai – the lucky one – had managed to avoid getting dogpiled entirely and was hanging at the edge of the group with an expression that almost counted as a frown. "You can thank Ino."

Naruto scratched the back of his head and then shrugged. "Okay. Thanks Ino! So… that's the mission complete, right?"

"Not entirely," Shino corrected. "Why? Because we should escort Lady Kayo to a safe destination. However, it is too late for travel over the mountain path, so we should establish a camp here."

"That's going to be fun," Ino muttered. "We don't have any gear."

"Oh, right," I said. "I picked that up for you." I unsealed their packs from my storage scroll. "And we have a tent and stuff. It's too late for us to go on, too, so we might as well camp out with you."

"Yeah!" Naruto agreed. "That sounds super fun, right Sai?"

"We shouldn't delay our return to Konoha," Sai said, which was a weak protest, since we'd actually wrapped up our own mission well under time frame. Tsunade wouldn't even be expecting us back yet.

"We're totally not," Naruto said, fairly. "We have to camp somewhere. So it might as well be here."

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"So who's tall, dark and pale?" Ino asked, dropping to sit on the log beside me. She'd been busy helping all the civilians settle in while we'd made camp. I'd offered to help, but frankly I'd been glad to be turned down.

I stopped scribbling in my notebook and tucked it away.

"Sai?" I asked, tilting my head. "He's a Chunin who was assigned to us for our mission."

She stretched out, wincing as her shoulders cracked. "We were both sent on the wrong mission," she said.

I raised an eyebrow, not quite sure what she meant.

"Creepy haunted castle? That has you all over it. I should have got the cute new guy." She eyed Sai where he was sitting quietly, drawing. He'd been even more reserved tonight than he had been on our mission, and that was saying something.

I huffed a laugh, almost startled. "We could have used you for the interrogation," I admitted. "So yeah, you're probably right. We would have been perfect in opposite places."

Our shoulders bumped. "Well," she said, sounding more subdued. "What can you do? Have to cope with what you've got."

"Yeah," I agreed. "So. New summons, huh? How's that feel?"

"I'm not sure," Ino admitted. "I mean, it's totally unexpected. But I think I'll wait till I'm back in Konoha before I try summoning any of them. After that, it could go either way. But… if it works out, they could be really useful."

"Oh, yeah. Well, as long as you're into people-eating-castles," I teased. "Those are super useful."

In the morning, we split ways. I gave Ino a teasing warning to not be surprised by who their contact was – which only really ensured she was super curious about it the whole way there – and headed back to Konoha.

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And, since I probably won't have a new chapter before then – Merry Christmas all!

(Or Happy Holiday of your choosing.)


	84. Chapter 83

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: Announcement time! Okay, we have a few. Links are, as always, in my profile for you guys.

Check out the new DOS Trailer by N. Hamilton, if you haven't seen it yet.

Yellow Pilot has made an awesome DOS playlist on 8 tracks for the fic!

Alizes has started translating this into Korean for anyone who is bilingual and wants to check that out.

And the DOS tumblr page and podfic are still going strong thanks to jacksgreys0n. It's currently hosting a lot of related music, so if there's any particular song that reminds you of DOS, feel free to drop it in a review, or send it to the blog!

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Chapter 83

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_As a rule, what is out of sight disturbs men's minds more seriously than what they see. ~ Julius Caesar_

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"Next," Sasuke said. "Papers?"

"Geeze, Sasuke," Naruto complained. "It's like you don't know us or anything."

Sasuke looked dully bored and this was clearly not the first hour of his shift on the front gates of Konoha. I didn't really envy him the duty. Sure, it was necessary. And sure, if it failed, things would get _bad_, but that didn't actually mean it was fun to do.

"No exceptions, idiot," Sasuke scoffed. He held out his hand and wiggled his fingers impatiently.

Naruto grumbled as he passed his ID card and the mission scroll over.

Teasingly, Sasuke flicked his Sharingan on and inspected it seriously, turning it over like he expected there to be something wrong with it.

I snickered and dropped mine on the table, beside Sai's. "I feel safer knowing Sasuke is prepared for all the imposters trying to sneak into the village _right now._"

There was silence. Not just 'silence' but _silence._ Meaningful, as conversations cut out behind me, as nervous tension jumped in the air.

I had just enough time to meet Sasuke's eyes in surprise, watched them widen in warning, before I dropped, rolling sideways away from the knife that swiped through the air where my head had been. I came up on one knee, shadow coiling like a spring and lashing out.

In the second I had been down, Sasuke leapt across the table and had one man pinned face down in the dirt, arms twisted up his back. The second had been backed against the wall with Sai's tanto pressed snugly against his throat.

The crowd startled, a few sudden screams springing up. Ninja materialised out of the gates, to herd them back and to remove the prisoners we had acquired. The Special Jounin – Hayate, I thought, the proctor from the exams – who had been manning the opposite desk, stood and quickly took charge of the situation, efficiently directing people until it was as if nothing had ever happened.

The fight had taken a second, maybe less. The clean up might have taken a minute. In less time than it took for someone to have a smoke break, the line was moving again.

No one could say ninja weren't efficient.

"That was dumb," I said, "launching an attack right at the gates. What did they think would happen?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Probably because you just _blew their cover._ Why do you have to make my job difficult?"

"I was just making a joke," I muttered. Because dammit, I hadn't known they were infiltrators. How the hell would I have known that? If they'd kept their cool and _not attacked me_ I would never have known anything. They'd have had much better luck if they'd just kept bluffing. Didn't they teach you that before they sent you off from infiltrator school?

_Deny, deny, deny._

Sasuke swept our ninja ID's up, and handed them back to us. "Get lost," he ordered. But he smirked, so I was pretty sure the brief fight had been the highlight of his day.

I stepped past, then had an idea. I smacked him on the shoulder. "Dinner. Ichiraku."

Sasuke shrugged. I took that as acceptance.

"Dinner after missions is a Team Seven tradition," I explained to Sai, as we continued on. "And Ichiraku is Naruto's favourite."

Those two sentences were both true. They just weren't related at all. But I didn't… I really didn't want to take Sai to my home. He hadn't _done_ anything on this mission, and that wasn't as reassuring as it should have been. Because if he hadn't done anything, then why was he here? Why now, why with us, what was he after. What had he accomplished that I _hadn't seen? _

And until I had answers to those questions, then I didn't want him in my home.

But I didn't want to totally exclude him either. One, I wanted to keep an eye on Sai, not just now but in the long term. Two… socialising would be good for him.

"Ichiraku is the best!" Naruto said without pause. I was glad he hadn't questioned the change in routine, which was partially the reason I'd chosen Ichiraku. Naruto was hardly going to turn down an excuse to visit his favourite place. "You've gotta come. The tofu ramen is really good!"

Sai didn't really say 'yes' but he didn't say 'no' either, and I was hoping that his general propensity to follow orders would come through for us here.

"If you don't like Ichiraku," I offered. "You can pick the restaurant next time." Implicit that there would be a next time, that we would have another mission together. But Naruto had taken to Sai, so I was pretty sure that he was going to request it.

It wouldn't be so bad, as long as I could keep an eye on him. And work out what he was up to.

Being able to keep Sai would be handy, in the long run. It gave us a line back to Danzo, who had already shown he could keep tabs on us. We were playing at a disadvantage, here.

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"Sai! You made it!" Naruto waved vigorously and nearly fell off his stool. Sasuke's reflexive grab was the only thing that stopped him.

Sasuke looked like he regretted the impulse. "Idiot, sit down," he said. "You're making a spectacle of yourself."

"Taicho," Sai greeted, barely refraining from standing at attention. "I am present, as requested."

Naruto practically beamed at the title. Sasuke looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I shrugged.

"This is Sai," Naruto said to Sasuke. "He was on our last mission with us. He's a pretty cool guy – he does this awesome ink drawing stuff. And this is Sasuke, our other team mate."

"Thanks for watching their backs," Sasuke said, and though he sounded disinterested there was something sharp and wary about his eyes. "And for this morning. You've got good reactions."

Sai simply nodded and slid into the open seat beside Naruto. Ichiraku was pretty busy at the moment, so we were crammed together down one half of the counter. But the food still arrived pretty sharply after we gave our orders.

Naruto filled the air with chatter, about our mission, pestering Sasuke about what he'd been doing, dragging Sai into the conversation – he was actually getting pretty good at wrangling people into talking with him and not just talking _at_ them.

We didn't end up staying that long. Sai slunk off shortly after the 'goal' of consuming food was completed. I couldn't say I was exactly sorry to see him go, but Sai was a problem that I would rather have close at hand, rather than operating where I couldn't see what he was up to.

We went to the training grounds. It was starting to get too late to really be training now, but we were beginning to get used to taking our time together where we could get it and it wasn't like you could pick your conditions in the field. We'd worked that out.

"Spar?" Naruto suggested brightly.

I smiled. "I have a few new seals I want to test out in controlled conditions." Not that sparring was really 'controlled' per se. But it was better than trying to test them in actual combat for the first time. That was reserved for if we were in really deep trouble.

Sasuke eyed me warily. "I don't like the sound of that."

"They're harmless," I assured him. "Really. They shouldn't even explode."

I wasn't even lying, so the fact that that only made them warier was _fantastic_.

The seal I was talking about was basically a magnet. Magnetism as a jutsu was pretty damn rare, but I couldn't see a reason why. Magnetic fields were easy. Wrap a coil of wire around a hunk of metal, and bam, electromagnet. High school physics level. If you could do it like that, then you could probably do it with chakra. I _knew_ you could do it with seals.

It was just that magnetic fields were one of those huge, fundamental forces. They were a little intimidating.

I wasn't even all that interested in the magnets themselves – this was just my trial run for the one I really was interested in; Gravity.

That was going to be more difficult.

"Ready?" I asked, teasingly.

The boys looked at each other, then leapt backwards up into the trees.

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"So?" Sasuke prompted, turning to me, once we had finished sparring.

"So what?" I returned, genuinely perplexed. He'd have to give me a little bit more to go on than that.

"How come you don't like Sai?" Naruto continued. He frowned. "I thought you didn't, but then you were all nice to him so I thought maybe you did, but then…"

Huh. Naruto was always perceptive when you didn't really want him to be. "I like him just fine," I said. That was true, wasn't it? "It's just different working with someone new."

"Right," Naruto said doubtfully. "Because even if he's a little weird, I think he's really lonely. He needs a friend."

"I know," I said gently. Sometimes, I was in danger of forgetting that Naruto didn't win people over because he was a great fighter, or anything like that. It was because he empathised. He'd seen himself in Gaara and Haku and Sasuke. And now in Sai. And he'd wanted to help them. "I think so too."

Sasuke shrugged. Whether people _liked_ each other had never been a high priority to him. But he probably spotted the inconsistency of not having team dinner at my house, amongst

other things. He was undoubtedly curious.

"Baa-chan agreed he could come with us on our next mission," Naruto said, like I hadn't been there for that conversation. "That's okay, right?"

I smiled reassuringly. "That's very okay."

Risky maybe, but okay.

"It's … interesting," Sasuke said, slowly. He crossed his arms, and leant against the wooden training post. "This morning at the gates…"

"He was pretty cool, right?" Naruto said. "Like, Shikako moved and then you moved, and then Sai had the other guy caught before I could even do anything." He looked a little sheepish.

It wasn't that Naruto didn't have good reflexes. He did. Once he knew that he was in a fight. Something like this morning, where the fight was unexpected and unprovoked could still take him by surprise. That was just something that experience would teach.

_I'd_ been taken by surprise.

"That too," Sasuke said. "But his ninja ID…"

I sharpened. "Yeah?"

He looked at me, steadily. "It was new. Newer than ours. It wasn't worn. Didn't even have any fingerprints on it." Ours were new, seven months old, and it wasn't like we subjected them to terrible conditions. But they still got handled, pulled in and out of pockets, got bent and scratched. The edges wore away. They got faded and frayed.

"You could see that?" Naruto asked, confused.

Sasuke shrugged. "I had my Sharingan on, remember?"

I sat back. Not surprising, if 'Sai' was an identity created for this mission. Sasuke hadn't said there was anything _wrong_ with the ID, which probably meant it was either a perfect forgery or created by the Konoha Administration. It wasn't hard to imagine that Danzo could get things fabricated. ROOT had to be interwoven with the village in order to function.

"People get replacement cards," I said cautiously. It was true.

"Yeah," Naruto said. "Maybe it got damaged on a mission. We could have asked him."

I… didn't really want that to happen. It was better for us, if Sai didn't know we knew. Once he realised we were onto him, it was going to be so much harder to keep an eye on him, than if he thought we were just unaware.

"It's not really a big deal," I said. "I mean, it's just a card."

Sasuke stiffened. Sharpened. "Do you know something, Shikako?" he asked.

_Aww, dammit._

I blinked, trying to look surprised. Also innocent. "No?"

Unfortunately, Sasuke didn't look deterred. "We all know something is up," he said. "You might as well spill."

I did groan, that time. "Sasuke."

"Look," he said. "You did this before. With Yakumo. And you said you'd tell me next time."

I wasn't sure I _had_ said that, actually.

"I don't know what it is," I tried.

Sasuke continued to look unimpressed. He folded his arms.

"I don't know _exactly_ what's wrong," I amended. "And you're just going to think I'm paranoid." I chanced a glance at Naruto. He looked pretty nonplussed, looking between me and Sasuke like there was a tennis match in progress.

"I'm starting to feel pretty paranoid myself," Sasuke grumbled. His eyes were searching mine. "But even if it's nothing, we can look into it together. You don't have to do it alone."

"You're a better friend than I deserve," I said, sighing. I dropped my eyes to stare at the ground. The guilt was biting, a niggling feeling of shame twisting in my gut.

I was perfectly aware I was going to keep lying to him. There were a lot of things I was lying to Sasuke about, even if only by admission. He was better than I deserved.

"Shikako?" Naruto cut in. He sounded worried, and earnest. His face was creased and lined. "Is something wrong?"

I crumbled.

"Sai," I said. "Don't you think he's a bit… strange?"

"The ID," Sasuke said. "That's important, right?"

I nodded. "I think so. And just how he acts and stuff. Some of the questions he asked. Nothing big. Nothing that _proves_ anything." I was trying to downplay it, now. Because I couldn't _really_ point a finger to any one thing that screamed suspicious.

Sasuke hesitated, as though he were putting things together. "You think he's…" his voice dropped, secretive, even though we were here alone. His hands twitched into the sign for 'Anbu'. "There to watch out for you and Naruto? It's probably not the worst idea."

It was actually a little impressive that Sasuke had managed to come to a nearly correct conclusion from only two meetings. From barely any information at all.

"Or to watch _us,_" I said. No, Tsunade assigning an Anbu to watch out for Naruto wouldn't have been the worst of ideas, when Kakashi-sensei was away and we were down a team member. But.

"That's the bit where you start to sound paranoid," Sasuke said cautiously.

"Wait." Naruto's voice rose several decibels. "Sai is-!"

I cut him off with a furious wave. "Don't say it! You aren't supposed to talk about it," I said. You weren't actually supposed to _know_ about Anbu, even when it was something that 'everyone knew', like Kakashi-sensei. It was a bit of polite fiction. "And… Maybe. We don't know."

Naruto cupped his hand in his chin. "That's pretty cool. I believe it."

I shared a look with Sasuke.

"You can't believe it if we don't have evidence," Sasuke scolded, exasperated.

"We could ask," Naruto protested.

"We can't ask," I said, firmly. "It's a secret, remember?"

Damn, but I felt like a juggler, trying to keep a hundred balls in the air. I couldn't tell if this whole conversation had been a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe both.

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

Nara R&D stole me away for the next few days, for the introductory course / internship thing that I probably should have gone through before I'd been thrown in the deep end. It might not have totally prevented that giant muck up, but it probably would have gone a long way. And now I would absolutely classify all my seals as 'personal' rather than 'experimental' and would attach them only very grudgingly to my research project.

It wasn't all bad, and I could see the point of it, but it did seem too-little-too-late.

"Are you certain you don't want to transfer here full time?" Kofuku-oba asked.

"Absolutely certain," I said, flatly. "I like field work."

I hadn't wanted full time before, I certainly didn't want it now. This wasn't even part time. It was extracurricular. It was 'when I have time' work.

Except, there were a couple of things I really would have liked access to _right now_, that were unfortunately out of my reach.

I had a Hiraishin kunai burning a hole in my pocket and absolutely no way to read it.

I needed a seal expander, and yet, as Jiraiya had demonstrated – they were really damn difficult. There was no way I was getting at an R&D one (if they had one) without a whole list of reasons.

So. Either I had to give up, for now.

Or I had to make one myself.

There were problems with that. Firstly, I had no idea how. Secondly, seal expansion took up a whole lot of room. It was going to be really hard to find someplace secure where I could do it.

Jiraiya's had reminded me of a projector. It had magnified the seal and projected it. What if I went a different route? I didn't need it projected, I only needed to see it. I needed a microscope.

Or something.

I daydreamed about the solution while I complied my project notes for review, and avoided all the people trying to talk to me about the control measurement seal.

Yeah, no. I still wasn't doing that.

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

"Hey, Naruto," I asked, at our next team training. "Do you think you could teach us the Shadow Clone Jutsu?"

I'd seen it done often enough – felt it done, when I'd been trying to help him with summoning jutsu – that I thought I could probably do it myself. And Sasuke had almost certainly copied it at one point or the other. But it was politer to ask.

"Sure!" Naruto agreed. Then he hesitated. "It takes a lot of chakra, though…"

"I know," I said. "But I'm pretty sure if we only make one, then we'll be fine." Half our chakra to the clone, plus the initial jutsu cost… Sasuke would be fine for sure. He probably would have been fine all along – shadow clone wasn't more intensive than chidori. Me? I'd felt how much it had taken Naruto to use it, and as long as I wasn't much worse than that (and I didn't think I would be, honestly) then I'd be fine too. It was unlikely to be a staple of my combat jutsu's, but I could think of many benefits to being in two places at once.

"Okay," Naruto agreed. "Uhm. Well the hand seal is like this… and you just kind of let the chakra go." His hands twisted with familiarity, and a second Naruto appeared with ease. "It's a really easy jutsu. I don't know what else to say."

It probably wasn't teaching on a very grand level, and probably wouldn't have worked if we hadn't known how already… but it was good enough.

"It has to be easy if you can do it," Sasuke scoffed. But I noticed his Sharingan was on, and he looked focused and intent as he made the hand seal. There was a slightly messy puff of chakra smoke, and then there were two Sasuke blinking at each other.

"Awesome!" Naruto cheered. "Now you do it, Shikako!"

I nodded. "Alright, here goes." The hardest part was just letting the jutsu take my chakra and not trying to manipulate it and control it… but it worked.

The sudden loss of so much chakra was disorientating, and so was the appearance of the clone. She looked…

Well. Obviously she looked like me. But you know, normally? You never see your own face. You see reflections, and pictures, but never yourself in 3d, and that's different. You look different.

If I'd walked past her on the street, I probably would have assumed she was one of my cousins – not that she was me.

"This is so weird," we both said, in unison.

I winced. Was that really what my voice sounded like? That was terrible.

It was also interesting that she clearly had _my_ chakra, not her own. But it was… discrete and separate. I tried to reach out and manipulate it, like I might chakra in any other jutsu.

She shivered and made a face. "Don't do that."

"So how do you dispel them?" Sasuke asked.

"They can do it themselves," Naruto said. "Or you just stop the jutsu like this, and all the clones will dispel." He did something, and yes, actually, I could feel the way that the jutsu was still _running_. It didn't need constant attention and maintenance, like transformation, but it wasn't finished after you created the clones.

Well obviously not. The memory transfer function tended to indicate that.

"You want to…" I asked my clone.

She shrugged, but pressed her hands together. "Dispel." I had a sense of chakra _rushing_ towards me –

And I blinked up at the blue sky.

" – medic over here as fast as possible. Tell them it was a training accident," Sasuke said rapidly, voice flat and controlled. He was kneeling beside me, looking across at someone. Naruto.

I reached up and grabbed his shoulder. "Wait," I rasped. "I'm fine. There's no need."

"Shikako-chan!" Naruto exclaimed. He dropped down on my other side in a flurry of movement. "Are you hurt? What happened? You just fell over!"

I tried to sit up. Sasuke's hands on my shoulders very firmly pressed me back down again.

I sighed. Everything ached. It kind of felt like I had been slammed by a truck. A truck made of chakra that wanted to go _through_ me.

My chakra had returned. But I hadn't been… ready for it. It had wanted to go into my coils, and they'd been full and unprepared to expand. It had fit, but I felt stretched tight, my skin pulling up goosebumps, and jittery.

"I felt my chakra come back," I said. "It took me by surprise."

"Surprise," Sasuke repeated flatly. Yeah, okay, 'surprise' was a weak descriptor for something that made you pass out. Faint. Faint with surprise. Oh, man, I hope they didn't tell this story to everyone.

"I wasn't ready for it," I said. "It'll be better next time."

Sasuke didn't look like he agreed. "I still think you should see a medic."

I really did not want to see a medic. The amount of time I'd spent in the hospital was ludicrous. And they were going to start to think I just couldn't take care of myself.

"It's fine," I insisted. "They'll just tell you it was my hypersensitivity anyway." Because I had a diagnosis that would explain this – sort of – and that would be the easiest conclusion to jump to. "If you really insist, then we can send for Sakura."

Naruto brightened, but Sasuke did not. "She's not fully trained," he argued, but it was weak. I was fairly confident that I had won.

He didn't protest when I sat up this time.

"I didn't think it would hurt you," Naruto said lowly.

"I'm not hurt," I said, quickly. "It just felt strange, that was all. I wasn't expecting it." I pushed myself to my feet and hid the fact that I felt a little shaky. "See? Perfectly fine."

Sasuke shrugged, but didn't rise. "Why don't you tell us more about what the jutsu does?" he suggested to Naruto. "We can practice another day."

That was a good suggestion. The idea of trying to repeat the shadow clone jutsu right now had dread curling in my stomach. I just _knew_ it was going to hurt.

This jutsu was probably going to be beyond me, unless I could find some way to control the return of the chakra afterwards. Which was a real pain, because it could have been so _useful. _

"Okay," Naruto said. "Well, you know about the memory stuff, right? Oh, but if you don't want to make a whole clone to send it, then you can just make the memory into a clone and dispel that."

I blinked. "What."

"Like…" Naruto searched for words. "You just stop the jutsu before it actually makes a clone? But it still forms and dispels, so you can still pass information along." He nodded. "Yeah. That's it."

He might have described it as simple but that was definitely high level chakra manipulation. I was pretty sure that even counted as _mastery_ of the jutsu.

Naruto really was the most unpredictable ninja.

"You idiot," Sasuke said. It almost sounded fond. "You don't even see why that's impossible, do you?"

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

"There you are," Ino said. "I've been looking for you."

I blinked at her. There was a small lizard – less than the size of my hand – perched on her shoulder. A chameleon. One of her new summons, almost certainly. It was completely still and unmoving, like a little ornament. Or a toy.

She also had a purple aster tucked into her hair, which was a habit I was starting to notice more and more with her. If it wasn't an actual flower, it was a clip, or hair tie… some kind of decoration. And I knew Ino liked flowers, but she hadn't always felt the need to dress like it. To have a constant reminder of the fact.

I wondered if I was reading too deeply into that.

"I'm at home," I said. "Where else would I be?"

"That's my question," she shot back, hands on hips. "You're so busy these days."

I tucked my pen into the pages of my notebook and set it down on the veranda beside me. "I guess I can't argue with that," I admitted. "But it looks like you've been pretty busy yourself." I made a vague motion to the chameleon on her shoulder.

Ino dropped down to sit beside me. "It's a work in progress," she admitted. "I'm negotiating with them. Apparently signing the scroll in the middle of combat isn't how it's typically done."

"Who would have thought?" I said dryly.

She smirked. "Exactly. They're a bit wary." She didn't seem too upset by it, and the fact that there was a summon clinging to her shoulder meant that it couldn't be going too badly. "They were really loyal to Kubisaki, you know? Even at the end there…"

Staying for fifty years, for a man that was already dead? Carrying out his dying wish? Yeah, they'd been loyal. That was good if she could win them over, but not so good if she couldn't.

"But it's going well?" I asked.

She smiled. "Yeah. This little guy is a Watcher. I agreed to keep him with me for a few days, so he can see where I live. The kind of person I am. That kind of thing."

A show of trust. The Watcher wasn't a combat summons, so it was unlikely to turn on her by itself, but I of all people knew the value of information. If they decided that they didn't want Ino as their summoner… well… There wasn't that much they could do with it without another one – as far as I knew – but it was still something to hold over her head.

Ino probably knew that too. But at some point, you had to take the risk and give trust in order to get it back.

"Ah," I said. "Much further to go?"

"A little," she said. "I was going to go see Sakura and Isaribi next."

The name rang a bell, but it took me a few minutes to place it. Isaribi was the girl that Ino and Naruto had brought home from the Land of Sea, who I suspected had been part of some of Orochimaru's experiments.

"I haven't seen Sakura in a while," I offered. "I'll come with you."

It meant taking a trip to the hospital, but at least it was as a visitor, not a patient. I'd take what I could get.

We decided to stop by and see Isaribi first, which turned out to be a good choice. Sakura was there, after all, and she wasn't the only one, either. Even though Isaribi had a little hotel-esque room all to herself, it was a little crowded.

"I hope we aren't interrupting," Ino said, knocking gently on the open door.

"Only slightly," Anko drawled. She leant against the wall and tucked her hands into her pockets.

"No, not at all!" Yakumo countered, clapping her hands together in excitement. "Anko-sensei was just saying that Isaribi is going to start training with me. Now we only need one more person for a proper team!"

_That explains why she's here,_ I thought, because Sakura worked here, so her I could understand, and Anko had been the leader of the team that brought her back, but Yakumo had no connection.

She looked thrilled at the news. The girl that could only be Isaribi looked slightly less so, eyes down, fingers fidgeting with the fabric of her pants. She was dark haired and dark eyed, but wearing bandages across her face and shoulder. That was barely worth mentioning as far as ninja fashion went, even less so when the person in question was actually in a hospital.

"That sounds great," Ino said. "What do you think?" She perched herself on the bed next to Isaribi.

I hovered awkwardly around the edge of the room, next to Sakura. I hoped she wasn't too upset to see Isaribi being folded into a ninja team, when she herself hadn't made the cut. The circumstances were different, and I suspected that Anko was going to be doing a lot more supervision than training, as she was doing with Yakumo.

It wasn't actually a bad set up. As with Yakumo, Anko had a lot of skills that made her ideal for helping to integrate someone that had been on the bad side of Orochimaru's experiments. If Isaribi really did want to be a ninja, then it was killing two birds with one stone.

"So, ah," I said to Sakura awkwardly, seeing that Ino had already made herself the centre of attention. "Had much time for training?"

"A little," Sakura said, tucking her bangs behind her ear. "I've been working on the, uhm. The thing you gave me." She darted a glance at Anko, which. Didn't so much _avoid_ suspicion as the complete opposite. Nothing quite got a ninja's attention like people with secrets.

I made a humming noise. "Working on it theoretically or 'working on it' working on it?"

"Both," Sakura said, surprising me. "I mean, I redid some of the theory according to medical ninjutsu… I'll show you it later. It's at home."

"Sounds good," I said.

Sakura rubbed at the knuckles on one hand. I noticed they were slightly… pinkish, as though the skin had been damaged and healed. "It's a work in progress," she admitted.

I huffed a laugh, and made a mental note to get her some gloves or something. "Everything is," I said. "Don't feel too bad. The last time I tried to learn a new jutsu I knocked myself out. If you're doing better than that, then you're fine."

Sakura spluttered, halfway between shock and laughter. "You did not."

I grinned. "You think I'd make that up?"

"Probably not," she allowed and rolled her eyes. "You're ridiculous."

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

I sat very quietly, and very still, under Kasuga's eye, and practiced bending my shadow to my will. I wasn't doing anything particularly advanced or new – just exercises I'd done more than a thousand times before.

Yet for some reason, he was watching with an intently focused look.

"And how are your other exercises going?" he asked, eventually.

I paused. _Oh. Right. _"I haven't had any problems since," I said.

It wasn't even a lie. I'd just changed my definition of 'problem'. Being able to separate myself into two wasn't a problem as long as I could control it.

It was a technique. Nothing more. Nothing less.

"Is that so," Kasuga said, and it was less a question than a statement.

I smiled at him, the expression as open as I could make it when I was being less than truthful. "I panicked before," I said. "In hindsight, the situation seems much less dire than I thought it to be."

The look he gave me was assessing and piercing.

I went back to my exercise, splaying shadow tendrils on the ground around me. In my own practices with the stone, I'd learnt that the chakra imbued-and-retrieved in it came out thicker and darker than any of my own truly was – as though it was purified to some perfect level of shadow jutsu. It could turn me to shadow, yes, but I could also use it as chakra for my jutsu and they would be stronger for it. But the imbuing took time, so I wasn't content to simply add that step to any use of my jutsu in combat. It would be too much of a liability.

I'd used it instead as a baseline - a comparison - to help strengthen my own chakra, holding it in one hand and continuing with the path dad had shown us to strength our shadow affinities, trying to match that level with my own abilities.

Not something I could do under the watchful eye of Kasuga, given that I couldn't explain where the Gelel stone came from, but ironically, the stone itself provided a safeguard against falling into the black.

If I went too far, stretched myself too fast… then I lost the balance in imbuing the stone and would simply transform into shadow.

It was almost difficult to remember how frightened I had been the first time that had happened, when now it was so reassuring.

"You have progressed… significantly," Kasuga said, the words weighty.

I threaded six tendrils through the loops of six kunai and lifted them into the air. One jerked higher than the others, the kunai slipping loose, until I made a last minute correction and turned the tip of the tendril into a hook.

_Sloppy._

It was hard to exert pressure when you couldn't feel anything in response. Or not nothing. But the feeling I got through my shadow was very vague. Being able to judge how hard to pull or push was simply a matter of experience here.

I spread my fingers out, then slowly turned my hands over. The shadow tendrils curled over, an orbital ballet, the kunai swinging around. One came too close to my arms. They were blunt training ones, thankfully, but it still showed a lack of precision that annoyed me.

"Thank you," I said, too much of my attention focused on my training to try and guess whether or not that had truly been a compliment.

I looped the tendrils around, rotating them in a circle around my body, moving them right from the base where they touched the ground. Too often I treated them like arms, fixed at a point, but they were not. The bottom was as free to move as the top.

I could feel the strain of it now, tension creeping between my shoulder blades, as they took more and more concentration to control. Mental fatigue and nothing more, though the chakra cost itself was nothing to sneeze at.

I breathed carefully, in and out, and drew forth a seventh tendril from the ground, reaching it up to circle around and loop through the hooks of all six kunai. Then, one by one, I withdrew the others, until it was the only one remaining, and brought my kunai back to the ground.

"Kai," I said, tiredly. The metal clattered in the dirt.

I flexed my shoulders and rubbed at the back of my neck where the tension had built up. I nearly had it. But nearly was not good enough.

"Do it again," Kasuga said.

I ran through the seals. "Shadow Stitching Jutsu."

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* * *

><p>.<p> 


	85. Chapter 84

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: Someone pointed out that the calendar on deviantart wasn't as accurate as it should be… I redid it only to find that the twins birthday had slipped past. Whoops. . I could push graduation back, since it's kind of never specified when it occurs, but that makes things awkward too.

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

Chapter 84

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* * *

><p>.<p>

_The Road goes ever on and on  
>Down from the door where it began.<br>Now far ahead the Road has gone,  
>And I must follow, if I can,<em>

_~ Lord of the Rings, J.R.R Tolkien_

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* * *

><p>.<p>

We celebrated our birthday the day Shikamaru returned.

I honestly hadn't noticed it slipping past. Usually, it was Ino who reminded me, talking about her own birthday approaching. Since hers was the day after mine, it was a pretty convenient reminder.

… which also meant I'd forgotten Ino's birthday this year.

_Damn._

"Problem?" Shikamaru murmured, catching my eye.

"Forgot to get Ino a present," I murmured back. It was only the three of us, but we'd gone out for dinner. It was the kind of fancy restaurant and traditional food that we didn't often go to, but I enjoyed all the same.

He gave me a look. "Her birthday is literally the day after ours."

"I know that," I said, annoyed.

He blinked. Then he sighed. "I can't believe you forgot your own birthday."

"I know when it is," I said. I just… hadn't put together 'hey, it's September 22nd' with 'my birthday is September 22nd'. And well, frankly, birthdays stopped seeming so important after you'd had about twenty of them, and resetting the count to zero hardly changed that. I'd never really been the type to throw a party for it, and there was even less of a point getting worked up when there were two other people planning things at the same time.

Mum laughed and covered her mouth with her hand. "I wondered why you didn't say anything," she said. Her eyes were bright with mirth, crinkling at the corners.

I huffed, exaggerated, and made a show of intently picking up food with my chopsticks. But I didn't really mind them laughing at me in this instance, because I could acknowledge that it was really silly. I would have laughed too.

"I guess I shouldn't expect a present then," Shikamaru said.

"I got you one ages ago," I replied flippantly, even though I didn't think he really cared. He was just poking. "Don't you worry about that."

And I did. When we got home, I rummaged around for the 'safe place' I'd hid it, and eventually managed to unearth it from my desk drawer, where it was buried beneath an avalanche of miscellaneous blank notebooks and paper that seemed to accumulate. It made a good hiding place, but even I didn't tend to go through that very often, so I'd forgotten that was where I put it.

The box was only about the size of a shoebox, and I took care not to rattle it as I took it downstairs.

I gave mine to Shikamaru first.

He picked it up and tilted his head, considering. Then he gave it the tiniest of shakes and listened to the clatter of metal.

"Kunai?" He guessed.

It was an old game, one we'd always played, to try and see who could guess what their gifts were before they opened them. Sometimes it was easy. Sometimes it wasn't.

"Half right," I said, teasingly. "Open it."

He didn't though, turning the box over in his hands, eyes narrowed at it. I could tell he was trying to work out what I meant by 'half right', but I honestly didn't think it was something he would be able to tell. Well, maybe if he had the same thought process I did, but they'd been brought on a whim when I'd seen them, rather than a logical plan.

Then he gave me an exasperated look and pulled the wrapping paper off. "They are kunai."

"Half right," I repeated, and flicked one up out of the box, rolling it over my fingers until the handle fell into the palm of my hand.

Then I stabbed it into my thigh.

Reflexively, Shikamaru grabbed my arm. His fingers clenched bruise tight around my wrist, but he would have been too slow anyway.

I lifted an eyebrow at him and raised the knife. My leg was unharmed.

"Trick blade," I said. The blade slid up in pieces, smaller sections inside larger ones. It didn't retract the whole blade, but it was still a fair portion of it. And it was blunt besides.

Shikamaru exhaled a breath. It shook, just a little. "You didn't have to be so dramatic," he grumbled. It took another second for him to lift his hand away.

I'd intended to tease. But maybe it had hit home a little deeper than that.

"I saw the chance; I took it," I said, lightly, twirling the blade over my fingers. "You'd have done the same."

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* * *

><p>.<p>

"You didn't remind me," I said to Ino reproachfully, walking into the flower shop.

Ino flicked a glance up at me, then went back to arranging a bouquet. There was a tiny lizard perched on the counter, and I would have taken it to be a garden ornament if I didn't know better.

"Remind you what?" she asked. She held up two carnations. "Pink or red?"

"Red," I said, with barely a glance. "It was your birthday."

Ino considered, then discarded the red and tucked the pink into the center of the arrangement. "Uh, yeah. Happens every year. You had one as well. "

I paused. There was a moment when I could have made an excuse. "I forgot," I said sheepishly. "Sorry. But I got you a present."

I dropped a small, wrapped gift box onto the counter. It was only a set of hair clips, with a jewelled flower (and a sharp edge, we _were_ ninja), but they were the kind of thing I thought she would like.

"Aw," Ino said, wiping her hands on her apron. "Thanks. We didn't get back to Konoha till after, so I was honestly waiting to see how long it took you to notice." She ducked down and opened the cupboard door, rummaging around until she found a package, and gave it to me.

I rolled my eyes. "Until someone wished me happy birthday, apparently," I said. In the same vein as mine, the gift turned out to be a heavy silver clasp for my braid – with nifty little catches inside to conceal a lock pick. Handy.

"And no one did?" Ino frowned.

"Shikamaru did," I said. "And that might have been the reason mum cooked gyouza the other day, come to think of it." And I couldn't imagine mum _not_ wishing me happy birthday, so that meant I hadn't been paying very much attention. Which wasn't exactly unknown, if it was early morning or I was in the middle of reading something.

"You are actually hopeless," Ino decided. She slid the clips into her hair, replacing the set she was already wearing and dropping them in her pocket. "How did you fool people into thinking that you're smart and observant?"

"I lied on my exams," I deadpanned.

The shop bell jangled angrily as the door was thrust open. Sakura burst inside. "Ino, you have to help me!" she wailed.

She didn't look injured, I assessed. Which didn't exclude verbal harassment, if someone was trying to bully her again. It didn't seem like she was being followed, and I couldn't sense anyone hovering suspiciously, but I angled myself against the counter so I could see out the window down the street, just in case.

Then Sakura caught sight of me. "You! This is your fault!"

And promptly burst into tears.

Ino darted forward to console her, even as I blinked in confusion. "My… fault?" I asked.

Sakura clenched a fist, and I noticed it was scraped red and raw, like she'd hit something with it. "You! You and your techniques and your seal and – and one hundred percent!"

Ino gave me a querying look, patting Sakura on the shoulder and leading her to a seat. I shrugged, a little helplessly. But I was starting to get an idea.

"She's going to kill me," Sakura continued, inconsolable. "I'm dead and its all your fault."

"No one is going to kill you," I said firmly. "What happened?"

"I was practicing and I broke the log and someone saw me and I'm in _so much trouble!_" She hiccupped, tears still brimming in her eyes.

I rocked backwards onto my heels, a little bit of relief brimming in my chest. That was all. But it was clearly a big deal to Sakura, so I squashed the impulse to brush it off.

Ino gave me a look that said 'explain, now'. It was still creased with worry, so it wasn't all that impressive, but I obliged.

"You were working on the super strength technique?" I asked, just to confirm. "And someone saw you?"

Sakura nodded miserably. Even her hair seemed to be drooping. "Tsunade-sama is going to be so angry at me."

"It probably won't even get to Tsunade," I pointed out. "She's the Hokage and very busy. I think you're making too big a deal out of this. It's just a broken post. That happens all the time."

"They already told her! I have to go and meet her this afternoon at Training Ground One!" Sakura refuted. "I'm dead. This is it. I'm never going to be a ninja."

My mouth dropped open. My only consolation was that Ino looked equally stunned.

"You get to train with Tsunade-sama?" Ino breathed, looking awestruck. "Sakura, that's amazing."

Sakura had already caught Tsunade's eye? No way. I didn't doubt that she had the skills – how could I? – but I honestly hadn't expected that. Not until she actually made medic nin, or picked apart the technique enough that it became obvious what it was. One broken training post did not the next Tsunade make.

How much had Sakura done that I was missing?

She squeaked and looked utterly gobsmacked. "I- I didn't think of it like that," Sakura said weakly, looking even paler if that was possible. It looked as if that thought was even more intimidating than the prospect of being in trouble. "What am I going to do?"

"What do you want to do?" Ino asked seriously. "This is an amazing chance but you don't have to take it, you know. No one is going to be angry if you turn it down."

_But it would be really, really dumb_, I didn't add.

Sakura took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She wiped her eyes. "It is really amazing, isn't it? It's Tsunade-sama."

"Yeah," I agreed.

"I'd have to be crazy to turn it down," she said. "It's _Tsunade-sama._" The shock of it seemed to be starting to fade. A little.

Ino smiled at her. "You're going to be amazing," she promised. "We'll get you cleaned up, then you're going to go and impress the hell out of her."

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

I made plans with Ino to meet up the next day and find out how Sakura's training went, but I never got the chance to follow through; Naruto came and told me we had a mission.

"Make sure you ask Ino how Sakura's thing went," I told Shikamaru, nudging him awake with my foot.

He rolled his head in the grass, looking at me with bleary eyes. So much for 'cloud watching'. "But I don't actually care," he said.

"Ask anyway," I directed. "I wanna know."

"So you ask."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I have a mission."

He made a displeased face, and I ignored it. I wasn't having that argument now.

"So I'll see you later," I finished, raising one hand in a lazy wave and turning to go. I half expected him to say something after me. But he didn't.

We didn't know where to go to find Sai – unsurprisingly – but he apparently had received word about the mission because he arrived at the tower the same time we did.

"Geeze, you look awful," Naruto said bluntly. "Are you sick?"

He wasn't kidding. Sai looked terrible. I mean, he was pale anyway, but this was an extra level of looking like a ghost. There were dark creases beneath his eyes and he looked… rumpled. Ruffled.

I pressed the backs of my fingers against his cheek. "You don't have a fever," I said quietly. "Are you feeling okay?"

Sai took a quiet, deep breath. I could feel him stiffen, to try to regain some composure. "I am prepared for our mission," he said, voice clear of inflection.

Naruto looked uncertain.

I hoped the reason wasn't _us._ That the reason Sai looked so terrible wasn't because of something that had happened on the last mission – that we had made him cross Danzo in some way – that we had made things _worse_ for him.

That wasn't what I wanted for him.

Tsunade spared us barely a glance as we trooped into her office. There was a young nervous looking man hovering awkwardly in the middle of the room. He definitely wasn't a ninja, I could tell that much.

"This is Chishima," Tsunade introduced briskly. "He's hired a team for a C-rank to the Land of Birds. They're having some problems with rumours of a ghost-"

"A ghost!" Naruto interrupted, sounding remarkably alarmed for someone who actually ran into a ghost on our last mission. Well. Naruto didn't, exactly, but it still counted.

"_Rumours of a ghost,_" Tsunade repeated, glaring. "That are causing some upset with the civilian populace. You're to investigate the source of the rumours, hopefully put a stop to them, and bring world peace to all the little boys and girls. There should be no fighting involved. Are we clear?"

"Gotcha," Naruto said confidently. "Rumours. Investigate. Peace on earth. No problem, leave it to us."

"Mission accepted," I murmured, quietly, and tried not to seem too amused because Tsunade-sama seemed annoyed.

But really.

_World peace. _

Chishima stepped forward hesitantly. "Uh, I'm pleased to meet you." He gave a small smile. "I'm really glad that you've accepted this mission, we really are quite desperate."

Tsunade threw us the mission scroll, and we led Chishima out of the tower and towards the gate. It was late afternoon to be setting out, but he seemed eager to get home, and had apparently travelled all the way to Konoha alone for the purpose of hiring a team. That spoke of dedication. It was a long way, and not particularly safe for a solo traveller.

Hence why people hired ninja as guards.

"Ah, well, I guess I should start at the beginning," Chishima said as we walked away from the village.

"Is there really a ghost?" Naruto asked, before he could really start.

Chishima rubbed his head awkwardly. "That's what people have been saying," he said. "The Cursed Warrior… it's an old tale in the Land of Birds. There was a samurai lord who was murdered, but no one could bring the man who killed him to justice. So he rose from the grave and hunted down his killer himself. They say that anyone who isn't avenged after their deaths can become a Cursed Warrior, and still walk this earth."

A pretty tale, but I thought it would rather take a bit more than determination to hang around after you died. It clearly wasn't impossible, but Kubisaki had at least had a seal involved.

I would very much have liked to dismiss the entire ghost story out of hand but, unfortunately, my cynicism had taken a hit. Now ghosts were one of the possibilities I had to explore before arriving at a conclusion. How very taxing.

"There has been an assassination?" Sai asked, seeming uninterested in the majority of the story.

"No!" Chishima exclaimed. "Well. No. That's why the rumours are so terrible. Our Daimyo passed away only recently, leaving the title to his son Sagi. Only… Sagi-sama is very young; the same age as me. There were many people who felt that he was too young to inherit the title."

"So the rumours are meant to discredit him?" I asked, frowning. Chishima didn't seem all that young, from our point of view, but I _could_ see the problem with crowning a Daimyo that wasn't even twenty. And if the Daimyo had died suddenly or unexpectedly, then assassination was always a possibility.

"I think so," Chishima said. "Or to discredit Mousou-sama." He caught our blank looks. "Mousou-sama was the chief advisor to the previous Daimyo. He's currently acting as the regent for Sagi-sama. He's a very wise man."

_That_, I thought, was even more interesting. "So, Mousou is the regent. Hm. Who were the people most against Sagi becoming Daimyo?"

"That would have been Komei-sama," Chishima said. "He's the chief strategist and the leader of the military forces of the Land of Birds."

"You have a large military?" Sai asked, and there was something flat about the question, even for him. He wasn't looking at Chishima, eyes straight ahead on the road.

Chishima cocked his head to the side. "I guess?" He said, uncertainly. "I don't know how big other countries militaries are to compare it to. But the palace has a lot of guards."

A lot of guards, yet he'd still travelled alone? It didn't look like the thought had even occurred to him. Maybe I was being overtly paranoid here – Chishima gave the vibe of being very sheltered.

"But no ninja, right?" Naruto jumped in. "Or you wouldn't have had to come to get us."

"Right! To be honest, I don't really know much about ninja," he admitted. "They say you can do magic, is that true?"

"It's not really magic," Naruto said, laughing awkwardly. "It's just chakra. See?" He started forming a Rasengan in one hand, blue chakra swirling together. It was a little wobbly, but he wasn't using a clone to help stabilise it, either.

Chishima adjusted his glasses. "That's amazing," he breathed. "I've never seen anything like that."

Naruto preened under the praise. "That's not all I can do," he said.

"So where do you fit into this?" I asked, interrupting the showing off. "Do you work at the palace?"

"Yes," he answered. "I'm the assistant to Mousou-sama, and I have been for years. In fact, Sagi-sama was a dear friend of mine when we were growing up. I have to say… I'm really very worried about him. Ever since he became Daimyo, he has become very cold and closed off, nothing like the happy boy I remember."

"Responsibility is hard," I said, sympathetically. "It can change people, sometimes."

"Yes," Chishima agreed. "I know. And he's also grieving. It wasn't just his father that died, either. Shortly after that, his younger sister Toki became very ill and passed away. That would be very hard on anyone."

Oh. Well. Two sudden deaths in a royal family in under a year? _Curiouser _and _curiouser_, as they said.

It might have been nothing. But then again.

"That's awful," Naruto said, empathetically.

"So that's why I want these awful rumours to go away," Chishima continued. "So that Sagi-sama doesn't have to suffer through them."

I sort of wished Naruto was the type to pick up on subtle implications like this, so that I could talk it over with him. Scratch that. I wished Sasuke was here. He would have spotted it.

"So you came all this way by yourself, for your friend?" Naruto asked. "That's super brave."

Chishima laughed awkwardly. "No one else wanted to come," he confessed. "And I've never left Land of Birds before, so I got a little lost on the way. I had to ask a lot of people for directions."

In which case, it was doubly amazing that he ever made it to Konoha. I wondered if that was the point.

Naruto seemed impressed, however. "Wow. Sagi sure seems lucky to have a friend like you. So you don't have to worry anymore. We'll find out what's going on and make sure your friend is okay. And that's a promise."

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><p>.<p>

In deference to the fact that we were travelling with a civilian, we made camp early in a large clearing and set a campfire going.

Chishima had been happy to keep talking about the Land of Birds and its recent troubles, and combined with what I already know about the place, it was all adding up to an interesting picture.

Bird Country wasn't exactly insular, but it wasn't a huge exporter either. They were rather traditional compared to neighbouring countries and, as the Cursed Warrior story showed, had a tendency towards being rather superstitious.

But I was rather more interested in the current political makeup of the place, and the facts that Chishima didn't seem to be aware that he knew. Something fishy was definitely going down, the only question was what. Without being there, or being able to question anyone else, I couldn't draw a conclusion, but I would be really damn surprised if there really was a ghost.

If the Daimyo hadn't been assassinated, then someone was at the very least taking advantage of his sudden death to shake things up.

"What is it that you're writing?" Chishima asked Sai over the fire. "Are you also a scribe?"

Sai looked at him blankly. "It's a drawing," he said. His hand smoothed over the small book. "It's for my brother."

"You have a brother?" Naruto piped up. "You didn't tell us that!"

"He's dead," Sai said, bluntly. But there was an inflection to the words that hadn't been there before. They seemed softer. "This book was going to be a present for him. But before I could finish it… he succumbed to an illness and died. Afterwards, I couldn't continue drawing it. There seemed to be no point. But I remember now, what it was that I wanted to draw in it."

"I'm sorry," Naruto said. "About your brother. That sucks. I'm sure he would have loved it."

"How can you know that?" Sai asked. "You never met him."

"Because he was your brother, duh," Naruto answered, as if it were self-evident. "And he would have known how much hard work you put into it and how much you cared. When someone gives you a gift like that, it's impossible not to love it."

I smiled at them, through the flickering light of the campfire.

When it came time to split up the night watches, there was an unspoken agreement between Naruto and I.

"Me and Shikako will take watch tonight," Naruto said. "You get some sleep, okay, Sai?"

Sai blinked. "It is standard to divide the night watches into three," he said. "I am capable of taking watch."

"We know," I said, reassuringly, so he didn't feel like he was at fault. "But you look really tired, so it's better for you to get some rest. There's no point in pushing so hard at the start of the mission."

Sai looked like he wanted to protest more, but this wasn't really a situation where either of us were going to budge.

"Goodnight," Naruto told him. "Don't worry about anything, okay?"

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><p>.<p> 


	86. Chapter 85

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

AN: Does anyone have songs that remind them of DOS? We've got one awesome playlist already, and I know I have my own internal soundtrack, but I'm curious to see if anyone else does.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 85

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><p>.<p>

_The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. ~ William Makepeace Thackeray_

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><p>.<p>

When we arrived at the palace, it was late at night, and there were a whole bunch of guards running around. They weren't aimless; they definitely had a purpose and a destination.

"That doesn't look good," I noted. There was nothing immediately wrong at first glance – no fires or fighting – and there were no alarm bells or warning shouts. But the tension in the air suggested this was no drill.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, flagging a guard down. "What's going on here?"

"Who are you and what are you doing on the palace grounds?" the guardsman demanded in return, tightening his grip on his polearm. He caught sight of Chishima and seemed to recognise him. "No, never mind. Just stay out of the way! The Cursed Warrior has been sighted."

That was exactly what we wanted to hear. Or no, I would have preferred a little time to scout around and question people first, but it was a pretty lucky break, all things considered.

"Awesome," Naruto said, following pretty much the same train of thought. "Let's go check it out!"

We followed the stampeding of the guards towards whichever location they were heading, dragging Chishima with us. It was a little risky to be dragging him to a place where there was known trouble, but I was confident we'd be able to protect him, in a way we couldn't if we just left him behind.

It was likely we'd need him to explain our presence, as well, since we hadn't had time to introduce ourselves to anyone else.

"Send a patrol out the east gate and check the forest. Make sure a team has been dispatched to guard the Daimyo!" The orders were directed at the force of guards from and older man with impressive sideburns who was standing barefoot on the wooden veranda. He was wearing sleeping clothes with a robe hastily thrown over top, though that didn't seem to diminish his professionalism any.

I rather approved.

"That's Komei-sama," Chishima said, bracing himself against the wall and breathing heavily. The brief sprint might have been a little too much for him.

"Stay here," I said, because it was safe enough, and we leapt up the wall and started running along the rooftops, overtaking the guardsmen as they ran towards the gates. We fanned out, maximising the area we could search without losing contact with each other, and swept the area.

The security response might have been good in terms of defence but the sheer number of people provided cover and erased any signs that might have let us track it. The ground had been stamped down by heavy military boots and it was impossible to tell if any tracks had been left behind.

Then –

"There, up above!" I said.

It hovered against the night sky. A figure, clad all in white with a helmet and a halberd in hand, with the mask of a demon, just as Chishima had described it to us.

And while there were ninja techniques to achieve flight, or the semblance of it, I could see why this ruse had been so convincing to people.

It was almost drifting eerily away on the breeze.

In the dark it was almost impossible to pick up on the tell-tale strings holding it aloft. I couldn't even see what the strings were attached to, since there wasn't anything _above_ us. In its own way, that kind of fakery was a type of ninjutsu – it was the only type that would have existed in my old world.

We converged together, aiming to follow it wherever it landed. There was no doubt that the Cursed Warrior saw us in return, for it abruptly dropped low, angling towards the ground and vanishing from our sight.

I burst forward, pouring on the speed. The vibrations of the roof underfoot told me that the others were doing the same. We had it now – we weren't going to let it get away.

We were well out of the palace grounds, and the housing was giving way to forest. It made sense that the Cursed Warrior would head towards a deserted area to hide, but trying to escape Konoha ninja in a forest was a mistake.

"Just give up!" Naruto hollered. "We found you! We know you're not a real ghost!"

The forest gave way to a small clearing where there was an abandoned and disused shrine. It was fairly big, with a courtyard surrounded by high walls. The doors were wide open and I caught the briefest of glimpses as the figure in white ducked inside. I locked onto the chakra signature, which was faint and untrained, but definitely real.

_Gotcha._

Sai and I circled around the shrine, just to make sure there was nothing else there, even as Naruto made a bee-line for the door. It didn't feel like a trap but, then, that was the best kind, wasn't it?

"It's empty?" Naruto said, puzzled, screeching to a stop in the middle of the shrine. He spun around and around, eyes getting wider and wider.

I slid in through the open door and let my eyes adjust to the even dimmer interior. We could probably have used torches or seals to create light and track the Cursed Warrior based on footprints in the dust, but I still had a lock on their chakra.

"Trap door," I said. "They're below us."

Below us and moving, which indicated tunnels. Clever. They could come and go without being seen, and it would appear as if the Cursed Warrior simply vanished.

It took us a few minutes to find the location of the trap door and to pry it up. I pulled out three LED seals for us, and we dropped down into the pitch blackness of the tunnel. Well, there was actually a ladder, but it wasn't so deep that we needed to use it.

"If the tunnel continues in this direction," Sai pointed out as we cautiously started moving. "We will return to the palace grounds."

"Interesting," I said, because he was absolutely right. Then again, all our main suspects for starting the rumours all lived in the palace anyway, so perhaps it wasn't so far-fetched.

Even if we were warily looking out for traps – of which we found none – we still caught up with the Cursed Warrior long before the tunnel reached its end. And in a tunnel, with a little bit of light, was close to a perfect set up for my shadow jutsu.

"We caught you!" Naruto crowed.

The Warrior tried to struggle, but they had no resistance to my jutsu. I reached up, awkwardly managing to undo the catches of the helmet and pulled it free.

Long black hair tumbled free, framing the angry face of a young woman. She was in her late teens, maybe not quite twenty.

"Uh," Naruto asked, hand coming up to cup his chin. "Who are you?"

She clearly wasn't anyone we'd met here. But since we'd been in the palace for all of five minutes before giving chase, that wasn't surprising. We could have just dragged her up and found her identity that way – but given that the situation looked a lot deeper than 'someone is dressing up as a ghost' I didn't particularly want to do that.

At least, we could talk to her first.

"Let me free!" she spat. "You have absolutely no idea what you are meddling with!"

"Hey!" Naruto protested immediately. "What's the big idea? You're the one running around pretending to be a ghost and scaring everyone! Lots of people are really worried about this."

"It's regrettable," she said, and however regrettable she found it, it wasn't enough to sway her. "But necessary. You wouldn't understand."

"So tell us what's going on," I suggested quietly, trying to sound as reasonable and approachable as possible. It was a little difficult when I was actually the one holding her hostage. "We're ninja from Konoha who were hired to discover the truth behind the situation. We can help you."

She gave a short, bitter laugh. "You were hired by Mousou to do his bidding. He just wants me silenced. What does the truth matter to you?"

Interesting. So she was informed enough to know who had sent for us. Probably not working for him, though, with that amount of scorn.

"Problems that aren't resolved correctly have a habit of resurfacing," I said, trying to pick the angle that would most appeal to her. Since I had no idea what her motive was, it was a little tricky. "We hardly want it said that we failed in our mission."

Self-interest was a believable motive, right? Presented that way, it made it seem that we were open to being swayed by the truth. It was a fine line, but our mission briefing had been about finding the truth, and not about aiding in a cover up.

"This situation is greater than merely that of ghosts and rumours," she said. "You have no right to interfere with it."

"Well tough," Naruto said, crossing his arms. "We're here now, so you've just gotta deal with that."

Immovable object, meet unstoppable force.

But this kind of argument could get very messy.

"Is this," I said slowly. This would be a leading question. If I was right, it would probably help us. If I was wrong, I was giving her an option to deceive us. "About the assassinations?"

"You know," she said, and her voice cracked and broke. A shiver wracked her body, and though I couldn't see it in the darkness, I could feel it through my jutsu, a ghost of a feeling.

"What assassinations?" Naruto asked, alarmed. His eyes went wide. "Did someone really kill the old Daimyo?"

"He was murdered," she said. "Killed in cold blood. I know it to be true! I _will_ find out who is responsible. I will have vengeance!"

Carefully, I let the shadow around her feet fade out. I could catch her again, if she made to flee. Or attack. But we had her now, in a much realer sense, and we would learn much more from conversation than from fighting.

"That's awful," Naruto said. "What happened? And who are you, anyway?"

She sighed, a deep rattling thing. Her eyes closed, briefly, in contemplation. I could tell the minute she gave in and decided to work with us. Or to try and use us. "This is not the place for that discussion. Come with me."

She turned and continued walking down the tunnel. I fell into step easily. There was only one pathway, so only one exit. Unless there was a trap waiting for us at the end – and I had my sensing on full alert just to make sure there wasn't – there was no harm in relocating.

She carefully shed the armour of the Cursed Warrior, leaving it in the tunnel, before ascending up the ladder. "It belongs in the abandoned temple," she said, by way of explanation. "There is no time to return it, but it is too much risk to have it in my rooms."

Almost surprisingly, the ladder came out in an opulent room. I didn't know where I had _expected_ it to lead, but this wasn't it. The trap door was hidden beneath a low table, and we rolled awkwardly out from beneath it. When it was closed it was indistinguishable from the tatami flooring.

_Very neat._

But the room itself…

This was a tunnel built right into the heart of the palace – a way for the royal family to escape, should it ever be brought under siege. Likely one of the most guarded secrets of the land.

"Wow," Naruto said. "This is almost as nice as Yukie's palace."

It was a living room, wide open spaces and plentiful seating. From beyond the shogi doors I could hear the gentle clinking of a zen garden water-piece. There was a fireplace and mantle, and above it a giant painted portrait of a family. The Daimyo's family, clearly, if the robes the man was wearing was any indication. There were two young, identical ten year olds in the picture. The picture was several years old.

And several pieces of information clicked into place.

"Chishima said that Toki died," I murmured, staring at the painting.

The young woman – Toki herself – sat in seiza across the table. There was a pocket watch on it, one she picked up and flicked open.

"Toki is dead," she said. "All that remains is a ghost seeking vengeance for those that are gone."

"What?" Naruto repeated. "You're the princess? But how come you're alive? What happened to Sagi?"

"I know not whether they meant to kill me," she said. "Or whether Sagi was the true target of the attack. But he- he died all the same."

Tears glistened in her eyes, but the rest of her expression was iron hard. Her fingers curled over the watch.

"Toki is not a person that holds any power in this court," she continued, eyes low. "Toki alone could never have discovered the truth, nor brought the guilty to justice. But Sagi is the Daimyo. Sagi has the freedom. I believed that."

I took a second to wrap my head around that. That was a mind-trip. Her brother, her _twin_ had been murdered, and every second since she had lived in his place, pretended to be him. Every second had to be a reminder that he was dead.

I couldn't even imagine…

What if Shikamaru _died_? I'd been twinless Before. But that was different. I'd been a different person then. This life, this lifetime, was so woven around him. He was everywhere, in every memory I had, part of every skill and talent. They all linked back to him, inextricable.

If he died… there would be so many empty holes in my world. Empty places, the shape of a brother. His absence would be as noticeable as his presence.

I tried, for a second to imagine that. Then I tried to imagine myself filling those holes with myself, to convince everyone else that he was not dead.

My skin _crawled._

"It didn't work," I said. She wouldn't have needed to go to these lengths, to dress up and run around at night, if she'd been able to go through legal methods.

"No," Toki said, admitting defeat. "Sagi has less power than I thought. Mousou controls the court now and Komei the militia. I played the part of the cursed warrior, instead, in hopes of discovering who was behind the assassinations. It is an old legend in this palace, that only a ghost can gain true vengeance."

"We'll help you," Naruto declared boldly.

"That is not our mission objective," Sai said mildly, almost sounding like he was saying it just for forms sake. It was the first time he had spoken since we had found Toki, and that was being quiet, even for him.

"Sure it is," Naruto replied. "Our mission was to stop the ghost, so if we find out who is behind the assassinations, then all the ghost sightings will stop."

I considered that to be a fairly sound argument, really. More so than some of the things we'd done.

"Have there been more assassination attempts since?" I asked. "Against you?"

Toki shrugged, carelessly. "Some. But none have led back to the culprit. I have fought them, and I have chased them, and nothing has been accomplished."

I reassessed how well I thought she was dealing. That was a very deep well of apathy, right there. An astonishing disregard for her own life. Even if she did gain vengeance and discover the truth, what did she have then?

"Maybe one of us should stay with you," Naruto suggested, giving me a slightly wide eyed look. "So that you don't get hurt."

"The only reason I continue this shameful existence," Toki said. "Is so that I can get my revenge. Once that is done, I can perish for all it matters."

"Hey! Don't say things like that," Naruto cut her off. "There are heaps of reasons that you shouldn't die. What about your friends? This country? You're supposed to be the Daimyo, right? Living only for revenge is no life at all."

"You have no idea what it feels like to lose everything you hold dear," Toki spat at him, suddenly. "You have no _idea-_"

_I do,_ I thought, and didn't say. _Every person, every place, every story and song and-_

But that wasn't something I could share with her, to ease her pain, to show sympathy. It just left me feeling old and tired.

"You're right!" Naruto shouted back, interrupting the gathering pity party. "I don't know! But I do know that you shouldn't just give up because of it."

I shushed him, and swept my senses out to make sure that no one had heard and was coming. Alone, we might have been, but I didn't think people were truly that far away. And if there had been assassination attempts, then the guards would be on alert for noises coming from the Daimyo's rooms.

Naruto shook his head, as if shaking the argument itself off. "Shikako, you stay here with her tonight, okay? Me and Sai will go back and find Chishima."

I nodded. I wasn't exactly thrilled to be on body guard duty and not be investigating things, but better me than Sai. Whatever his secret mission from Danzo was, leaving him alone with a Daimyo was asking for trouble. "Stick together, okay? And be careful what you say to Mousou –"

"You cannot tell him," Toki interrupted, eyes fierce. "If the identity of the Cursed Warrior is revealed, then I will never be able to discover the truth." Her hand went to her side, where the sword of the Warrior would have hung, as if she were prepared to offer an ultimatum at swordpoint.

"I get it," Naruto said impatiently. "They'll try even harder to kill you if they know you know. And that's not going to happen. We're going to protect you _and_ find out the truth!"

Whether she wanted it or not.

I covered an amused smile.

"Do as you will," Toki said. "As long as you do not interfere with my search."

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><p>.<p>

Guard duty was a tedious experience.

I found a comfortable spot to sit in Toki's room, where I could have my back against a wall and see both the window and door. And waited.

It was like meditating, in a way. A certain serene watchfulness, where thoughts faded into a quiet hush. It was as though the brain was a computer going to standby, to screensaver, everything there but still.

I waited as Toki slept and stirred and tried to sleep again.

Eventually she gave up, sitting so the covers pooled around her lap. She reached out and grabbed the pocket watch sitting on the bedside table, rolling it in her palms. In the darkness, lit only by the light of the moon from the window, she was a blur of outlines.

"Are you awake?" she asked, hushed and quiet.

"Yes," I replied, equally so. There was always something intimate about conversations in the darkness. Something that made it easier to talk.

"Sagi and I used to share a room," she said, still so soft. "We didn't have to, of course. But we did."

I breathed out, slowly. "I have a twin brother," I said, as though it were a confession. "We did the same."

"It's empty, without him," she whispered. "I don't know how to be one person, instead of one half of two."

"What was he like?" I asked.

She shifted. "Kind," she said eventually, and it sounded broken. "Kinder than me. He was good at making friends. With everyone, even the scribes and apprentices. He hated going to training with Komei. I used to convince him to let me go instead. No one could ever tell us apa- apart." She choked, and there were soft, breathy sounds of sobbing. She muffled them into her hand.

I shifted, uneasily, and wondered if I should go closer. Should comfort her.

"This watch," she continued eventually. "He gave it to me. As he. When he died." She swallowed, seeming to fight off another bout of tears. "It has been handed down for generations of Daimyo. From father to son. But no longer. The chain has been broken. The watch stopped ticking the moment that my father was killed. As if it too felt the pain of death. It is as broken as my heart – we are both stopped forever in the past."

She fell silent, sounding exhausted. Little wonder, if she was.

"Daimyo to Daimyo," I said, so so softly. "It doesn't sound like the chain has been broken at all."

_Cold comfort_, I thought. Watches could be fixed. Hearts were so much harder.

I listened to her cry and felt the ache in my chest. I wanted to say something. I wished I could make it better.

Even hearts healed, eventually. But that didn't make it any easier to bear when they were wounded.

"My brother and I have been fighting," I said quietly, leaning my head back against the wall. I was no less alert but… it felt easier. To not look at her. It felt like I was offering something up, cracking myself open to trade pain for pain. "As ninja, we're not really safe. I got hurt. It was- it was pretty bad. I was so scared."

I breathed in, ragged, startled at myself for saying it. For admitting it. It had been weeks, and I was only just starting to be able to consider it, without gently skirting the edges of my own thoughts.

"It scared him too. He wanted me to quit, to stay at home, where I would be safe. But I couldn't. I can't. This is what I'm for." I didn't know how much of this she was understanding. How much she could even hear. Maybe I wasn't even saying this for her. "I hate fighting with him. But I can't even imagine what I would do if he were gone."

"Revenge," she said, voice cracked. It sounded like a pact. Like we were swearing it, together. "You would get revenge."

"It won't bring him back," I said, the truth plain. I couldn't tell her she was wrong.

"No," she agreed, hand clenching around the watch that didn't tick. "But that's not the point of it."

Dawn came slowly, a creeping of light into the comforting darkness. Toki dressed in heavy, masculine finery and donned the mantle of her brother. If I hadn't known the truth, I probably wouldn't have guessed just from looking at her.

I trailed after her all morning, and though I received a few questioning looks, neither Toki nor I explained, and no one asked. She spent the morning embroiled in court politics, and was tireless in her arguments.

Even now, even spending nights hunting murderers, even planning to die once it was done… even now she was fighting tooth and claw for her country. Fighting to take part in discussion, to be the Daimyo she should have been.

It was a good sign. _You haven't lost everything, Toki. Not everything._

I had hope for her. I just had to make her see it.

At lunch time, she decreed that we would eat at the lake. That was apparently more complicated than just packing a picnic basket and going, because there was an entourage of guards and courtiers and servants bustling about to escort her.

I bore with it.

And then three ninja jumped out of the lake to try and assassinate her.

I sensed them coming, chakra in a place that chakra shouldn't have been, and wasn't surprised when they leapt out of the water. I slid in front of her and deflected the shuriken – strange, triangular designs – and let them close into Shadow Possession range.

They landed on the shore, feet squelching in the mud, and my shadow slithered into theirs.

"Shadow Possession Complete," I intoned.

Face to face, none of them looked remarkable. In fact, they looked carefully unremarkable. Blue formless outfits over mesh under-armour, with cloth masks that covered all but their eyes.

The eyes widened.

"Who are you?" I asked.

There was a flicker of chakra. A familiar flicker. Something I had set myself more than a thousand times.

An exploding tag.

My hands raced through seals, even as I caught sight of the first, terrible spark of fire. "_Earth Release; Earth-Style Wall!"_

It wouldn't be in time.

I had to be in time!

The explosion rocked the wall even as it grew, shattering it into shrapnel. I was pelted with it and the heat blast of the explosion - tinged with the smell of burning flesh - seared my face.

_That was. Sudden._ I thought numbly, as the smoke faded away. There was no chakra left. _Why did he._

I hadn't been going to kill them. Arrest them, maybe. But …

That didn't call for a suicide attack. This hadn't been that kind of fight. Had it? They hadn't even fought back, not really. There had been no escalation. No build up. No exchange of techniques or attempts or conversation. Nothing. They had just. Blown themselves up.

_Dammit all. What was the point of that?_

"Sagi-sama!" One of the guards cried out, in between coughing. "Are you injured?!"

"I am unharmed," Toki said. I glanced at her over my shoulder; she was giving every appearance of being completely unruffled. Good. The blast hadn't harmed her. "The attackers?"

"Dead," I confirmed, as the dust cleared and all I could see were… remains. Gingerly, I went forward. There were little enough of them left. Too little to gain any decent information from, without an experienced pathologist. Fire had a way of erasing evidence really well. What wasn't charred black was melted.

There would be no recognising who these men were.

I sighed, and ran a hand through my hair, rattling the dirt out of it. I picked up the strange shuriken, weighing them thoughtfully in my hand. They were unique, different to the standard Konoha model, but that didn't mean I knew where they were from.

The lake was wide enough that they could have entered it at any location, even swum up the river if they were skilled enough. It would be hard for the palace guards to have stopped them.

But.

This picnic had been a spur of the moment thing.

"Do you come here a lot?" I asked, mind racing. "To the lake?"

Toki blinked at me. "Occasionally," she said. "We would often play here as children. It is a place to remember."

But not so frequently now that it was a habit. Interesting. So, either they had chanced upon us, had been waiting here for some time, or… they had known we were coming. Either by following us, or by being informed. It had not been particularly secret, but at the same time, there had not been much time for the news to spread.

_More questions. No answers._

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* * *

><p>.<p>

We hadn't exactly set a time to meet up again, but I expected Naruto and Sai to come and find us in the evening. I couldn't exactly go and find them, since that would mean leaving Toki alone.

I almost regretted that we hadn't put a Naruto clone on Toki-duty but since there had, actually, been an assassination attempt, I didn't continue too far down that line of thought.

"Sorry we took so long," Naruto stage whispered as they snuck in through the shogi doors to the courtyard, having come in over the roof. "This investigating thing is really hard."

I smiled at him. "What have you found out?"

"The times, locations and causes of death of the Daimyo and 'princess'," Sai answered, smoothly. "The main suspects all have alibis. There have been three more attempted assassinations of the new Daimyo. They have alibies during those times too."

"Four assassination attempts," I said calmly, gesturing to the shuriken that I'd stacked on the table. "Three ninja attempted to ambush us at lunch time."

Sai frowned imperceptibly. "Ninja?" he repeated. But he also didn't seem surprised. I filed that thought away.

Naruto bent over the table and grabbed one of the weapons. The neatly stacked tower of them clattered over and scuffed the table. He rubbed the mark sheepishly with his sleeve. "These look like the ones we saw in the armoury, right Sai? Chishima took us around on a tour," he explained to me. "He said some of the guards used them but not many."

I sighed. "So they used local weapons." They could have just stolen them from the armoury. That would have been the easiest solution. It was a dead end.

"But they were ninja?" Naruto asked. "Really ninja?"

I nodded, biting my lip in thought. "I didn't see a headband and I didn't exactly ask for their ID cards," I said wryly. "But they had chakra and it was trained. And they had exploding tags."

"Can we interrogate them?" Sai asked.

"They had exploding tags," I repeated.

Sai didn't ask anything further about the matter.

"So you have found nothing," Toki said, wearily. "Another day, and I am no closer to the truth."

"Hey," Naruto protested. "We've only been here a day! There's heaps more stuff we have to do before we give up." He sounded stung, like solving this in a day wasn't an expectation too high to have.

She pushed herself to her feet. "I will continue my own investigations! These wasted hours weigh heavily on my heart."

She stalked off in a flurry, shedding the heavy robes of office and returning in a simple cotton outfit to wear beneath the heavy Cursed Warrior armour.

I yawned, propping my elbows on my thighs and letting my chin rest in my hands. After a full night keeping watch and a day of body guarding, I was tired. But it didn't look like rest would be coming any time soon.

At least this wasn't the constant rush-fight-rush of some of our missions.

"We don't all have to go," Naruto said suddenly.

I blinked at him. "Well, no. As long as one of us is with her. Did you want to split up again?"

"We could cover more ground," Sai agreed.

Naruto nodded, linking his hands behind his head. "We should watch Toki in shifts, like we do night watch. So I'll go now, and Sai can watch her tomorrow. That way you can get some rest."

That was directed at me. I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not that tired. I can keep going," I said. He did have a point, and I wasn't objecting the idea. I just didn't need it done solely for my sake.

He grinned. "I know. But you don't have to yet, so you should get some sleep."

This conversation felt oddly familiar, a strange echo of what we had told Sai at the start of the mission. In that vein, I could hardly argue with it, could I?

Sleep deprivation hardly contributed well to keeping a clear mind. I'd be a fool not to sleep when I could, especially if this turned out to be a long mission. We had no idea how long it would take to solve this.

"Yes, taicho," I said teasingly.

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* * *

><p>.<p>

I woke to darkness, not quite sure what had startled me awake, but knowing it was a threat.

Beside me, Sai also jerked awake. We hadn't set a night watch for the two of us, but neither of us were heavy sleepers. The trade-off had seemed worth it.

"Status?" Sai breathed quietly. He hadn't moved.

There was nothing in the room with us. Nothing I could see or hear or sense. Further out… I stretched my senses, straining to find whatever it was that had awoken me.

There was chakra there, stronger and more defined that that of the palace guards.

"Ninja," I breathed back, sliding out of the futon. I slipped my shoes on, grabbed my kunai pouch and found my jacket. There was no question that I would follow them and find out what was going on.

Sai was ready to go in equal time – maybe even less. He followed me as we silently stole out of the room and slipped along the palace hallways. My only guide was the chakra_ right_ on the edge of my sensing range. I didn't want to lose it. It was moving directly away from us, towards the edge of the palace grounds.

Then I stopped. Because there was something coming towards us, something small and scuttling that had only the barest traces of chakra clinging to it. Sai's chakra.

He knelt to retrieve the ink mouse.

I hadn't known he'd made those. Now I had another thing to worry about.

"There are more ninja congregating in a room in the west wing," he said, without preamble. "A full squad, if not more."

_Great._ I weighed up how much I trusted Sai, over the urgency of the mission. Squads of ninja meant nothing good. I'd already taken out three. There was another ahead of us. How many were there?

"See if you can find out what they're after," I said, deciding. I hoped I wasn't wrong. "Try not to engage. I'll follow this one."

We broke apart, soundlessly going our own ways. I pulled my chakra in, as small and tight as it would go, as unnoticeable as possible, and made my steps as utterly soundless as I could. I was little more than a ghost in the night.

I followed, cautious but confident, all the way out of the palace and into the forest. They were heading close to the shrine, which made me a little nervous. Did they know? Were they after Toki? Was this another assassination attempt?

I touched down cautiously on the ground in the shrine courtyard, intent on sneaking the last few meters to avoid notice, and the chakra –

- vanished.

_Damn._ I flung myself sideways, rolling across the ground and coming up kneeling, kunai in hands and facing my original spot.

Nothing happened. The wind blew through the tree leaves. The stars twinkled overhead, moon beaming down brightly, giving enough light to see by. Enough light to tell that the courtyard was completely empty.

I refused to relax my guard. _A trap. I walked straight into it. _

I was on high alert but I couldn't sense anything. Nothing. Not a single person in my range.

I channelled chakra to my ears, hoping I could hear something. Breathing. Anything.

"Did you think I didn't notice you following me?" A heavy, male voice asked. Behind me. Too close. Too loud.

I spun around, rising, kunai whistling through empty air. Nothing.

_Calm down._ I told myself sternly. _Don't get yourself worked up._ _Think it through. You know there is someone here, you just have to find them._

I could see nothing. Sense nothing. Hear only what he let me hear. He might as well have not been there.

I breathed in and out, slowly, trying to calm the rapid hammering of my heart. My palms were sweaty around the handle of my kunai. It wasn't productive.

My eyes darted across the ground. It was too dark to tell if he was leaving footprints.

_I can fix that,_ I thought, trading one of my kunai for my lightsaber. It was a pity my legendary weapon was so frequently useful as a torch. The glow of it lit up the night, stripping away any chance I might have had of hiding – but they knew I was here, anyway. To my disappointment, the light it threw revealed no shadows of hidden people.

"That's a neat jutsu you have," I said, conversationally. My voice didn't even waver. "Camouflage Technique, right? You must be good to be able to cover your chakra with it."

The people we'd encountered before – Kajika's people – couldn't. They hadn't been able to move and keep it going either. I had a sinking feeling that might not be the case here.

I held the lightsaber out to the side. It had the effect of making my shadow stretch in the opposite direction, right to the walls. I could circle it around from there, running unobtrusively around and enclose the courtyard. It picked up nothing.

I hoped that meant he wasn't in the shadows, rather than his technique protected him from it. I could have tried to stretch it further – to cover the entire ground in shadow and find him no matter where he was hiding – but I didn't think I would manage it. Stretching a shadow to increase its length was one thing; area was another.

"You stuck your nose into something that's none of your business," he said.

I swung the lightsaber, lightning dancing off the blade in a wide arc towards the source. It fizzled harmlessly into the ground, the words not betraying the true location of the man. He was throwing his voice, keeping me from finding his true location.

"It's our mission," I said, trying to keep the conversation going. _Engage him. Stall him. Play for time._

"And you'll die for it," he spat. "Hidden Leaf scum."

The ground grasped at my ankles, suddenly, with no spike of chakra warning. I yelped, caught off guard, chakra going immediately to my feet to free me. Even as I struggled, it pulled me deeper and I knew I had bare seconds before I was underground.

"Touch blast!" I pressed it down with my foot, using a conical shape that would drive the force of the blast away from me.

But it was still setting off an explosion in an enclosed space and it wasn't pretty. The stone shattered, yes, but I was lifted up and catapulted backwards from the force of it. I rolled across the dirt, scrambling to rip my shoes off. The soles were _melting_ from the heat of it.

I hissed in pain.

I'd lost my jutsu. My shadows were gone. My lightning blade shut off. My nightvision was ruined and I could see nothing.

But there was no time to stop. I had to keep moving. I pushed off the ground, narrowly missing being struck by a kunai.

The angle of it –

I followed it back, activating and launching another sweep attack from the lightsaber. Again, nothing.

_Earth jutsu; is he even above ground?_ I cursed not being able to sense him. I cursed being so reliant on the fact that I usually could. The kunai suggested he was, but kunai launchers were so easy to rig.

_I need something bigger_, I thought. Radiating Shockwave was the only area of effect lightning jutsu I knew but dammit, I had the Sword of the Thunder God. That had to mean something.

I stabbed it downwards, deep into the earth. It cut the rock easily, but that was only where the blade could reach. "_Lightning Release; Sword in the Stone_!" I howled, all but throwing chakra into it.

Lightning blasted out, a full carpet of it, lighting up the courtyard from beneath; the force of it was focused downwards into the ground, but spikes of electricity danced up into the air in a parody of reversal. I wove chakra into my legs and feet, protecting as much as I could, but it still hurt where they lashed at me.

A shape, hard as rock, hurled itself out of the ground at me.

I dodged, but barely, clipped by an arm that threw me to the ground. I tumbled, jutsu fading.

But it had served its purpose.

"You'll die for that," he growled out, voice like rocks grinding together. I had been half right with my earlier assumption of that he was using camouflage jutsu. He was using it to blend in with the rocks and stone, and to remove himself from my senses. Even now he was grey and marbled, and I had a feeling that if I lost him again, it would be much harder to find him a second time.

I panted, breath coming in sharp gasps. "Thought that was your plan from the start," I managed. "I could have sworn you'd already said that."

I really needed to learn how to say more helpful things.

"Rock Tank," he growled, and spun forward. His body became circular, rolling like Chouji's Human Bullet Tank. The moving sphere picked up mass like an avalanche, growing larger and leaving a giant trail of destruction in its wake.

I moved again, springing off the rock and ignoring the way pain stung through my feet. I was cushioning them with chakra as much as I could, but it wasn't enough.

The seals I planted in the dirt went off as soon as he passed over them. I was pelted with rock shrapnel, and threw and arm across my eyes to protect them.

That was the reason I didn't see him coming at all, as he slammed me into the wall, hand locked around my throat. My head rattled against the stone, red spiking through my vision.

I froze, muscles locking up.

The world buzzed red and black. Red and black.

_In the world of Tsukiyomi, time and space are mine to command…_

_Some strange whimpering sound escaped my mouth, but it didn't seem real. Nothing seemed real. I was pinned and I was floating away and I was both at the same time._

_I – _

_-_ pulled free.

I was the shadow pooling around our feet. Everything that touched me fell under my sway. I reached, stretching up and up, blackened limbs looping around and around. My arms elongated, black hands clawing at a neck, pressure and more pressure. Stone skin refused to give way, the attempt at strangulation useless. I reached up further, splitting another hand to cover nose and mouth. Suffocation was also sufficient for my purposes.

_(- slumped against the wall, hard stone pressed against my back. There was no escape. I was caught. I was helpless. I couldn't, I couldn't do this again. I couldn't. Please. No.)_

The enemy heaved and twitched in my grasp. The body, lost in fear, twitched in his.

I needed to make him release it.

I changed tacks, shifting form from solid shadow to shadow possession. His limbs moved under my power, hand unclenching and drawing backwards. The body slumped against the wall, making small, distressed sounds.

I stepped him backwards. And again, until there was sufficient distance between them.

(_Hands drew back from my neck and I choked, gasping for air as my lungs burnt. I burnt. My back slid against the wall, skin scraping raw against stone. I couldn't stop the sounds escaping my mouth. I was _afraid_. I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to be doing this. _Please. I want to go home_.)_

"Who," he asked. "Who's there?" His eyes were wide and rolling, trying to see behind him, or to the sides.

"That depends," I said, voice made only of air changing shape. "Who are you?"

If he would talk, I would not kill him. Our mission was to acquire information. He could still be useful.

"We are the Watari Clan; the Wandering Ninja," he said, something indefinable in his voice.

I had heard of them. There were not that many large groups of shinobi that did not belong to a village left any longer. Fewer still that didn't have land of their own and maintained the nomadic lifestyle of the pre-village era, moving to wherever there was work.

"The Land of Birds has not hired you," I said, confident in the fact. Because if they had, then they would not have hired us.

He snorted. "You know nothing. What it means to be nomadic, forever travelling with no place to call your own… that's something that a pampered village brat like you would never understand."

I could hardly deny that. But he was warming up to the topic, speaking more freely, and I hoped I could glean something useful from his ranting.

_(I huddled against the wall, arms drawing over knees. I wanted to run but there was nowhere to go. There was nowhere to go. Nowhere was safe. I could never escape this life. All I could do was stay small and quiet and hope that no one noticed me.)_

"What would you know of endless drifting? Of sharpening skills without benefit of a school or teacher? Of having limitations that can't be surpassed, and of always being looked down upon by those like _you_."

"How terrible," I said, blandly. "That doesn't explain why you're here."

Had someone hired them to assassinate the royal family? If so, who? Who would have had the knowledge, in this cloistered, superstitious place? Was it even someone within the country at all?

"That," said a different voice. "Is not your concern."

And I realised I had made a terrible mistake.

The enemy had been stalling as much as I was. He had been waiting for backup. And it had arrived in the form of a blue haired swordsman, slinking out of the night and holding a blade to the body.

_(He was holding a sword to my throat. I have to do _something_, I thought, but it was a dim and distant thought that belonged to someone else. My reflexes were choked with panic and terror. I would die here, die for nothing, with nothing.)_

I threw myself across the courtyard, a streak of black on the ground, rising up between the two and batting the sword to the side. He repelled the two shadow stitching tendrils I aimed at him, slicing one in half. It didn't hurt, exactly, it was not a physical limb to feel pain. But there was loss, because of it.

"Nagare," the swordsman said, retreating a fraction as I drove more tendrils at him. "I wondered what was keeping you."

I hovered, uneasily, on the ground in front of the body. This was not good. And worse yet, I could feel the strain of the jutsu trying to pull us back together.

The enemy – Nagare – grunted. "I got caught off guard."

I swirled backwards, gathered around body's feet, ready to move her to safety and –

(_The dark shadow, my jutsu, defended me, launching attacks that drove him off. It came to me and_ -)

- We were one.

I staggered to my feet, woozily, uncertain. Nothing really felt real. But it didn't feel so unreal either. I was in two minds, but I wasn't. I was myself again, except I had always been only myself.

A hysterical laugh bubbled past my lips.

_Maybe the clan was right. This is really screwed up._

But I had two enemies in front of me that needed dealing with. Breakdowns could wait till after. They had to wait till after.

"Careful, Hokushin," Nagare said. "She's stronger than she looks."

Considering I must have looked pretty damn awful, that wasn't really saying much.

I coughed. "We don't have to fight," I rasped. "If you aren't trying to attack the Daimyo, then I have no problem with you." It might have been a better argument if we hadn't already been fighting. But. I made do with what I had.

"Funny," Hokushin said, levelling his sword in my direction. "That's exactly what we're trying to do."

That was more information than Nagare had given me. But it was not good. It meant that I couldn't afford to let them go, either. Not if they were just going to attack Toki.

I had to deal with them here and now.

Right. Two enemies. Both good at concealing chakra. One had a sword. I didn't want to engage him close range, obviously. The other, an earth jutsu user. Taijutsu would be useless, but he was weak to lightning. He had distance attacks, however, and I couldn't discount that.

I reached for my sword.

And it wasn't there.

Luck wasn't on my side today, clearly. I couldn't even remember when I'd dropped it. When Nagare had attacked me? When I'd been split?

I didn't waste the energy cursing it.

Nagare raced through a set of handseals, slapping his palms down on the concrete. The ground under my feet went mutable, rising to grab me.

I _moved._ I couldn't risk getting caught in that trap again. Not after the damage I'd done to myself trying to escape it the first time.

I speed boosted, dropping my resistance seal and amping my chakra enhancements to the max. The strain of it felt like a deep burn in my muscles, already trembling from the abuse I'd put them through.

It wouldn't last me long, then.

I grimaced. _Time to abandon subtlety._

I took a second's break, though, perched sideways on the courtyard wall, to gather myself, before launching at them.

Nagare was ready for me, blocking my first attack with a simple arm bar. It was hard as rock. I didn't even try force it, using it instead to push myself up, planting a hand on his shoulder and flipping right over him. My fingertips left ink behind.

I hit the ground and rolled, ducking beneath Hokushin's sword swing, digging a hand into my kunai pouch and planting an experimental magnetic seal on the ground. They'd worked well enough during sparring, even if they weren't particularly refined.

Then I performed an extremely fast replacement jutsu with a hunk of rock on the other side of the courtyard and narrowly escaped being crushed to pieces.

_Activate!_ I used a half seal to focus, and set both seals off at once.

Hokushin stumbled as his sword dragged towards the ground, metal caught in the magnetic fields created by a piece of paper.

Nagare. Well. Nagare exploded into a shower of rock.

I was far enough away to escape the debris. His ally was not. He was clipped across the face and went tumbling across the ground, sprawled lax and awkwardly.

I wasn't sure if he was dead. But he wasn't moving. I waited for a long second, almost sure he was faking. But nothing happened.

_Two birds with one stone, right?_

I smothered a set of inappropriate giggles. This was not the time.

I pushed myself to my feet and limped towards him, still alert for ambush. If he wasn't dead, then I wanted to be sure he stayed out of it.

"Rock," a voice said, just as I reached him. "Blizzard."

I hit the ground. It wasn't quite enough to save me from the stones that flew through the air in a parody of the explosion I'd forced on them. They whistled through the air above me, a couple clipping me before I evaded, and began to form a person.

_You have got to be kidding me. What does it take to put this guy down?_

I had had people brush off explosions before. Kidomaru. Kimimaro. But to put himself back together _after_ I'd blown him up? That was something different.

And worrying. That was bodily physical transformation, like Konan and her paper form. That was an A-rank level technique of serious utility.

How do you take out an enemy that you can't damage? Or rather, that damaging doesn't _stop?_

I didn't have time to consider it, pushing myself off the ground with speed that belied my injuries. The ground quaked and cracked beneath me.

I tried to make for high ground, shooting for the walls to try and get to the trees. If I could get to the trees –

Spikes shot out of the wall. I ground to a halt, bare feet skidding painfully over the ground and doing nothing good for them. But I managed to avoid taking a spike to the face, so it was probably worth it.

_Keep moving._

He had me blocked in. I couldn't get out, and there was nowhere in the courtyard that was safe to pause. I had to keep moving – keep moving in an unpredictable pattern – and it was wearing me down. I couldn't keep it up.

I couldn't even tell if the constant ninjutsu was equally wearing on him. I couldn't count on it.

This was a battle of stamina and I was losing.

_Think,_ I told myself. _You have options._

Did I? I couldn't run. I had tried to fight. I couldn't outlast him. I had to, somehow, get rid of him.

Get rid of him.

A crazy, stupid idea bloomed in my mind.

I grabbed it with both hands.

_This had better work_.

I yanked a blank scroll out of my jacket and bit my thumb for blood. No time for ink. The seal itself wouldn't be tricky. It was a simple one, one of the first I had learnt. It was just… adjusted, a little bit.

The attacks slowed a fraction. Either he was curious or cautious. I didn't care which; I took huge advantage of the fact.

I launched myself across the ground towards him, scroll held ready in my hand. This was going to be the tricky bit, and I mentally spared a quick thanks to Tenten for teaching me how to throw them. That was an art in its own right. Paper was not aerodynamic.

It arched around, flying through a full circle, enclosing him and returning to my hand.

Nagare responded by sinking into the ground. If I let him, he'd be out of my trap before I could put it to use.

"Seal!" I said grimly, feeding it chakra. There was a huge puff of chakra smoke. The seal was not efficient, but it did its job. Air rushed past me, whooshing in to fill a void.

Everything within the loop of the scroll had vanished.

There was a gaping pit in the ground, a perfect circle going down and down. I didn't even know how deep it was – it looked endless. It wouldn't be. Even though I hadn't put a terminating distance on the effect, the sealing matrix got weaker and weaker the further from the anchor that it was. Eventually it would simply have faded out and ceased to affect the world.

I shivered. My hands clutched at the sealing scroll that held a person. He wouldn't have survived that, no matter the jutsu he was using. Sealing scrolls were not for living matter.

I used my bleeding thumb to line an edge of red around the top. It wasn't quite the black of a body scroll. But people would still know.

Then I very carefully limped away to retrieve my lost weapons.

There was nothing more to be done here.

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* * *

><p>.<p>

So even when I tell myself that everything is going to fit into one chapter, it doesn't. I shouldn't even be surprised by this anymore. .


	87. Chapter 86

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

ImpressedAnon – I always wish I could reply to reviews like this. I'll try keep it short. The bounties? Probably declared and taxed as a secondary income, I suppose. It wasn't much money. Hopefully Shikako doesn't seem _too_ blasé about it all – I have tried to keep her very aware of what it is she's doing, even if she still does it. Com clones – the team expected to have more time / fewer enemies and didn't think they'd be necessary. Mostly just not thought of. XD The mission was vetted, and it seemed simple and not noteworthy, as you pointed out, Chishima was on the level and there was no indication that ninja were around. _Italised_ thoughts are just a way for me to not right 'I thought' every sentence, while having them separate from the overall narrative. There's no distinct voice behind them. Lastly, yes, Anko is involved. Probably. Maybe not. It's likely. How did you know about Cadet Stimpy?

In honour of Terry Pratchett and Leonard Nimoy.

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* * *

><p>.<p>

Chapter 86

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><p>.<p>

_It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero_

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* * *

><p>.<p>

My feet were blistered.

That was second degree burns, at least. I hissed as I tipped my canteen of water over them, trying to wash off the worst of the dirt. It was a little too late for the 'run under cold water' treatment to do much good, and I didn't have that much water anyway.

Well, it wasn't like I'd never had burns before. Admittedly, these were the worst – I'd never tried to set off a tag I was holding before. Because I could recognise that as a dumb move, even if it had been the only option I had at that point.

There were also lightning burns marking up my shins, little feathery fernlike patterns. Lightning flowers, they were called, caused by the rupturing of capillaries under the skin. These were probably no more serious than a bruise.

But it did highlight one fact.

Despite how the fight had gone, most of my injuries had been the result of my own actions. Nagare had managed to land very few hits. I'd have bruises, for sure, but they wouldn't have slowed me down nearly so much.

I was getting careless, and it was becoming a problem.

More than a problem – I'd unintentionally torn myself in two with an untested, experimental jutsu that I'd been heavily advised against developing. This time, it hadn't even been a neat and even split like it had the first time I'd used it. It had been rougher, lopsided, and had left me physically defenceless in the middle of a fight.

I hadn't meant to use it. I'd just… panicked. I'd been trying to get away.

I shuddered and gently coaxed my burns into healing with medical chakra, then slathered them with burn cream before wrapping them heavily in bandages. It would have to do.

I rubbed my throat, chasing the phantom touch of a hand wrapped around it. My palms were sweaty. I was trembling, faintly. It had never been this bad before. A feeling of Deja vu once or twice. A lurching feeling in the pit of my stomach. Nightmares. A momentary faze when faced with Sharingan. Nothing like this.

"I'm okay," I told myself, out loud. The words didn't have some magical ability to fix everything. I didn't feel any better. "It's okay."

It wasn't, though. And the worst thing was I didn't know how to fix it, because I had done the best I could.

I limped towards the shrine tunnel, subdued.

Toki was going to have to overhaul this whole tunnel thing after this. Secret evacuation tunnels worked best when they were actually, yknow, secret. Otherwise they were just a direct line into the heart of the palace. And while I would have said that neither Naruto or I would abuse that knowledge, Sai also knew. And if Sai knew, Danzo would know.

_More problems._

Wearily, I crawled out from the trap door, sliding out under the table and giving Naruto what was apparently the fright of his life. Well, at least they were back. I'd wondered if they were still out investigating.

"What happened?! You're hurt!" Naruto hovered, darting forward, then back again as he changed his mind. "Do you need me to get stuff? A first aid kit?"

"I'm fine," I said. "I've got one."

"But what happened?!" Naruto burst out. "Did someone attack you?"

There was a rustling sound in the other room, and Toki appeared in her night clothes. One hand rested out of sight behind the door, and I was sure she was holding a weapon.

"Another attack?" she asked, eyes flicking over me. I felt twice as dirty and dishevelled because of it.

"Something like that," I said.

"Where's Sai?" Naruto followed up. "Was he hurt too?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't know; we split up. He went to listen in on some kind of meeting."

"A meeting?" Toki echoed. "This late at night?"

"We were a little suspicious as well," I agreed. "It's definitely ninja, though. The two I fought were from the Watari Clan – they're a bunch of wandering ninja that don't belong to a village. Not missing ninja, they just never had one in the first place. I bet the three assassins earlier were also from there. Whoever hired them hasn't skimped on the numbers."

"So there's probably more," Naruto finished. He lifted his chin and knocked his fists together. "So we'll just beat them all up!"

"Right, right," I agreed almost absently. I didn't bother pointing out that the conspiracy likely went deeper than we'd expected, if someone was able to hire and hide a whole lot of ninja for the several weeks, if not months, that it had been since the Daimyo died.

Sure, ninja were sneaky. But we were talking at least a dozen people. That had to leave some kind of imprint.

"I didn't get much information out of them," I said. "Hopefully Sai knows more."

"I'll send a clone to go and find him," Naruto said. "In case he runs into trouble too." His face was creased with worry.

I gave Toki as much of a reassuring smile as I could. "You should go back to sleep. Tomorrow might be busy."

Her hand closed around her pocket watch. "Good."

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

Sai snuck into the room.

He was good at that, in a way that betrayed training and experience. I tried to think of it as a helpful trait, not as something to be wary of.

"Taicho," he said, dropping one knee to the ground. "I have information."

"What is it?" Naruto asked. "What was the meeting about?"

"There was a squad of ninja receiving orders from their employer," Sai said, calmly.

"Who is it?" Toki demanded. "Who is behind all of this? Tell me."

Sai was still looking at Naruto, not her. He didn't continue until Naruto nodded impatiently. "Their employer is the same man who hired us. Mousou."

I hissed through my teeth. It had always been a possibility, but not one I had taken _that_ seriously. I hadn't even met the man.

Naruto looked shocked. And betrayed. "Oh, no!"

Toki's face closed down, becoming cold. "Mousou. So it was you, all along," she murmured.

"I was unable to confirm the identity of the ninja, or the village they were from," Sai said.

"They're from the Watari Clan," I said. "I ran into two of them, earlier."

Sai's eyes flickered over me. I knew he couldn't have missed my injuries, but he had given no indication that he'd noticed them, either. "I see," he said. "They were identifiable?"

"Nagare and Hokushin," I offered, on the off chance that the names meant something to him.

He might have recognised them. He might not. But he pulled out a Konoha issue bingo book and after a few moments, managed to open it to display the faces of the men I had fought. The Watari Clan had a two page spread in general, with several more pages following for the stronger shinobi in their ranks.

I was surprised he had a bingo book, though I shouldn't have been. Of course he did. Even Naruto might have been issued one when he was promoted, though I'd never asked.

"That's them," I confirmed, though the pictures were seriously out of date. Looking at their bingo book stats made me feel twice as lucky to have won - I'd already known that I shouldn't have really stood a chance, but this just confirmed it. "Who else do they have listed?"

More information was better, if we were going to run into more of them.

"There's one more thing," Sai said, surrendering the bingo book to me. "Komei has been arrested. Guards confiscated a suit of armour identical to that of the Cursed Warrior from his quarters."

"But he's got nothing to do with it!" Naruto protested.

"It's a set up," I confirmed. "He's being framed." It was a cunning plan, if you considered it. Komei was Mousou's main opposition in gaining control over the country. This way he got to disgrace him _and_ stop the rumours about the ghost of the Daimyo. It wouldn't actually solve the problem of the ghost – but how many people could see Toki, how many times could she go out without getting caught? It was a fairly neat solution to what had to be a last-minute complication; no one could have _expected_ someone to seek vengeance as a ghost.

"He is going to be executed at dawn."

I nearly dropped the book. "What?"

"He is being provided with an opportunity to commit seppuku and end his life in an honourable fashion," Sai said. "Though I imagine someone will assist him if he decides not to."

"There's no time to lose. We'll go there right now!" Naruto declared.

"That is something we cannot do," Toki said, just shy of sounding regretful. Like she had judged the outcomes and knew that she could live with it. Or not live with it, as the case may have been. "It would mean revealing to Mousou that we know truth. I wouldn't get my revenge."

"You're saying you'd sacrifice an innocent guy for the sake of your stupid revenge?" Naruto exclaimed, voice rising higher and louder. He sounded both disbelieving and totally appalled. "You're the Daimyo! You're responsible for all your people!"

"I have no choice!" Toki responded. "Besides, he'll be guarded by a legion of soldiers. We would never be able to save him with anything less than starting a civil war."

I winced. That would be bad. That was pretty much the opposite of what we were going for here.

Naruto's chin edged out in a sullen, defiant way. "Not if we do it," he said. "Do you have a problem with _that_?"

"Okay," I said in the tense silence that followed. "Do we have a plan?"

"We can be the ghost," Naruto said. "Then everyone will know that Komei didn't do it."

It was a workable plan. We'd be able to get Komei out, at least. Then we just had to reveal Mousou for the mastermind behind it all in some way that was incontrovertible.

I drummed my fingers against my leg.

Well. We already had a ghost in play. It would be all very Hamlet.

"Okay," I said slowly. I didn't want to jump into another fight so soon. But Naruto was here. I wouldn't be alone. "I think that this could work."

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

The plan went wrong even before it started.

Of course it did.

It wasn't even _that_ complicated a plan. Toki and I would take our places at the dais, because she was the Daimyo and I had been sort of acting as her bodyguard. Sai would tail Komei to ensure he made it safely to the execution grounds. And then Naruto would swoop in as the Cursed Warrior, reveal himself to be the murdered Daimyo through careful transformation, proclaim he had been murdered and try to get some kind of reaction or confession. Toki would then join in, condemn Mousou and get her vaunted revenge.

That was the plan.

It went wrong the second that Mousou entered to sit on the dais, and I saw him for the first time.

And felt the chakra humming from him. The chakra of an active technique. It wasn't much. Maybe about the same amount as an academy technique, and done with efficiency and precision besides. If he hadn't been so close to me, I might not have notice. His chakra signal felt natural enough that I wouldn't have looked twice at it – but now that I second guessed it, it felt distinctly compressed, for a civilian.

As casually as I could, I draped my braid over my shoulder and ducked my chin. Perched on the silver clasp at the end of my hair was a tiny Naruto clone spider. I'd wished I thought to tell him to make it into some other creature, but they were small and handy and that trumped my instinctive dislike of eight legged things.

"Mousou," I breathed to it, the barest of sounds. "Is a shinobi."

It didn't disappear, but it did, sort of, _wave_ legs at me. I hoped that meant the message was received.

Then I sat back and watched Mousou as well as I could without staring. That changed things. If he _was_ a shinobi and hadn't just hired them… was he Watari Clan as well? Was the whole clan here? That would be ridiculous and really bad.

Toki was in much more trouble than we'd thought.

A set of guards lead Komei into the yard. He was dressed in a white kimono – the formal attire of the rite of seppuku – with his hands bound. He also did not look entirely unharmed.

He waited, still and watchful, as he was led to kneel on a mall bamboo mat. It was positioned in front of Mousou, not Toki, which said large amounts about the power structure here. I wasn't sure Toki had even been invited, it was just that no one could turn us away after we had showed up.

Casually, Mousou opened a scroll passed to him by one of his attendants – also ninja, unless I missed my guess. "A verdict has been reached," he said. "Betraying your position as chief tactician to the late Daimyo, Owashi-sama, you conspired to his assassination as well as the murder of his daughter, Toki-sama. Furthermore, you and your subordinates were responsible for manufacturing the apparition known as the Cursed Warrior; your purpose being to spread panic among our people, undermine the authority of Sagi-sama and usurp his role as Daimyo of the Land of Birds. You are a traitor. You are commanded to take your own life!"

There was muttering from the crowd that had started to gather. This event had not been publically announced, but people had been drawn here anyway, through a grapevine of gossip. We had been counting on that, initially, as witnesses but now they were people we'd have to keep safe.

There were a lot of them. I swallowed, nervously.

Komei gave a short, bitter chuckle. "So that's it, Mousou," he said. "I see it all now. You've sprung your trap, haven't you?"

"If you're a warrior, Komei," Mousou said, eyes narrowing. "Then die like one."

One of the guards lifted a sword, clearly the kaishakunin - the second - that would perform the beheading. Komei lifted the unmarked tanto lying on the mat.

I shifted. _Where was Naruto?_

I didn't want to see this. I didn't want to let it happen.

Then, fog started rising from the ground. It was thick and eerie, billowing up around our knees, and completely saturated with Naruto's chakra.

He was going to continue with the plan then.

"Yooouuu," Naruto moaned in a credible imitation of a ghost, appearing suddenly in the middle of the yard with a replacement jutsu. We didn't know what the old Daimyo had sounded like, so the ghostly voice would have to do.

And while all eyes were on him, I felt the spike of chakra and switch that suggested Komei had been replaced with a clone as well.

Good. That was one thing down.

"My trusted advisors," Naruto continued, drawing all the words out. "Betrayed me."

I could _see_ Mousou taking stock of the situation and trying to work out how to turn it to his advantage. "What trick is this, Komei? This will not stay your execution!"

Naruto reached up to unlatch the helmet, revealing an excellent transformation into the last Daimyo, copied straight from the portrait in Toki's rooms.

Mousou may have known that he was facing ninja. So he probably knew that it was only a transformation. But the whole thing was a performance, for the crowd, more than it was about him.

He backed up a step, then caught himself. "Owashi-sama," he said smoothly. "As you can see, we have apprehended the man responsible. You can rest in peace."

"He is not the one," Naruto said, though it sounded slightly less ominous and slightly more ridiculous. I hoped he didn't ham it too much. "I am here for my vengeance! I name you, Mousou, as the one responsible for my death! You are not what you seem!"

Mousou cursed, low and vicious. "Men! This ghost is an imposter trying to sow deceit! Arrest him!"

Toki lunged to her feet, interrupting him. "Is this true, Mousou?! Did you assassinate my father, so that you could become the regent of this country? You, of all people, have gained the most from his death!"

"You trust the words of a ghost?" Mousou protested. "They are nothing more than filthy lies!"

"Strike! And see the truth!" Naruto commanded, throwing the Cursed Warrior's halberd to Toki.

She caught it easily, spinning it in her hand and lunging at Mousou. It was well done, and skilful, but as slow as a civilian. "Guards! To me!"

Mousou blocked it, with his bare hand. "Now, Sagi. This is not the time to be over reacting."

Then, the small stun tag on the metal tip of the halberd went off. I'd given Naruto a bundle of them, earlier, but the placement of it had been his own choice. And it was a good one – the electric shock might not have hurt Mousou all that much, but it shattered the fragile chakra shell of his transformation, leaving behind a very different person.

Mousou – no. Hoki. I recognised him as the leader of the Watari Clan, from Sai's bingo book – cursed.

He ripped the polearm out of Toki's hands, lunging forward faster than the eye could follow.

Then froze.

"Shadow Possession Complete," I said, still kneeling where I had been sitting all along. Toki had dragged my shadow with her as she lunged, and from there it had been easy to snare him.

The guards hovered, nervously torn between orders. The complete change of Mousou's person probably wasn't helping them.

The ninja, on the other hand, leapt into action. Naruto created a score of clones to occupy them, and Sai's ink beasts burst into the scene to help subdue them. I raced my shadow out, helping to hold who I could, and hoping that no one was going to try suicide bombing again.

"Who _are_ you?" Toki demanded, staring. "You aren't Mousou at all!"

"I am Hoki," he said, lips twisting. Clearly he understood that there was no way back from this. "The leader of the Watari Clan. Mousou was just the lie that your father fell for!"

"Right from the start…" Toki said, eyes going wide. "You've been plotting to take over since the moment you arrived here."

"How dare you judge us, you spoilt feudal brat!" Hoki spat. "Fortune has always favoured you. You know nothing about our lives. We suffer in ways you could never understand."

"So?" Naruto demanded, ditching the transformation with a puff of chakra smoke. "You had it tough, big deal. So do lots of people. That doesn't make it okay for you to come here and kill people!"

"And what would a village brat like you know?" Hoki said scornfully. "Pampered ninja from a wealthy village couldn't begin to understand. Those that have homes and families and the support of clans… how can you compare to our wandering, vagrant lifestyle?"

Of the ninja on our team, the only one that fit those criteria was me. There were shadows in Naruto's eyes at the accusation.

"All we wanted was a place to call our own," Hoki said, voice turning syrupy and cajoling. "There's nothing wrong with that, surely?"

"So find someplace else," Naruto said bluntly, completely unimpressed with the attempt to sway him. "Don't try and take someone else's home. That's not right! You could have found somewhere new! You could have _asked!_"

"You speak as if we never tried that!" Hoki shouted. "As if we didn't build from scratch only to have the ninja villages destroy it from under us! As if your precious _Hidden Leaf_ hasn't hounded us for years. This way we have the power to fight back! We would be in control. We would never be forced out to wander again!"

I wondered if the accusation had truth to it. Konoha did not have a history free from morally reprehensible actions. And that was without even considering what happened in the shadows.

Toki slapped him. I winced as my head was rocked to the side, the force carried through my jutsu. "That doesn't give you the _right_," she hissed. "You killed them!"

He sneered back, blood dripping from his lip. "That's what ninja do. Ask your little friends. How many of my men have they killed in the last two days alone? You think they're any better than us?"

_Five. The answer is five,_ I didn't say. Did he think I didn't know that?

"They attacked us first!" Naruto retorted. "If they hadn't done that then they wouldn't have been hurt. You can't blame us for your actions." He crossed his arms. "Stop trying to make everyone else feel bad. It doesn't make what you did any less wrong."

"Hurry it up," I suggested tightly, feeling the strain developing on my jutsu. There was a limit to how long I could hold it for. Generally speaking, we didn't have conversations like this.

Toki drew back and took a ragged breath. "Hoki, formerly known as Mousou!" She declared, half to him and half to the slightly confused audience. "I pronounce you a traitor to the crown. I have found you responsible for the assassination of Owashi, Daimyo of the Land of Birds. And," she reached up to remove her hat, and let her hair spill down her back. "Of Sagi, Daimyo of the Land of Birds! Twice over you have killed our lord! I, Toki, sentence you to death!"

There were a number of startled exclamations from the crowd.

"Toki," Naruto said. It wasn't quite a protest, more of a reminder, but I thought he didn't exactly approve of that last bit. Killing people in battle was different, in a way. You didn't have time to consider it. It wasn't so _deliberate. _As if that made it better.

Toki grabbed a sword from one of the guards.

We could have stopped her. Of course we could have. All I would have needed to do would be to let go.

And what then? Would Hoki go quietly? I didn't think so. And keeping ninja imprisoned took a lot of skill and caution. It would almost inevitably fail. A second attack wouldn't be so subtle – and we wouldn't be here to stop it. We could try take him back to Konoha, try to transport him and however many other ninja were here by ourselves. And really. Would that be any better future for them?

So we could have stopped her. But we didn't.

"Hoki-sama," one of the Watari-nin gasped, sounding stricken. "You'll pay for that."

"_Enough!_" Naruto shouted. His hands were clenched into fists at his side. "Enough fighting! It isn't fixing anything! Revenge just goes around and around and everyone ends up dead! Why can't you try talking to each other?!"

There was chakra gusting out from him, kicking up wind, like it would have in the middle of a fight. Still blue, still only Naruto, but a sign he was really upset all the same.

Toki was breathing heavily, gaze upon the corpse. The sword in her hand was limp, dragging on the ground.

The tableau was frozen. The silence stretched out.

"He is dead," Toki said, wearily. "Owashi. Sagi. You can rest in peace now." She turned, slowly, to take in the sight of everyone else.

"The dead have their justice," I said, quietly. "What about the living? You're the Daimyo now, Toki. You need to make a decision."

Maybe I wasn't quiet enough. A cry of 'Toki-sama!' went up from the crowd, and people started collapsing to their knees. They were bowing to her, crowning her with the power she'd only held in her brother's name before.

Her eyes were wide. She swallowed, harshly, then stepped forward. "The dead have their justice!" she repeated, voice carrying clearly. "No more will Cursed Warriors haunt our lands – their time has passed! We must look to the future now; move forward with the hands of the clock." She turned towards the prisoners held captive in our grips. "For you who followed Hoki, the ninja of the Watari Clan, I tell you this. Your leader has died. And like a true warrior, with him die his crimes."

She stood straighter, looking calm and resolute. "If you are as you claim, and wish only to have a place to call home, then I give you a choice. Stay. Make this land your home and love it as we do. If you do not wish to stay here then leave and do not return."

"And don't even think about attacking," I added, as severely as I could. My shadow jutsu broke, and I unfolded my hands. They were stiff from being held in one seal for so long. I was glad that none of them had been fighting to break my hold at the end, it probably would have worked.

One ninja faltered, then knelt. And one by one the others began to make their choices. Some knelt. Some turned and fled. None were foolish enough to try their luck.

Cynically, I didn't think that it would last forever. Toki had – maybe – avoided making an enemy of the entire clan by accepting them, but she was almost certainly keeping enemies close.

"Toki-sama," a more familiar voice said, breaking from the crowd to also kneel near the front of the stage. "Forgive me," Chishima entreated.

"You could not have known of his betrayal," she said. "We were all fooled."

"Not only for that," Chishima explained. "Forgive me for not seeing how much pain you were in. For not noticing that you were not Sagi, all along. I should have seen it."

I felt a little like we were witnessing something private, but he had brought this up here and now. Everyone was witnessing it.

"I didn't wish for you to see it," Toki said finally. "You are forgiven. And I am sorry that as you learn it is I who stands here, you must realise that Sagi is long dead."

He bowed.

She turned away. "Bring me Komei. We have much to discuss about the future of this country."

Sai arrived quietly bringing Komei from wherever he had been evacuated to avoid the fighting.

"Why didn't you stop her?" Naruto hissed at me, as we followed Toki towards a meeting room.

It sounded like an accusation. I hated it. It immediately put me on the defensive and I hated that too.

"Why didn't you?" I hissed back, like an attack. "It was the best thing to do."

Naruto looked actually surprised. "How can you say that? I didn't think you'd think like that."

"Why not," I responded. "He was the enemy. He tried to kill us. He wouldn't have just gone away."

"You let Gaara go," Naruto said. "And Temujin. And that was the same."

"No it wasn't," I said. "It's not even remotely the same." It was different, with Gaara, because I had known. Temujin had been Gaara's choice. I wasn't sure it had been the right one, but I could justify it.

I huffed, impatiently. "Gaara and Temujin were totally beaten. We had the upper hand, do you understand? Even if they came back and attacked again, we would have won again. Konoha was too strong for the invasion; Temujin's soldiers couldn't stand up to ninja. But Land of Birds doesn't have that strength. You think he wouldn't have waited until we left and then killed Toki afterwards?"

"It's still not right," Naruto said. He looked troubled.

"Then find a better answer," I snapped. "Because I don't know what it is."

I tried to reign in my temper, because I didn't want to be mad at Naruto. Not when he was right. Maybe I was mad because he was right, and that meant we had been wrong. And I didn't like that.

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* * *

><p>.<p>

We kept taking watch with Toki. I'd rather insisted on it, even though she and Komei had spent the entire day hammering out what to do with the remaining Watari-nin – and what to do if the rest attacked.

I'd even volunteered for first watch. We'd switched to shifts rather than full nights, and there was a tiny Naruto spider snoozing somewhere in the end of my braid. I tried not to fidget and squish it, though I really wanted to.

"They want to have a crowning ceremony tomorrow," Toki said, sighing. "Apparently, having been Sagi doesn't count."

"It might help ease the confusion," I suggested. "The situation _is_ complicated."

"I know." She held up the pocket watch so that I could see it. "When they called me the Daimyo… I heard it tick." There were tears welling in her eyes. "From Daimyo to Daimyo. Time moves on."

_What kind of jutsu does that?_ I wanted to know but that wasn't the important question to ask.

"It does," I agreed. "Do you know what you're going to do now?"

"I had no plans," she admitted. "I thought that I would join my ghosts. But there is so much to be done here. If someone kills me, then someone else will try and gain revenge for it. It will be a never ending circle."

I nodded. In that way, killing Hoki probably hadn't helped. "It's a hard one to break. You know, you're going to need someone to guard you, right? For a long time; until you can be certain of their loyalty. They might mean it when they say this is their home now, but it only takes one."

"You won't stay, will you?" She asked, already seeming to know the answer. "The three of you."

I quirked a smile, and risked drawing my knees to my chest. "To tell you the truth, we're not really trained for this. We're making it up as we go along."

Toki laughed, and it sounded real. "The secret is… so am I."

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* * *

><p>.<p>

Naruto sent a toad to Konoha in the morning. Apparently Jiraiya had a system where they could get there pretty fast, so Toki's mission could be accepted with ninja dispatched in a day's time.

But before that, we still got to sit through the second Daimyo's coronation that we'd been invited to. That we'd been the cause of. There was probably something wrong with that.

I'd even been gifted with a formal kimono that had apparently belonged to Toki when she was younger, mostly because I'd made a vague comment about finding a place to buy replacement shoes, and that had apparently led to a whole new outfit. Or something.

Granted, it was better than being dirty and dishevelled at a very formal event, but I was a little afraid of moving in fear that I would wrinkle it.

During the ceremony, the Watari Clan made their formal statement of commitment towards the Daimyo. There were more of them than there had been before – apparently not _all_ of them had been involved after all – including women and children. There was a woman with a particular shade of blue hair that caught my eye.

"Sorry," I said to Naruto after the ceremony. "There's someone I have to speak to."

I didn't want to. And it wouldn't fix anything. But I had to do it all the same.

I approached her awkwardly, and not only because of the kimono. "I'm Shikako Nara," I said quietly, folding myself into seiza across from her. "One of the Konoha ninja."

"Hokuto," she said in turn, eyes guarded. "Of the Watari."

"Hokushin." I faltered. "Was he your…" In some ways, I didn't want to know the answer to that. Easier, if he was just an enemy. If he didn't leave anyone behind. But the world didn't work like that.

She was silent. "He was my brother."

I reached into the neck of the kimono and withdrew two scrolls. It hadn't felt right, leaving them behind with my gear.

"I'm sorry," I murmured, setting them respectfully on the ground. I didn't make any excuses. Either she would understand, or she wouldn't, and nothing I would say could change that.

She reached out and picked them up. Her hands were trembling. "Leave," she said.

I left.

We stayed vigilant, but two days later when Raido Namiashi arrived we were able to report that there were no further incidences. I wasn't sure whether he seemed very impressed or very _un_impressed, but it did seem like we were leaving Toki in capable hands, either way.

We said our goodbyes, and started a quiet and subdued journey home. It wasn't that our mission had ended badly. But it hadn't been quite so clean cut, either.

"Did you want to take first watch?" I offered to Sai, after he checked our perimeter for the third time.

He came back and sat down. "No," he said. "There is something I want to tell you."

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><p>.<p>

There is also now a DOS community, to contain anything related to this story. Let me know if you spot anything (or write anything!) that should be included.


	88. Chapter 87

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

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><p>.<p>

Chapter 87

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><p>.<p>

_There's a battle outside and it is ragin'  
>It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls<br>For the times they are a-changin' _

_~ Bob Dylan; The Times They Are A-Changin'_

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"Eh, what do you want to talk about? Is it about the mission?" Naruto prompted, puzzled. He seemed more confused than worried, which was fair enough because the mission was, to all accounts, over. It had already been dealt with. We'd even handed it over to someone else.

We shouldn't have been running into any new problems just yet.

Of course, that never really worked out very well for our team, anyway.

I was a little warier about whatever Sai was going to bring up. I knew what I _wanted_ him to say but it was probably a bit too much to hope for. We'd only been on two missions together, and there hadn't really been anything pushing for the truth.

Sai looked as nervous as Sai could look, which wasn't very. "About the Watari ninja," he corrected. "It's likely that we will face censure for our decision to allow them to ally with the Land of Birds. That ninja was not wrong when he said that Konoha has long been preventing them from settling down in one place in the fear that they will grow strong enough to be a danger."

He took in our puzzled faces and forged onwards. "My secondary mission was to prevent the Land of Birds from establishing ninja forces."

Something unpleasant jolted through me. I hadn't forgotten that Sai had been up to something, but it had taken on a much lesser priority.

"What?" Naruto asked, again. "What do you mean 'secondary mission'? Did Baa-chan tell you to do that?"

He crossed his arms, frowning at Sai. He looked a little hurt, which was fair enough if Tsunade was going around giving missions to his team mates behind his back.

"No," Sai said, and smiled. "She did not."

That didn't sink into Naruto with as much gravity as it should have, but I understood it. What he was skirting the edge of saying.

_Sai. _Was he really telling us now? So early and easily? We hadn't done anything to convince him, or earn it. Even the way we'd been trying to make him focus on emotions had sort of been shelved for this mission. There just hadn't been time_._

"What's _that_ supposed to mean? Sai? What did you do?" Naruto said in frustration, voice rising in volume and pitch. He uncrossed his arms and planted them on his hips. He was still more confused than angry.

"I didn't do anything," Sai said. "That's why I'm telling you. I was supposed to, but I failed my mission."

Oh. That was it. He was looking for reassurance. _Tell me I did the right thing._

I swallowed, and reached out so that my hand curled around his. While deciding what was the right course of action ahead of time was hard, I was an expert at coming up with reasons to justify it _after._

"You made the right decision," I said firmly, trying to transfer the idea just by sounding confident in it. "The Land of Birds is our ally. They have a strong trade agreement with the Land of Fire and have mostly avoided being caught up in the fighting between ninja villages. And they're only a minor country, besides. They don't have the resources to maintain and supply a village that could be an effective threat to us."

Okay, that one wasn't exactly true. Sound and Rain were both villages in minor nations, but they had the benefit of S-rank shinobi bolstering their fighting prowess. Without those, they wouldn't have been nearly as dangerous.

"It's much better to have the Watari settled somewhere where they have no reason to turn on us, rather than to keep them on the run. Eventually, if we kept pushing them, they would decide that retaliation was a better strategy than evasion – which is exactly what we're trying to avoid, right?"

They were good, sound, logical reasons; things that might comfort Sai, or that he might be able to use to argue his position. I guessed I could see why Danzo would want to have kept them moving, to prevent them from settling down and gaining power and becoming a threat rather than an annoyance. But that didn't mean he was right, or that it was a good tactic. If you pushed them too far, hounded them too much, then they wouldn't care that Konoha outclassed them. They would just throw everything they had at us, just to be left alone.

The cornered animal was the dangerous one.

"I failed my mission," Sai repeated quietly.

"You made a judgement call," I countered. "That's what they train us to do. To operate in the field where we don't have the direct supervision of our superiors, based on the information available to us."

"Yeah, it's okay," Naruto said. "No one's going to be mad or anything. You aren't in trouble." There was a silence. "Right?"

Sai gave him a fake smile. "It's nothing to worry about."

"No, I don't understand what's going on here," Naruto said. He looked from Sai to me. "About secret missions, or, or any of that! But we did the right thing and you shouldn't get in trouble for that! And I'll tell anyone who says otherwise!"

I had a brief, horrifying image of Naruto striding up to Danzo and doing just that. Sai's fingers flexed against my own, briefly, and I was sure he shared it.

"Thank you," Sai said. "But it's not necessary. I only wanted to tell you that I might not get another mission with you."

My eyes jerked to his face. I hoped he was talking about being reassigned. He looked so calm and composed that I couldn't tell.

"Like hell," Naruto declared. "You're our team mate. And that's that. Baa-chan will say you have to stay with us, and then whoever is giving you dumb missions will have to listen. She's the Hokage!"

I hoped it would be as easy as that. I expected it wouldn't be.

"Can you tell us who _did_ give you the mission?" I asked, wondering if it was worth it to push it. We were walking a fine line here, all three of us. It _was_ important, but I already knew. And I wasn't, entirely, sure what Naruto would do if he knew. At this point, there was very little we could actually change, especially for Sai.

He shook his head.

"Why not?" Naruto asked. "_Are_ you an Anbu? Is that why…"

Sai blinked, and actually looked startled for a second. "Something like that," he said. It wasn't a yes. But it wasn't a no, either. And to be fair, ROOT both was and was not.

Naruto did look slightly appeased by that answer. "It's a secret, I get it."

"Yes," Sai echoed. "A secret."

I bit my lip, then took a chance. "You don't _want_ to tell us," I said slowly. "Or you _can't_ tell us?"

"I cannot tell you," Sai said. He hesitated again, then opened his mouth and pushed his tongue forward.

"A seal?" Naruto asked, voice suddenly hushed. The volume of earlier dropped away so fast it was startling. "What does it do?"

"Stops him from speaking," I said, stating the obvious. "Or at least speaking about something in particular."

"Can you fix it?" he asked.

"Remove it?" I said, guessing what he was really asking. "Probably not. Or … not yet. It's a compressed seal, I'd have to expand it to be able to understand how to undo it." I thought of the project I had barely started, trying to understand how to magnify a seal so that I could see the components. "It's a complicated one too. Part of the Eight Trigrams arrangement? No, it's a hexagram, that's even more…" I trailed off. It could have been 'Kan' or it could have been 'Ton'. Influence or concealment? Or both, layered over top of each other?

Sai closed his mouth. He didn't say anything else.

The silence stretched until it broke.

"Someone in Konoha put a seal on you, so you couldn't talk," Naruto said, voice flat like a he was pressing a lid down over simmering rage. "And they give you missions that Baa-chan doesn't know about. Missions that are _wrong._"

I shifted, drawn back out of my thoughts, eyeing Naruto warily.

His hands were clenching and unclenching, muscles vibrating with tension.

"Did you know about this?" He asked me, still the same flat voice. His eyes were piercing blue. Still blue. Was this something I should be worrying about?

It was like the conversation with Sasuke all over again. I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was somehow _wrong_. It had sounded too accusatory.

"I had … suspicions," I said, trying to keep my voice as calm and neutral as I could. My heart was starting to hammer. I was a liar and I would keep lying to them. "But no proof."

"Does… does Baa-chan know about this?"

I gave a stiff, one shouldered shrug. I was as drawn tight as a bowstring. I'd snap, if I pulled any tighter. "I don't know," I said. "But. I don't think she could have missed it. Do you really think she would have assigned anyone a mission with you without doing a thorough background check? I think- She must have a plan. To find out how bad it is. Or how deep it goes."

Was this a good idea to be discussing in front of Sai? Was this a trap, a trick? But he gained so much less than he'd given, for this to be a trap. Would Danzo have judged it worth us knowing, in order for Sai to… to what? Get closer to Naruto? Sai had been doing that just fine on his own. This wouldn't help.

The thing was, our only advantage over Danzo was that he didn't even know we were playing the game. He was too settled, too powerful, had far too much experience here. If we played with fire, we would end up burned. And he was a whole lot of fire.

"It's not right_,_" Naruto said, as though saying it would fix it. "It's like Neji's seal. It's not _right_."

"It isn't," I agreed. "But there's not much we can do about it right now, is there? Look… I'll work on how to break it. It might take a while, that's all."

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Naruto was… not exactly happy, all the way back to Konoha.

I doubted Sai was, either, and I was really not in any kind of mood to play peacemaker. I was tired and I was hurt and I was about a billion different kinds of stressed.

So I wasn't _thrilled_ when the first thing that Naruto did was ask for another mission.

I could see why, though. If Sai really was in trouble, then turning right back around and leaving the village would delay it. Until we could think of something better or a way to help.

I got that.

But a back to back mission right now would have been … difficult.

"Not a chance, brat," Tsunade said gruffly. "Downtime exists for a reason and you are well and truly over the acceptable mission-load anyway."

"Besides," a second voice intruded, heralding Jiraiya entering the Hokage office behind us. Shizune trailed behind him apologetically. It was nice to see her again – I'd been vaguely aware that she had been on the front lines with dad.

"You won't have the time."

Oh_._ _Oh_.

Oh no.

Surely not. They couldn't be leaving already.

We _needed_ Naruto.

I glanced at Sai out of the corner of my eye. This was bad. If Sai had been assigned to watch Naruto, then Naruto leaving on his training trip would mean he would vanish back into the depths of ROOT. Even if you didn't factor in whatever punishment this mission promised for him, it was hugely unlikely that I'd get to work with him again.

He had just been shown light, and now it was all going to be snatched away from him.

"Why not?" Naruto demanded, spinning around.

"Why not, he asks," Jiraiya huffed. "You forget already, kid? I told you we'd be leaving after I finished looking into some things for Tsunade. And now I'm finished."

"Oh, but-" Naruto hesitated. He looked at me. At Sai. "I can't go. I… I have responsibilities. I'm a Chunin now."

Tsunade and Jiraiya exchanged mutely surprised looks.

"Nice to know you realise that," Tsunade said. "I'd been beginning to wonder if you thought the promotion was just about a fancy jacket. But I'm granting you special dispensation for this training trip. It'll be a good chance for you to get stronger, among other things. That _is_ what you want, isn't it?"

She had him there.

"Yes," Naruto agreed, reluctantly. "But I could do that here," he argued weakly.

"Not safely," Jiraiya countered. "Not the things I want to teach you." He raised a meaningful eyebrow. "So go and say your goodbyes, we'll be leaving tomorrow."

It was like a punch in the gut. Like something I should have seen coming but got hit with anyway.

I _had_ seen it coming. I'd _known._

But so soon…

"We'll have a farewell dinner for you," I offered, and if my voice was off no one said anything. "Tonight. At Hyakumi." That was a big Akimichi owned place that would probably not be too mad about a huge party coming in without much warning. "So that everyone can say goodbye. Uh. Hokage-sama. Jiraiya-sama. Shizune-san. If you wanted to come," I added, a little flustered. I knew them, and they were exactly the people that Naruto would _want_ at his farewell dinner, but that didn't change the fact that I was currently inviting the leader of the village to a dinner party.

Awkward.

"Sounds like fun," Jiraiya said and patted me on the head. "You might want to stop at the Jounin Commanders office on your way out."

I was fairly sure I knew what that meant, but the surprise of it caught me somewhere between joy and panic. Dad had been gone for ages and a lot of things had happened in that time.

We were ushered out of the office and split up. Naruto heading home to pack and Sai to do… whatever. We managed to wrangle a promise out of him to show up for dinner, and I hoped it would hold.

I knocked on the door to the Jounin Commanders office.

"Welcome home."

He looked up from reading a scroll. I caught a faint flicker of recognisable handwriting – my own – before he rolled it and set it aside.

"Welcome home," he echoed. "You just got back?"

I nodded, leaning against the door frame. "Just now. Was going to head home and get cleaned up but Jiraiya-sama said you were here."

His gaze flickered over me. I had no doubt he could tell that I was tired and hurting. Guiltily, I hoped that would be enough to excuse me from any kind of in depth conversation right now.

"I was called back a few days ago," he said. "There's plenty of time for us to get caught up later. Go and get some rest."

I smiled. "Will do."

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There wasn't actually much time for _rest_, but a shower and clean clothes went a long way to making me feel better.

I restocked, told mum and Shikamaru about dinner plans and bullied Shikamaru into actually going out and inviting the rest of his team.

Then I headed around to Sasuke's place, only to find that Naruto was already there.

"I heard you the first time, idiot," Sasuke was saying.

"Hey," I said, briefly knocking on the door. "Guess you've heard all about it already?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "And some," he agreed. "You heard about sensei yet?"

"No?" I said, with a tone of vague alarm. He didn't seem worked up, but that sentence didn't sound good. "What about sensei?"

"Hospital," Sasuke said. "Chakra exhaustion. We were going to go visit."

_Not so bad._ Kakashi and chakra exhaustion went together like… stuff that was often together.

"I'll meet you there," I offered. "I have a few more things to do first. People to invite. Stuff."

Very smooth, Shikako. You're on a roll.

"Right," Sasuke said, dubiously, like he was weighing up whether it was worth asking more. "We'll see you there."

It wasn't like I had _much_ to do, actually. And I did swing by and invite all the other Rookies and Team Gai to dinner. Everyone seemed to actually be in the village together, for once, which was a little surprising.

It was just that, after the debacle of forgetting my own birthday, I'd made of note of when my teams were. Sasuke's had already been and gone – while we'd been on a mission, no less, and he hadn't said anything – but Naruto's was _tomorrow._ He was leaving on his birthday.

So yeah. I wanted to get him a present.

In the end, I picked out a sturdy travel case – the kind for toiletries that had little compartments and sections for different things – because it was useful and he would be travelling a lot. Also, it was bright, screaming orange, so I felt like he would appreciate that.

Then I swung by Hyakumi to make a booking for dinner and ensure that we actually had somewhere to eat and had to politely choke down the onigiri that Tsubame Akimichi made me because 'you're too thin, dear'.

Chouji's family were fantastic people, they really were. They were kind and generous beyond all expectations. But I really did not eat as much as any of them seemed to assume I did.

By the time I got to the hospital, it was clear that Naruto had already repeated the story of our latest mission, judging by the semi-baffled look on sensei's face.

"Miso soup," I said, breezing in and handing sensei the takeaway cup I'd picked up along the way. "It's got eggplant in it."

I lifted the medical notes from the end of his bed.

"Pretty sure those aren't for you," Kakashi-sensei said mildly, popping the lid off the cup to check.

I shrugged. It was mostly blacked out anyway, but there was the 'chakra exhaustion' followed by a ramble of other codes that made little sense to me. No injuries listed, and no special care instructions as far as I could tell. "Just looking," I demurred. "You get into such trouble without us."

The expression he gave me was totally worth it.

I perched on the edge of the bed, because the chairs were all taken.

"And you get into no trouble at all," Kakashi said dryly. "What was this I heard about Watari nin?"

I shrugged, then had an idea. "Hey, how _do_ you fight people using that Hiding with Camouflage Jutsu? Last time I could sense them, but this time they were better." I looked at him expectantly.

"What?" He said back.

"You're our sensei, you're _supposed_ to be teaching us this." I wiggled my fingers at him. "So teach." Yeah, our team was being broken up. It had already been broken up, but this time, Naruto was actually leaving. There was no way to pretend that we _might_ get another mission together. Not for three years, anyway. But that didn't mean that we had to all fall apart.

We were still a team. Kakashi was still our sensei.

"How did you fight them?" Sasuke asked suspiciously. "Naruto didn't say."

"Area of effect techniques," I said promptly. "I just blasted everything until I hit him. But that didn't work so great because I was _in_ the area of effect. I want to know if there's a better way."

Kakashi-sensei put the still full cup down on the bedside table. "Right," he said, and cleared his throat. "Well. It depends on the circumstances and surroundings. But. You have a few options…"

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Dinner was loud and rowdy. Sai had come, as promised, and Tsunade and Jiraiya. Word had got around, too, and it seemed like everyone who wanted to say goodbye to Naruto had shown up. Iruka. The Konohamaru Corps. Ebisu. Anko and Isaribi. An old Genin and some Jounin I didn't recognise.

He seemed torn between happiness and misery.

"Seems like the end of an era," Kiba said, jostling me with his shoulder. "Nothing's going to be the same now."

Akamaru scurried around under the table, not technically supposed to be here but somehow allowed anyway.

"You're too young to be talking like that," I shot back. "The end of an era. Tch."

He laughed, unoffended. "But it's true, isn't it? Damn, I never woulda thought that _Naruto_ would be the first of us to leave."

I managed a laugh. "He's not going forever, Kiba. Three years, that's all."

"I know, I know. Feels like a lifetime, that's all. You know how much shit has happened in six months?" He shook his head. "I'll be surprised if he recognises us all when he comes back."

My stomach might have swooped. I would deny it, though. "We might have to invest in name tags."

"Good plan. Shino especially. Then people might remember him." He grinned, teasing.

Said person glared at him across the table and adjusted his glasses. "In that circumstance you should train to increase your observation skills. A skilled shinobi should not forget those around them."

"Don't fight," Hinata scolded gently. She wasn't being particularly obvious, but she'd been watching Naruto out of the corner of her eye all night, even though she hadn't spoken to him very much.

"Hey, Hinata, want to come with me? I have to give Naruto his birthday present." I would bet ten to one that Hinata also had something to give him, but hadn't quite worked up the nerve to actually give it to him.

A bet that was totally rewarded when she fished a neatly wrapped box out of her bag and stood to accompany me.

It was a good night. And early the next morning, I went out to the gates to wave goodbye as they left.

Sasuke was there too, and Kakashi-sensei leaning casually against a wall as though he'd picked this particular spot for no reason at all.

"Train hard, okay?" I said, hugging Naruto. "If you're going for so long then when you come back, you better be _at least_ able to kick Sensei's ass."

Kakashi-sensei snorted.

"Believe it!" Naruto shouted at him.

"Yare, yare, keep it down kid," Jiraiya groused, looking bleary eyed. Since he'd been drinking with Tsunade the night before when we'd left the restaurant, I wasn't surprised. "And if we're giving out impossible challenges, then _you_ better be able to fight me when we get back."

He dropped a hand on my head and ruffled my hair.

Beneath the surprise I was… pleased. I had exactly no chance in hell, but… it was a goal. Something to aim for. That was the level we needed to be on, anyway. This would just be an excuse as to why I was aiming so hard for it.

"Challenge accepted," I said winningly.

He laughed. "Whatever you say. Keep out of trouble, you hear me? And keep working on those seals. You've got some good ideas. I'd hate to see them go to waste."

They walked away.

That was it. That was all it took.

Naruto was leaving now.

At the gates, he paused, and turned around one last time. "Shikako?" he called. "I _am_ going to find a better way. You better believe it!"

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A.N: You can all blame Sai for this chapter taking so long. That conversation took forever. And Naruto is now gone, just like everyone wanted.


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